Abstract.
The meat fatty acids (FA) profiles of caprines submitted to different
dietary treatments were determined by gas chromatography. The data were
treated by Chemometrics to consider all variables together. The contents
of saturated FA (SFA), monounsaturated FA (MUFA), polyunsaturated FA (PUFA),
omega-3 (n-3) FA, and omega-6 (n-6) FA in 32 samples were
analyzed. PUFA:SFA and n-6:n-3 ratios were also considered.
The multivariate methods of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal
component analysis (PCA) were used to analyze the experimental results.
HCA can group samples according to their basic composition, and PCA can
explain the relationship among the dietary treatments according to the
meat fatty acid composition. Treatment 1 presented the highest n-6
FA concentration, PUFA:SFA, and n-6:n-3 ratios, and the lowest
MUFA and n-3 concentrations. Opposite results were observed for
treatment 4. Treatments 2 and 3 were highly similar with differences mainly
in SFA and MUFA concentrations.
Keywords.
Fatty acids; Caprines; Gas chromatography; Chemometrics
Keywords Plus.