Comparison of efficacy of various natural and synthetic antioxidants in stabilizing the fish oil

Use of antioxidants (natural and synthetic) can retard oxidative degradation of fish oil having n-3 PUFA. The performance of each antioxidant is found to be affected by the composition of the oil, presence of impurities and storage condition. Hence an attempt was made to find the efficacy of catechin, resveratrol, β-carotene, caffeic acid, sinapic acid, ellagic acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, quercetin, rutin, TBHQ, BHA, and BHT at a concentration of 0.9 mM in the bulk fish oil, stored for 50 days exposed to air at 25°C under darkness. The extent of primary and secondary oxidation of the stored oil was determined every 5 days and were compared. The efficacy of TBHQ followed by BHA and BHT was found to be highest among all the antioxidants studied. Among the natural antioxidants, resveratrol and catechin were found to exhibit superior efficacy, whereas β-carotene was found to exhibit proxidant behavior. Novelty impact statement This is the first comprehensive study carried out to find the most effective antioxidant involving ten natural and three synthetic antioxidants in n-3 PUFA containing fish oil. TBHQ exhibited superior efficacy among all the antioxidants tested and at a concentration of 0.9 mM, the change in TOTOX value by the end of 40 days of storage was about 80%. None of the other antioxidants studied here, exhibited such superior stability. Among the natural antioxidants, resveratrol and catechin were found to be superior.