Fatty acid profiles and cholesterol content of Five species of pacu-pevas from the pantanal region of Mato Grosso, Brazil

The aim of the present study to determine the proximate composition (moisture, ashes, proteins and lipids), fatty acid profiles, cholesterol concentrations of five species of pacu-pevas from the Cuiabá river and the rivers of the Alto Paraguai basin in the Pantanal region of the state of Mato Grosso. My. paraguayensis and My. orbignyanum were found to contain significantly higher fractions of protein (19.79% and 20.16%, respectively; p < 0.05) than the other pacu-pevas species. Mt. maculatus had the highest total lipid concentration (10.36%; p < 0.05). Polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations varied between 22.23 and 38.01 g/100 g total fatty acid, and saturated fatty acid rates were between 25.87 and 29.99 g/100 g total fatty acid. Oleic (ω9) (29.89 to 35.07 g/100 g total fatty acid), linoleic (ω6) (11.36 to 25.78 g/100 g total fatty acid) and palmitic acids (14.81 to 19.78 g/100 g total fatty acid) predominated in all studied species. Mp. levis and My. orbignyanum had the highest ω6 rates. Linolenic (ω3) acid varied between 7.16 to 12.33 g/100 g total fatty acid and cholesterol concentrations varied between 10.96 and 19.61 mg/100 g in the species studied. All species had high nutritional quality in terms of the fatty acids content, as indicated by the ω6:ω3 ratio, low thrombogenicity indices and high hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic fatty acid ratios. The studied species are therefore good sources of dietary protein, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids.