Nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds from seafood processing waste
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| Abstract |
Seafood items are rich in several valuable nutrients and other useful components. The rising global demand for the community is witnessing an increasing quantity of processed seafood entering world markets. Commercial processing of seafood items for diverse products results in significant amounts of wastes consisting of shells, heads, intestines, scales, bones, fins, etc. Moreover, fishing operations aimed at popular species also lead to the capture of substantial amounts of fish that are commercially nonviable and, therefore, regarded as by-catch. Currently, most of these materials are discarded as landfill or converted on a limited scale into products such as animal feed and leather, which leads to serious environmental hazards. With rapid developments in biotechnology there is vast scope to make use of the wastes as sources of valuable nutraceuticals and other ingredients, which encompass proteins including collagen and gelatin, protein hydrolyzates, bioactive peptides, lipids rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, squalene, carotenoids, polysaccharides such as chitin, chitosan, glycosaminoglycans and their derivatives, mineral-based nutraceuticals, among others. These products, depending upon their characteristics, have potential for various applications such as natural food additives, bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals, medicinal drugs, biodegradable packaging, and as encapsulation materials for diverse nutraceuticals. This chapter highlights the potential benefits of secondary processing of seafood discards, for the isolation of various valuable compounds, such as unsaturated oils, carotenoids, minerals, fine biochemicals, enzymes, proteins, nucleic acids and pharmaceuticals, antimicrobials, antioxidants, enzyme inhibitors, and other bioactive compounds. |
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