Shrimp production in Brazil is substantial, with good potential for expansion. Although well appreciated in culinary terms and as a rich source of protein, shrimp is classified as a high cholesterol food. Considering that the human cholesterol blood level depends not only on dietary cholesterol, but also on the amount of fat and the type of fatty acids in the diet, an integrated study of these three constituents was carried out in the Brazilian shrimp Penaeus brasiliensis, medium size, from the state of São Paulo. Extraction and determination of total lipids were undertaken according to the method of Folch, Less & Stanley. Cholesterol was determined by a high performance liquid chromatographic method, established in our laboratory, using a C18 column and a photodiode array detector. This method was shown to be efficient, rapid and simple. The fatty acid composition was obtained by gas chromatography with a fused silica capillary column DB-WAX. The cholesterol and total lipid contents for P. brasiliensis were 127 ± 9 mg/100 g and 1.0 ± 0.1 g/100 g, respectively. Eighty-seven fatty acids were detected, the principal fatty acids being 20:5w3 (EPA), 16:0, 22:6w3 (DHA), 18:0, 18:1w9, 16:1w7, 20:4w6 and 18:1w7. The cholesterol content found in the shrimp analyzed is high. On the other hand, the level of fat is low and the content of polyunsaturated fatty acid, especially of EPA and DHA, is high.
cholesterol; total lipids; fatty acids; shrimp; high performance liquid chromatography; high resolution gas chromatography
