Studies on proximate composition of four edible fresh and salt-dried freshwater fishes

Rijuana Ahmed, Dr. A.Q.Osmani, Dr. B.Kalita.

Abstract: The chemical composition of fish varies from species to species. Knowledge on chemical constituent is very essential in order to compare the constituent’s value of raw and dried fishes. It is also necessary to have data on the chemical composition of fish in order to make the best use of them as food and in order to develop technology of processing fish and fish products. Present investigation was carried to find out the proximate composition of four edible freshwater fishes collected from Charon beel, Morigaon District, Assam, India. The work was directed towards the study of proximate composition of fresh and salt dried edible freshwater fishes Chanda nama, Amblypharyngodon mola, Channa punctatus, and Trichogaster fasciatus and compared the effect of drying on the nutritive value of fishes. In both fresh and dry fishes, proximate analysis targeted the determination of the percentage of moisture, ash, protein, fat and carbohydrate. The results of fresh fishes found that the moisture content was 76.01±0.71% in Chanda nama, 75.23±0.445% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 79.88±0.281% in Channa punctatus and 76.85±0.23% in Trichogaster fasciatus; ash content was 4.73±0.233% in Chanda nama, 4.03±0.212% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 2.21±0.117% in Channa punctatus and 5.56±0.179% in Trichogaster fasciatus; the protein content was 15.81±0.22% in Chanda nama, 18.1±0.31% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 19.01±0.243% in Channa punctatus and 16.1±0.155% in Trichogaster fasciatus; fat content was 4.12±0.121% in Chanda nama, 4.59±0.24% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 0.317±0.112% in Channa punctatus and 2.77±0.16% in Trichogaster fasciatus and carbohydrate was 1.61±0.482% in Chanda nama, 1.57±0.615% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 0.98±0.51% in Channa punctatus and 1.43±0.34% in Trichogaster fasciatus. The results of salted and sundried fishes revealed that the moisture content was 75.22±0.756% in Chanda nama, 74.18±0.581% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 79.14±0.270% in Channa punctatus and 76.38±0.192% in Trichogaster fasciatus; ash content was 4.44±0.241% in Chanda nama, 3.16±0.270% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 1.16±0.114% in Channa punctatus and 5.06±0.167% in Trichogaster fasciatus; the protein content of Chanda nama, Amblypharyngodon mola, Channa punctatus and Trichogaster fasciatus was 15.12±0.13%, 17.14±0.207%, 18.5±0.265%, and 15.2±0.158% respectively. The fat content was 3.5±0.223% in Chanda nama, 3.22±0.192% in Amblypharyngodon mola, 0.26±0.114% in Channa punctatus and 2.13±0.159% in Trichogaster fasciatus; Carbohydrate content of Chanda nama, Amblypharyngodon mola, Channa punctatus and Trichogaster fasciatus was 1.52±0.563%, 1.3±0.628%, 0.94±0.498% and 1.06±0.336% respectively. Statistical analysis also shows that the fat content was significantly decreased in all the dried fishes but the other parameters such as moisture, ash, protein and carbohydrate showed no significant differences. The examined fresh and dried fishes contains highly appreciable amounts of moisture, ash, protein, fat and less amounts of carbohydrate suggested that the experimental fish species can be used as good sources of nutrients.