New Approaches for the Effective Utilization of Fish Skin Wastes of Aluterus monoceros

Context: Unicorn leatherjacket (Aluterus monoceros) is an export quality fish mainly used for fillet production, the skin of which is discarded as waste due to its toughness. Wastes emanated from the fish processing industry have become an important source of environmental pollution. Aim: The study investigates the potentials of A. monoceros skin to produce value-added products viz., fish leather and fish meal. Materials and Methods: 5 kg of fish skin from 20 kg of fish was used for the present study. Leather produced from fish skin was characterized for its physico-chemical properties using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. Biochemical components viz., protein, fat, and salt content of the fish skin were also estimated. Results: Leather produced from fish skin possessed 88 MPa tensile strength. Biochemical estimations proved that the fish skin had 28% protein content. Conclusion: On the basis of the characterization and evaluation results, it could be concluded that this processed fish skin could be used for leather goods production. In addition, this fish skin could be included as a component in fish meal preparation.