Fatty acid composition and total fat content of eight species of Mediterranean fish <B>Fatty acid composition and total fat content of eight species of Mediterranean fish</B><P> </B><B>Michael 'Tornaritis(1), Efi Peraki(1), Maria Georgulli(1), Anthony Kafatos(1), Greg Charalambakis(2), Pascal Divanach(2), Maroudio Kentouri(2), Stelios Yiannopoulos(3), Haritini Frenaritou(3) and Renos Argyrides(3)</B><I><P> (1) Department of Social Medicine, Preventative Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, University of Crete, Heraklio, Crete, Greece<BR> (2)</I><I><B> </B></I><I>Institute of Marine Biology, Heraklio, Crete, Greece<BR> (3) Section of Food Chemistry, Cyprus State General Laboratory, Nicosia, Cyprus</I><P> The fatty acids and total fat content of eight species of Mediterranean fish (<I>Scomber japonicus, Boops boops, Mullus barbatus, Mullus surm uletus, Merluccius merluccius, Pagelius erythrinus, Pagrus pagrus, Sparus aurata </I>- see Appendix 1) commonly consumed in this area were analysed. Six of the fishes were caught from the Kritiko pelagos, and the other two, the <I>Sparus aurata</I> and the <I>Pagrus pagrus</I> were donated from the fishes cultured at the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete. The GC Chromatography of the fatty acids showed the <I>n</I>-3 to range from 12.6 to 28.3% of the observed acids. The <I>n</I>-6/<I>n</I>-3 ratio of fatty acids was found to be 0.2-0.7, and the saturated fatty acids range from 28.0 to 33.2%. These results demonstrate that the eight species of fish studied from the Mediterranean areas are a good source of n-3 fatty acids.<P> International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition (1993) <B>45</B>, 135-139<P>