Effects of processing on proximate and fatty acid compositions of six commercial sea cucumber species of Sri Lanka.

Processing and its impacts on proximate composition and fatty acid profile of six sea cucumber species; and sp. 1 collected from the northwest coast of Sri Lanka were analyzed. Sea cucumbers are processed into -- by both domestic and industrial level processors following the similar steps of cleaning, evisceration, first boiling, salting, second boiling and drying. However, domestically processed -- always reported a higher percentage of moisture, crude ash, crude fat and lower percentage of crude protein than industrially processed products. Although processing resulted in a significant reduction of total SFA and MUFA in fresh individuals of most of these species, total PUFA increased significantly in processed individuals excluding species. Palmitic acid was found to be the most dominant fatty acid in all these species followed by eicosapentaenoic acid, which showed a significant increase in processed products, except sp. 1. Total MUFA were higher than total SFA in all sea cucumber species having exceptions in sp.1 and fresh These findings will make a significant contribution to fill the gaps in existing information as no any previous information is available for species like and .