Amount of Squalene and Fatty Acid Composition of Triacylglycerols and Phospholipids in Flesh and Liver Lipids of Some Deep-sea Teleost Fish, Morid Cods and Whiptails

Abstract

Examination was made of the amounts of squalene and fatty acid compositions of triacylglycerols (TG) and phospholipids (PL) in the flesh and liver lipids of five species of deep-sea teleost fish: the Pacific flatnose Antimora microlepis and the black mora Halargyreus johnsonii of morid cods and the roughscale rattail Coryphaenoides acrolepis, the pop-eye grenadier C. cinereus and the pectoral rattail C. pectoralis of whiptails. Liver specimens of these deep-sea teleost fish contained copious amounts of lipids (19.5 — 65.1%) which were composed almost entirely of TG (72.6 — 95.9%). Flesh samples contained small amounts of lipids (0.3 — 0.5%) with lower TG (0.9—1.4%) and higher PL (53.8 — 76.0%) content. In the livers and flesh, unsaponifiable matter from the neutral lipids comprised squalene (42.4— 57.7% and 3.7— 10.3%) and sterols (22.8 — 51.0% and 84.0 — 95.3%), respectively, and the squalene content of liver lipids corresponded to 0.57— 1.76%. Component fatty acids in TG from liver lipids were characteristically rich in monoenes (59.5 — 73.0%) with 22:1n-11 (15.7 — 24.1%), 18:1n-9 (11.2 — 16.6%) and 20:1n-11 (8.7 — 10.9%) acids. Nevertheless, component fatty acids in PL from flesh lipids were rich in polyenes (37.6 — 44.2%) with 22:6n-3 (23.1 — 28.4%) and 20:5n-3 (8.7 — 8.8%) acids. © 2003, Japan Oil Chemists' Society. All rights reserved.