COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON THE PROXIMATE AND LIPID CONTENTS IN PROCESSED FISH SESAME AND PIGEON PEA FLOURS

Abstract

A balanced ratio among classes of fatty acids is necessary to obtain a healthy diet. This studyassessed the nutritional and fatty acids content in fish, pigeon pea, and sesame oil. Standardanalyses were done for contents of proximate, fatty acids, phospholipids, and sterols for all theoils. Results showed that pigeon pea flour had the lowest percentage of crude fat, crude protein,and crude fiber compared to sesame seed and fish (boiled and dried) flours. Linoleic acid washigher in seed oils than in fish samples while oleic acid was higher in fish samples than in seedoils. Eicosanoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid were not detected in seed oils but in fish oil.Palmitic acid was the most abundant in all the samples. Dried tilapia fish oil had the highest totalsaturated fatty acids composition. The ratio of Linoleic to linolenic (n6/n3) was higher in theseeds than in fish oils. Total phospholipid composition was higher in the seed oils than in the fishoils. Sistosterol was more abundant in pigeon seeds oils than in fish oil while cholesterol wasmore abundant in fish oils. The results of this study showed that pigeon pea and sesame seed oilscould be beneficial to our health.