Production of DHA- High Dosage Fish Oil from Tuna by-Products by Coupling of Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) and Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC)

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are essential fatty acids that have the potential to be beneficial to human health. So, the purpose of this project was production of DHA- in high dosage from tuna wastes by coupling of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC).
Tuna by-products after the analysis of compounds were extracted by SFE process to produce crude oil. Then, DHA level was concentrated by SFC process. Obtained oil in both process were evaluated for the chemical parameters such as moisture and volatile compounds, neutral lipids, fatty acids profile and acidic value.
The results showed that volatile components such as alkanes were mostly detected in obtained oil by 2 methods. Aldehydes were not observed in any of the samples and acetic acid was diagnosed in outlet oil by SFE only. In Neutral lipids, the TAG and FFA levels in outlet oil by SFC were higher than SFE. On the other hand, levels of wax esters and cholesterol in obtained oil by SFE were higher than SFC process. In fatty acids, the amount of DHA in SFC was significantly higher than SFE. Acidic value did not have significant differences in the two processes.
Tuna by-products have the potential to produce high quality omega 3 fatty acids and coupling of SFE and SFC processes are good methods for production of DHA- high dosage fish oil.