Empowerment of inland fish farmers in value addition

• Methodologies for the preparation of different kinds of value added fishery products from freshwater fishes such as cultivable carps and tilapia were evolved through trails in the The recipe and formula for the preparation of fish pickle, fish burger, fish macroni, fish noodles, fish cutlet and fish samosa were standardized. The consumer acceptability for different kinds of value added products from freshwater fishes were studied.
• Demonstrations of the technologies to the public, training programmes were conducted in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli Districts.

Assessment of total mercury content in commercially important finfish and shellfish of the Gulf of Mannar coast

• The levels of mercury content in commercially important finfish and shellfish collected from three landing centres of Gulf of Mannar showed narrow range of variations. The levels were found to be below the legal limits (1 ppm) in all fishes and hence, safe for human consumption.
• The lead content was completely absent in all the fishes taken from three landing centres. The heavy metals concentrations in fishes could be arranged in the following descending order Hg → Cd →

Antimicrobial activity of biopeptides extracted from fish protein hydrolysate

• Fish protein hydrolysates (FPH) were prepared from skin and muscle of fifteen fin fishes using commercial protease enzymes viz. alcalase, trypsin, pepsin and papain by optimizing different concentrations and reaction times with constant pH and temperature of the respective enzymes. The maximum DH of 82% was obtained within 60 min with alcalase, followed by 51% DH with papain after 225 min, 50% DH with trypsin after 210 min and 29% DH with pepsin after 225 min at 1% concentration.
• Using the optimized process conditions FPHs were prepared from the muscle and skin of 15 species of finfishes and subjected to antimicrobial activity test against several bacterial pathogens. FPH prepared from fish skin alone exhibited antimicrobial property. Alcalase FPH showed maximum activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter cloacae and Escherichia coli. Trypsin FPH had activity against Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter cloacae and Escherichia coli.
• Biopeptide fraction (<30 KDa) derived from alcalase FPH alone exhibited antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (2mm) and none of the other biopeptides showed any activity.