Proximate, amino acid, fatty acid and mineral composition of Grey mullet, Mugil cephalus L: A comparative study between the culture and wild resources in different size groups and potential contribution to nutritional security

Mugil cephalus is widely distributed across all oceans and it is a potential candidate species for aquaculture. Nutrient profiling in terms of proximate, amino acid, fatty acid and mineral composition was analyzed in muscle tissue of M. cephalus sourced from culture and wild with four different sizes (100–150 g, 151–250 g, 251–500 g and > 500 g). Results of proximate composition revealed that both the factors (resource and size) had a significant (P < 0.05) effect on moisture, crude lipid, total ash and gross energy but not on crude protein and crude fibre. Though the amino acid composition was not influenced by resource and size, the level of essential amino acids of ideal protein was higher than the recommended level by FAO/WHO for phenylalanine (43.29–45.60%), tryptophan (36.60-39.02%) and lysine (33.61–41.51%). Fatty acids like C14:0, C16:0, C18:0, C18:1c, C18:2c and γC18:3 was significantly (P < 0.05) high in cultured species compared to wild caught fish, irrespective of the size groups and the reverse was true for αC18:3, C20:4 and C20:5. The amount of calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium was significantly (P < 0.05) higher by 10.68, 5.82, 9.31 and 6.93% in wild caught fish than its counterpart. The potential contribution of this fish to nutritional security in terms of its daily value (DV) was calculated for one serving of 100 g fish to adult human being. Results revealed that lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan and EPA + DHA were considered as outstanding nutrients in this fish, irrespective of their source and size as their DV crossed > 70%. Similarly, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and valine could also able to meet 50–70% of the daily needs of adult human indicating the nutritional richness of both wild and cultured M. cephalus regardless of its size.