Amino acid and fatty acid profiles in raw and cooked swamp buffalo meat (Bubalus bubalis)

<br />The purpose ofthis study was toassess the amino acid and fatty acid profiles ofswamp buffalo meat (<i>Bubalus bubalis</i>) obtained from alocal market. The extractable free amino acids and free fatty acids ofraw and cooked loin (<i>Longissimus lumborum</i>: LL) and round (<i>Semimembranosus</i>: SM) buffalo meat were analysed. These experiments were performed ina2× 2 factorial inrandomised complete block design (RCBD) and there were four treatments combinations, including raw-loin, cooked-loin, raw-round and cooked-round with five replications. The results revealed the amino acid composition for the raw-loin included leucine [4.51mg·(100g)^–1 sample) and isoleucine [4.56mg·(100g)^–1 sample], whereas methionine, aspartic acid and asparagine were the least common amino acids found inboth raw and cooked swamp buffalo meat [0.002, 0.020 and 0.034mg·(100g)^–1] ofthe sample. The amino acid composition ofthe cooked meat decreased by50% ascompared toraw meat. Swamp buffalo meat contains 10fatty acids, including saturated fatty acids (SFAs) suchas myristic acid (C14:0), palmitic acid (C16:0), stearic acid (C18:0) and docosanoic acid (C22:0); monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) such aspalmitoleic acid (C16:1, <i>n</i>-7) and oleic acid (C18:1); and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such aslinoleic acid (C18:2, <i>n</i>-6, ω6), gamma-linolenic acid (C18:3, <i>n</i>-6, ω6), eicosatetraenoic acid (C20:5, <i>n</i>-3, ω3) and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:4, <i>n</i>-6, ω6). Stearic acid (C18:0) was the most abundant saturated fatty acids found inthe lipid component ofbuffalo meat. Other medium- and long-chain saturated fatty acids (C14:0, C16:0, C22:0) contributed toaround 3–4% ofthe total fatty acid composition. The most abundant MUFAs and PUFAs were oleic acid (C18:1) and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5). The PUFA/SFA ratio, total polyunsaturated fatty acids <i>n</i>-3, total polyunsaturated fatty 64acids <i>n</i>-6, and <i>n</i>-6/<i>n</i>-3 ratios were not significantly different between raw and cooked buffalo meat.