Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Lipids and Enrichment of DHA from Freshwater Fish Processing Wastes in Thailand
Nowadays, an awareness of health benefits of omega-3 has been found. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially DHA, are more attention due to their role in human health. Hence, this study investigated the potential of by-products as freshwater fish source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 PUFAs). The by-products of processing accounted for approximately 55% of the catfish industry. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of the by-products at 35 MPa, 40 ◦C, ethanol (95%, v/v) as the co-solvent, and the mass ratio of by-products to co-solvent as 1:1 generated a lipid yield at 30.9% and 21.5 % docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Additionally, urea complexation was an effective tool to enrich and purify DHA from lipids. DHA purity increased from 21.5% to 38.4% under the optimum complexation condition.