Exploring the macrominerals and heavy metals profile of deep-sea fishes: A pioneering study on trawl bycatch and discards in the Arabian Sea.

This study assesses macrominerals (Na, K, Ca, Mg, P) and heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn, Mn, Co, Fe, and Zn) content of deep-sea fish bycatch in the Arabian Sea, offering insights into their nutritional value, toxicant levels and health implications. Variations in Ca, K, P, Mg, and Na levels across species highlight mineral diversity. Setarches guentheri has the highest Ca (7716 mg/kg ww), K (2030.5 mg/kg ww), and P (13,180 mg/kg ww) concentrations. Dactyloptena orientalis exceeds the Cd limit (0.1284 mg/kg ww). Elevated Se levels in fishes were noted, with Dactyloptena orientalis (0.8607 mg/kg ww), Satyrichthys laticeps (0.7303 mg/kg ww), and Snyderina guentheri (0.6193 mg/kg ww). Fish like Pterygotrigla hemisticta contains high Zn (32 mg/kg ww), meeting Recommended Dietary Allowance limits. Deep-sea fish have safe heavy metal levels, but Cd, Se, and Zn exceed acceptable limits. It has been concluded that the consumption of fish species will not pose a potential health risk to humans.

Macromineral and heavy metal profiles of selected deep-sea fish from the Kochi coast of the Arabian Sea, India.

Deep-sea fish from the Arabian Sea in the south western coast of India have been gaining attention as a new edible fish source. Mineral profile of ten selected deep-sea fish from the south west coast of India were assessed for heavy metal and macro mineral content for safety and nutritional quality assessment, respectively. Heavy metal levels were below permissible limits for most of the species studied. But in some species, the levels slightly exceeded the permissible limit of 0.3 mg/kg for Pb, a major heavy metal contaminant in fish, according to the European Union and FSSAI regulations for heavy metals in food. Interestingly, significant content of macro minerals was observed in all the species studied. In conclusion, deep-sea fish were observed to be good source of minerals and were found to be safe for human consumption; except for a couple of species which possess slightly higher Pb content, which may be because of its presence in their habitat.

Authentication of Two Bio-Active Fish Oils by Qualitative Lipid Profiling Using Semi-Targeted Approach: An Exploratory Study.

BACKGROUND: Fish oils, which are rich in health-promoting polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), have emerged as promising functional foods in the global health and wellness food market. Their source regarding the fish type, season, and location of harvesting might influence the nutritional value of such bioactive oils and determine their market price. The differences in price among such oils often lead to economically motivated mislabeling and adulteration. OBJECTIVE: In this study, our objective was to demonstrate how a qualitative targeted shotgun lipid profile workflow using an electrospray ionization-quadrupole-linear ion trap MS (QTrap) could differentiate fish oils originating from two different species. METHODS: Five samples each of sardine (Sardinella longiceps) oil and shark (Echinorhinus brucus) liver oil were diluted to a concentration of 80 µg/mL in chloroform-methanol (1 + 2, v/v) with 5 mM ammonium acetate. These samples were directly infused into a QTrap MS. The data were acquired for 23 precursor ion and 4 neutral loss scan experiments in the positive ionization mode and compared. RESULTS: We identified the following major lipid classes: cholesteryl ester, diacyl glycerol, triacylglycerol, monoalkyldiacylglycerol, and phophatydyl choline. The relative peak areas of the identified lipid species, when subjected to supervised multivariate analysis, could effectively distinguish the sardine oil and shark liver oil. CONCLUSIONS: The approach will be useful in establishing authenticity of fish oil and to support the regulatory agencies in dispute resolution. It can also be extended to establish authenticity in other agricultural and food commodities. HIGHLIGHTS: This paper reports a proof of concept for authenticating PUFA-rich fish supplements. A shotgun targeted lipidomics profile and chemometrics modeling successfully discriminated sardine oil and shark liver oil.

Chitosan - Whey protein as efficient delivery system for squalene: Characterization and functional food application.

Squalene, a triterpenoid compound possessing excellent bioactivities, is not being utilized as a functional food ingredient due to its high susceptibility to oxidation. In the present study, the feasibility of chitosan-whey protein as an efficient wall material for squalene encapsulation using spray drying technique was attempted for functional food applications. The encapsulation efficiency of the squalene powder was found to be 75.4 ±â€¯0.22% whereas other physico-chemical properties such as moisture content, flowability, solubility, peroxide value, etc. have shown satisfactory results. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that chitosan-whey protein was able to retain the thermal stability of squalene up to a temperature of 422 °C. Furthermore, the functional food application of the encapsulated squalene in a bakery product (cake) exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) better properties in terms of oxidative stability, sensory attributes than that of cake with pure squalene and control treatment. Hence, it can be concluded that emulsification of squalene in chitosan-whey protein and its subsequent encapsulation by spray drying can be a potential process to produce oxidatively stable encapsulates for the development of functional foods.

Sardine oil loaded vanillic acid grafted chitosan microparticles, a new functional food ingredient: attenuates myocardial oxidative stress and apoptosis in cardiomyoblast cell lines (H9c2).

