Amino Acid and Fatty Acid Composition of Freshwater Mussels, Anodonta pseudodopsis and Unio tigridis

Proximate composition, fatty acid and amino acid levels were measured in A. pseudodopsis and U. tigridis from the Lake Golbasi. Crude protein and lipid contents were higher in U. tigridis (10.75%, 0.96%) than in A. pseudodopsis (8.63%, 0.77%, respectively), whereas the situation was vise versa for fatty acid compositions. The proportions of Omega-3 (n3) were higher than those of Omega-6 (n6) in both of the mussels. n6/n3 ratio, which was 0.90 for A. pseudodopsis and 0.99 for U. tigridis, is an index for comparing the relative nutritional value of seafood oil. Leucine and lysine were the most important proportions of the essential amino acids, and tryptophane was the minor one. The ratio of essential/non essential (E/NE) amino acids was determined as 0.37 for A. pseudodopsis and 0.34 for U. tigridis. Hence, these mussels are reliable sources of nutrition to cover amino acid requirements of human.