Chemical compositions of the roes from skipjack, tongol and bonito

Chemical compositions of roes from three tuna species including skipjack (Katsuwonous pelamis) (SJK), tongol (Thunnus tonggol) (TGL) and bonito (Euthynnus affinis) (BNO) were determined. Tuna roes contained 72.17–73.03% moisture, 18.16–20.15% protein, 3.29–5.68% lipid and 1.79–2.10% ash. Non-defatted and defatted roes from all species contained protein with a molecular weight of 97 kDa as the major component. Glutamic acid and glutamine were the most abundant amino acids (12.18–12.65 g/100 g protein), while K, Na and P were the major elements in defatted-tuna roes. Crude lipids from tuna roes contained phospholipids as the major component (51.22–54.90% of total lipids) with high content of docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6 n-3) (20.53–26.19% of total lipids). Cholesterol contents of crude lipids from the roes of SJK, TGL and BNO were 172, 122 and 94 mg/100 g lipids, respectively. Therefore, tuna roe could be a promising source of valuable nutrients for human food and animal feeds.