Amount and Composition of Wax Esters in Salted and Dried Roe from Mullet of Australia

The amounts and compositions of wax esters (WE) of salted roe and salted and dried roe ('Karasumi') of the mullet, Mugil cephalus, caught in Australia were examined. Both salted and salted and dried roes contained large amounts of lipids (TL : 30.631.6% of dry weight) comprised almost entirely of WE (82.884.3%) consisting mainly of C32 and C34 components (53.161.1%) Fatty alcohols originating from WE were essentially saturated (83.586.4%) with the predominant component of 16 : 0 alcohol (59.363.4%). Each of monoenoic fatty alcohols (11.915.0%) comprised their isomers and the most abundant component was 16 : 1n-7 alcohol (5.89.2%). Appreciable amounts of odd chain fatty alcohols with 15 : 0 alcohol (3.1-12.0%) were also present. Component fatty acids in WE were more monoenoic (56.160.6%) with 16 : 1n-7 acid (34.038.8%) and polyenoic (26.631.1%) with 20 : 5n-3, 22 : 5n-3 and 22 : 6n-3 acids. Among triacylglycerols, 16 : 0 (32.934.6%), 16 : 1n-7 (16.622.5%) and 18 : 1n-7 (7.88.7%) acids were characteristic. No oxidation of polyenoic fatty acids in different lipid classes of salted and dried roe of mullet could be detected.