Fatty acid composition of some Malaysian freshwater fish

Total lipids extracted from 20 species of freshwater fish in Malaysia were analyzed for their total fat and fatty acids composition. Most of the fish contained less than 20% lipid by weight. The composition of fatty acids showed that total monounsaturated fatty acids (17–53%) were the highest, followed by saturated (15–43%.) and polyunsaturated (12–25%). The total ω-6 fatty acids (2.43–26.2%) were found to be higher than the ω-3 (1–11%). Most of the fish had an ω-3/ ω–6 ratio of less than 1 except for Siamese Sepat (3.38), Black Siakap (2.20) and Tilapia (1.26).