Table 4.

Fatty acid composition (% of total fatty acids w w⁻¹) of flounder, lemon sole, megrim, plaice, and thornback ray.

	Species
Fatty acids	Flounder	Lemon sole	Megrim	Plaice	Thornback ray
	n = 3*	n = 3*	n = 4*	n = 10	n = 5*
SFA	%	%	%	%	%	P-value**
C14:0	1.58 ± 0.03ab	1.45 ± 0.3ab	2.68 ± 0.6a	2.71 ± 1.4a	0.29 ± 0.3	0.003
C15:0	0.52 ± 0.3	0.37 ± 0.3	0.34 ± 0.2	0.17 ± 0.3	0.06 ± 0.1	0.110
C16:0	20.9 ± 1.9ab	23.86 ± 6.2a	20.37 ± 3.0ab	17.1 ± 2.6b	26.0 ± 1.6a	<0.001
C17:0	0.66 ± 0.2ab	1.05 ± 0.1.0a	0.26 ± 0.2ab	0.17 ± 0.3b	0.29 ± 0.39ab	0.034
C18:0	5.52 ± 0.7ab	6.44 ± 1.1a	4.64 ± 1.4ab	3.50 ± 1.4b	5.06 ± 0.3ab	0.006
Ʃ SFA	29.19 ± 2.6ab	33.17 ± 6.4a	28.27 ± 3.3ab	23.64 ± 2.8b	31.66 ± 1.5a	<0.001
MUFA
C14:1	0.04 ± 0.06ab	0.07 ± 0.1ab	0.22 ± 0.2a	0.03 ± 0.09b	0.00 ± 0.0b	0.041
C16:1 n7	2.88 ± 0.3bc	1.81 ± 1.6bc	4.78 ± 1.2ab	6.93 ± 1.9a	1.71 ± 0.09c	<0.001
C17:1	0.13 ± 0.2	0.39 ± 0.4	0.31 ± 0.2	0.18 ± 0.3	0.00 ± 0.0	0.273
C18:1 n7	2.37 ± 0.3	1.80 ± 1.6	2.66 ± 0.7	4.16 ± 2.4	3.55 ± 0.6	0.228
C18:1 n9	10.08 ± 2.3	12.19 ± 4.9	13.68 ± 2.9	8.45 ± 3.4	8.36 ± 0.7	0.055
C20:1	1.97 ± 0.3ab	0.77 ± 0.9b	5.26 ± 1.2a	4.89 ± 2.7a	1.27 ± 0.7b	0.003
C22:1	0.36 ± 0.6ab	0.12 ± 0.2ab	2.59 ± 2.0ab	2.91 ± 1.9a	0.00 ± 0.0b	0.008
Ʃ MUFA	17.82 ± 2.3b	17.16 ± 0.6b	29.50 ± 5.8a	27.53 ± 4.8a	14.89 ± 1.8b	<0.001
PUFA
C16:2 n4	0.67 ± 0.2	0.73 ± 0.6	0.56 ± 0.4	0.40 ± 0.5	0.12 ± 0.3	0.351
C18:2 n6 (LA)	2.95 ± 1.8a	1.17 ± 1.0ab	0.88 ± 0.6b	0.40 ± 0.5b	1.49 ± 0.2ab	0.002
C18:3 n3	0.77 ± 0.3	0.43 ± 0.4	0.72 ± 0.5	0.21 ± 0.3	0.10 ± 0.2	0.023
C18:4 n3	0.39 ± 0.3	0.17 ± 0.3	0.51 ± 0.6	1.48 ± 1.9	0.00 ± 0.0	0.249
C20:2 n6	0.11 ± 0.2ab	0.39 ± 0.3a	0.20 ± 0.1ab	0.08 ± 0.1ab	0.00 ± 0.0b	0.037
C20:4 n6 (AA)	6.52 ± 1.6	8.94 ± 2.5	2.94 ± 1.8	4.11 ± 3.8	4.25 ± 0.6	0.07
C20:4 n3	0.16 ± 0.3	0.16 ± 0.3	0.62 ± 0.4	5.9 ± 7.0	0.14 ± 0.3	0.115
C20:5 n3 (EPA)	13.24 ± 2.6	14.93 ± 3.0	6.73 ± 2.3	10.07 ± 8.9	3.96 ± 0.7	0.119
C22:5 n3 (DPA)	2.09 ± 0.4	2.49 ± 2.2	2.31 ± 0.3	4.68 ± 5.6	3.11 ± 0.7	0.744
C22:6 n3 (DHA)	23.84 ± 4.4bc	14.72 ± 2.7d	24.80 ± 2.2b	19.83 ± 2.8cd	36.17 ± 1.4a	<0.001
Ʃ PUFA	50.74 ± 3.3a	44.12 ± 2.4ab	40.26 ± 4.0b	47.15 ± 4.0a	49.34 ± 2.0a	0.003
Ʃ n3	40.49 ± 5.2abc	32.9 ± 2.55c	35.67 ± 3.9bc	41.72 ± 4.4ab	43.48 ± 1.8a	0.005
Ʃ n6	9.58 ± 2.2	10.50 ± 1.4	4.02 ± 1.1	4.92 ± 4.2	5.74 ± 0.6	0.022
n3/n6	4.5 ± 1.8bc	3.2 ± 0.6c	9.3 ± 2.4a	6.1 ± 2.3abc	7.6 ± 0.9ab	0.003
Ʃ Others	2.24 ± 3.9	5.55 ± 5.3	1.97 ± 2.1	1.67 ± 2.9	4.12 ± 1.4	0.303

Results presented as mean values ± SD. *Samples were merged in order to provide enough lipid phase to analyze for fatty acid composition. **ANOVA was applied to detect differences in fatty acid composition; where significant difference was detected (α < 0.05), a Tukey HSD post hoc test was applied. Values with different superscript (a, b) within a row are significantly different (P < 0.05).