It has long been a custom in the Icelandic fishing industry that when fishermen stab themselves at the sharp-edged redfish, they have simply cut into the fish's eyes and applied the mucus to the injection wound.
Increased value from processing at Karfi (Sebastes)
- study of the chemical composition and bioactivity of redfish mucus
By using the mucus in this way, the sailors have prevented infection and also the pain has been less than otherwise and the inflammatory response is negligible compared to when eye mucus is not applied to the wound. This was the trigger for the project and the information that was based on when the project was launched. The purpose of this project was to shed light on whether the mucus from the eyes of redfish (Sebastes) can be used for the production of substances that have a desirable bioactivity that could possibly be used in various industries, such as cosmetics, food supplements and more.
The results show that antioxidant activity is found in perch eye mucus, especially when 50% methanol solution was used in the extract and antioxidant activity was measured by a so-called DPPH test. The protein content was low in the eye mucus, but the highest was measured in the eye mucus, which was heat-dried at 30 ° C. With the methods tested, the eye mucus was found not to contain bactericidal activity or to measure β-carotene.
This project was in fact a preliminary study of material that has not been examined before and information that was not available was collected. It would be interesting to further investigate other desirable bioactivities, such as anti-inflammatory activity. It would also be exciting to isolate and further investigate the proteins that are found in the eye mucus.
Student
Friðrik Þór Bjarnason is a fisheries scientist from the University of Akureyri in the spring of 2014 and a master's student in aquaculture at the University of Bodø Norway from the autumn of 2014.
Advisor
Rannveig Björnsdóttir Associate Professor University of Akureyri and director of Matís.
The project was carried out at the University of Akureyri and Matís Akureyri, with funding from Student Innovation Fund.
All raw materials for the study came from processing Samherji hf.
For further information Rannveig Björnsdóttir, professional manager at Matís in Akureyri.