Docosahexaenoic acid purification from fish processing industry by-products

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a well-known dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) found in marine fish and organisms whose beneficial effects for human health are widely reported. However, the supply of food containing DHA is currently becoming critical due to the overexploitation of fisheries worldwide. Consequently, searching for alternative sources of DHA is a relevant issue nowadays. Viscera from cultured fishes is considered a by-product by the fishery industry and therefore discarded after fish processing. In this work, viscera from farmed marine fish (Sparus aurata and Dicentrarchus labrax) and also oil extracted from such by-products have been studied to assess their suitability as DHA sources by obtaining their fatty acid profiles. Viscera oil was used as a source for DHA purification by a simple and easily scalable chromatographic method. As a result, a highly purified DHA fraction (>99.0% DHA on total fatty acids) was obtained.