Fish oil has been widely recognized as an excellent dietary source of polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA. However, it can undergo oxidation easily resulting in the formation of toxic off flavor compounds such as hydroperoxides. These compounds adversely affect the nutritional quality and may induce several stress reactions in body. To solve this problem, a new antioxidant bio-material, vanillic acid-grafted chitosan (Va-g-Ch), was synthesized and used as a wall material for microencapsulation of fish oil. The sardine oil loaded Va-g-Ch microparticles could be a potential functional food ingredient considering the numerous health benefits of fish oil, chitosan, and vanillic acid. The current study aimed to investigate the possible protective effect of sardine oil-loaded Va-g-Ch microparticles against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and the underlying mechanisms. In vitro cytotoxicity evaluation was conducted using H9c2 cardiomyocytes. MTT assay revealed that effective cytoprotective effect was induced by a sample concentration of 12.5 µg/mL. Results of apoptosis by double fluorescent staining with acridine orange/ethidium bromide and caspase-3 evaluation by ELISA substantiated the above findings. Further, flow cytometric determination of membrane potential, relative expression of NF-κB by PCR, and ROS determination using DCFH-DA also confirmed the protective effect of encapsulated sardine oil against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. NF-κB expression was down-regulated nearly by 50% on cells treated with encapsulated sardine oil. Altogether, the results revealed that sardine oil-loaded Va-g-Ch microparticles demonstrated potential cell protection against doxorubicin-induced oxidative stress.

Evaluation of chitosan as a wall material for microencapsulation of squalene by spray drying: Characterization and oxidative stability studies.

The present study was aimed at investigating the efficacy of chitosan as a wall material for microencapsulation of squalene by spray drying for functional food applications. Based on different core to wall material ratio (1:1, 0.5:1 and 0.3:1 on w/w basis), emulsions were prepared and evaluated in terms of emulsion stability, particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity Index (PDI), rheology and microstructure. The optimized emulsion combination was spray dried and characterized, physically and chemically. The encapsulation efficiency of the powder was found to be 26±0.6% whereas other properties such as particle size, zeta potential, water activity, hygroscopicity, Carr Index, Hausner ratio have shown satisfactory results. SEM analysis showed that the squalene microcapsules were smooth spherical particles free from dents and fissures. FTIR data further confirmed the encapsulation of squalene with chitosan. However, TGA, oxidative stability and accelerated Rancimat results showed that chitosan was not able to protect squalene from oxidation during storage. The results suggest that chitosan is not an appropriate wall material for microencapsulation of squalene and hence a combination of wall materials could be attempted for the encapsulation of squalene.

Screening Natural Content of Water-Soluble B Vitamins in Fish: Enzymatic Extraction, HILIC Separation, and Tandem Mass Spectrometric Determination.

Despite the potential of LC with tandem MS (MS/MS) in improving sensitivity and selectivity, analytical methods are scarce for the determination of protein-bound and phosphorylated forms of B vitamins in food. This prompted us to develop a method for LC-MS/MS determination of naturally occurring nicotinamide, nicotinic acid, thiamine, pyridoxine, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, and cyanocobalamin in fish. Baseline separation of the vitamins was achieved in a hydrophilic interaction LC condition. An ultrasonication-assisted enzymatic extraction protocol for sample preparation was optimized and validated. The time required for extraction was significantly reduced (to 4 h), while maintaining good extraction efficiency. Acetonitrile content (80%, v/v) in the prepared sample was found to be optimum for excellent peak shape and sensitivity. The dynamic linear range of the vitamins ranged from 2.5 to 500 ng/g, and the regression coefficient values were greater than 0.99. LOQ values ranged from 0.4 to 50 ng/g for the different vitamins. The spike recovery values at 50 and 100 ng/g ranged from 87.5 to 97.5%. The intra- and interday precision values were satisfactory. Accuracy of the developed method was determined by analysis of a Certified Reference Material. The method could also be used for unambiguous determination of the natural content of the target vitamins in fish.

Microencapsulation of sardine oil: Application of vanillic acid grafted chitosan as a bio-functional wall material.

Vanillic acid grafted chitosan (Va-g-Ch) was evaluated as a new antioxidant wall material for microencapsulation of polyunsaturated fatty acid rich sardine oil. A high grafting ratio of 305mg vanillic acid equivalent/g of polymer was achieved using a free radical mediated grafting reaction. Oil in water emulsion was prepared with an optimised combination of Va-g-Ch and Tween 20 (3.2:1). Sardine oil loaded microparticles (SO-M) were produced (∼75% yield) by spray drying. The average diameter and polydispersity Index (PDI) of the particles were found to be 2.3µ and 0.345. XRD spectra of SO-M showed reduction in crystallinity due to microencapsulation. After four weeks of storage, a moderate (∼12%) decrease in the EPA and DHA content and a low PV of 5.5±0.51meq/kg oil in SO-M demonstrated good oxidative stability. Satisfactory encapsulation efficiency (84±0.84%) and loading efficiency (67±0.51%) values, also demonstrated the suitability of Va-g-Ch for microencapsulation of sardine oil.