Nutrient Profile of Small Indigenous Fish Puntius sophore: Proximate Composition, Amino Acid, Fatty Acid and Micronutrient Profiles

The small indigenous fishes (SIFs) are known to be micronutrient rich and they are also cheap sources of quality animal proteins. The genus Puntius comprises of about 134 very beautiful species, out of which Puntius sophore is an important species. Although certain aspects of nutrient composition of some members of this genus are available in literature, comprehensive nutrient profile is not available. In the present study, we report the nutrient profile of P. sophore, collected from ponds and wetlands in and around Kolkata, West Bengal. The proximate composition analysis showed that the fish is rich in proteins and minerals. The amino acid profiles showed that the level of essential amino acid histidine (22.94 +/- A 0.01 %) is very high among all the amino acids. Although this fish contains low amount of fat (5 %), the fatty acid profile showed that the fish is rich in unsaturated fatty acid out of which oleic acid (28.63 +/- A 0.02 %) is the most abundant one and a fair amount of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid are also present. The mineral profiles showed that among the macro minerals, calcium is the most abundant one (9,748.2 +/- A 23.96 mg kg(-1)), followed by potassium (2,283.7 +/- A 12.75 mg kg(-1)) and sodium (1,610 +/- A 22.34 mg kg(-1)). It was also found that P. sophore is a rich source of micro minerals Fe (115.0 +/- A 8.81 mg kg(-1)), Zn (51.1 +/- A 10.15 mg kg(-1)) and Mn (11.2 +/- A 2.09 mg kg(-1)). Vitamin profiles showed that it is rich in all the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) and out of these vitamin E (30,685.8 mu g kg(-1)) is the most abundant one.