The author reviews the advances in the oil and meal industries related to the oil sardine fishery (Sardinella longiceps) since the 1920s. Data on the production of by-produced produced in Kerala over the period 1964- 69 are tabulated. Details of the properties of the commercial oil are given, and the values compared to those for other similar oils. The use of oil sardine for industrial purposes - the oil has been used to cure leather, temper metals and as fungicides or insecticides - and the production of fish meal and fish protein concentrate is considered

Balachandran, K.K.

Madhavan, P.

Unnikrishnan Nair, T.S.

Aquatic Commons

l E 
P. MADHAVAN, T. S. UNN[KRISHiiJAN NAIR & K. K. BALACHANDRAN 
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin-682011 
OIL INDUSTRY 
It was in the early 20's of this century 
that the sardine oil industry developed 
and came to prominence in India, though 
the fishery dates back to 1320 A. D. In 
1922-'23 a maximum production of 
about 12,500 tons of sardine oil has 
been recorded by about 700 small 
extraction units (Kini, 1968). Wide flu-
ctuations have been noticed thereafter. 
The production of sardine oil and other 
byproducts in Kerala State during 1964 
to '68 is given in table I. 
The abundance of oil sardine fishery 
confined to a short period and the further 
probable increase in the quantum of 
landings likely to be brought about by the 
envisaged introduction of more and more 
small and large sized vessels will pose a 
real problem for the effective utilization 
of catch. In the off shore zone upto 
80 m. depth, though the data are not 
sufficient, investigations have revealed sub-
stantial potential for pelagic fishes like 
sardine, mackerel and tuna. A series of 
investigations conducted with small purse 
seines operated from vessels of 361 have 
consistant!y yielded an average catch of 
3.2 tons of sardines per in this region 
(Devidas Menon, 1971). The canning, 
freezing and transportation of the likely 
catch, coupled with other methods of pre-
servation will be found inadequate to 
dispose the entire catch. It is here that 
the oil industry will be coming to stay. 
Further with the increasing demand for 
sardine oil in foreign countries and incre-
ased use of this commodity for various 
TABLE I 
Byproduct 
Sardine oil 
Fish Guano 
Fish Manure 
Fish Meal 
*QUANTITY IN TONS OF DIFFERENT BYPRODUCTS 
PRODUCED IN KERALA STATE 
1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 
2073.13 1079.88 85.17 5.35 671.26 
7031.35 613.50 85.00 12.00 197.80 
5909.18 433.00 3882.48 8808.10 
6.08 84.73 22.08 
* Kerala Fisheries Administrative reports 
VOL XI No. 2 1974 
Average 
782.96 
1963.66 
4758.19 
37.63 
102 
Madfwvan, Unni~rislhwn Nair & 'Balacliandran: A review on oil sardine 
TABLE II 
COMPARISON OF THE INDIAN SARDINE OIL WITH OTHER SIMILAR OILS 
Property Indian Sar-
dine oil 
Sp. gravity 0.9218 
at 15.5°C. 
Colour Lovibond units 
in 111 cell (i) Yell ow 70 
(ii) Red 1 
Refractive 
:index at 25"C. 1.4755 
Iodine value 152-175 
Free fatty acids 
as percentage of 0.56 - 3.89 
oleic acid 
Saponfication value 192- 195 
Non-saponifiable 
matter% 1.3 
industrial purposes within the country, the 
oil extraction industry will no doubt emerge 
as an ancilliary in the disposal of sardine. 
The sardine oil extraction industry, while 
making available the oil for a multitude 
of uses, wiH also make use of the residue 
for conversion to other important food 
items like fish protein concentrate, fish 
meal etc. 
A thorough survey of the oil industry 
for the last two decades reveals that the 
extraction is done on a cottage scale in 
some isolated places near the landing 
centres and is not well organised. The 
method of extraction followed at present 
is a crude one, by cooking the fish in 
iron vessels, most often without adding 
sufficient quantity of water, and without 
103 
British Colum- Canadian North Arne-
bia Herring Pilchard rican 
oil oil Menhaden oil 
0.9228- 0.9290- 0.9311 
0.9265 0.9370 
20-35 40-75 
1.8 - 3.5 3.5 - 6.0 
1.4730- 1.4785-
1.4775 1.4802 
118-160 170-188 160 
0.2 to 5.0 0.1 to 13.0 7.57 
182- 189 188 - 199 189.3 
0.5- 1.7 0.1 - 1.25 1.6 
proper attention throughout the operation. 
The oil thus extracted is of very poor 
quality, undesirable colour and odour and 
of inferior chemical characteristics. Cen-
tral Institute of Fisheries Technology has 
worked out and demonstrated successfully 
a method of extraction of oi1 of very 
good characteristics g1 vwg an average 
yield of 12% during the season (Madhavan 
& Kaima1, 1968). 
A striking contrast is presented by 
the characteristics of this oil when compa-
red with some of the fish body oils of 
commercial importance produced in other 
. countries (Anon, 1952). 
Fatty acid composition of the lipids 
of oil sardine has revealed that they con-
Fish. Techno!. 
Madfiavan, Unnilhislinan Nair & 'Balacfiandran: A reoierv on oil sardine 
tain high amount of 'poly-unsaturated 
fatty acids constituted by docosa hexae-
noic and eicosa pentaenoic acids (Gopa-
kumar & Rajendranathan Nair, 1966). 
Poly-unsaturated fatty acids are known to 
have pharmacological importance as they 
may keep the cholesterol content in the 
blood quite low thereby lowering the 
incidenre of heart disorders (Velankar, 
1968). 
INDUSTRIAL UTILIZATION 
It has remained an age-old practice 
of fishermen to use sardine oil for paint-
ing the bottom of their fishing crafts. 
A small portion of the better; grade oil 
had been used for edible purpose as well 
(Aggarwal, 1968). The other important 
applications of this low grade oil produ-
ced commercially are in fat liquoring of 
leather, tempering of metals, hatching of 
jute and insecticidal soaps (Anon, 1962). 
(Generally fish oils employed as fungicides 
and insecticides are sometimes modified 
in minor way to improve the natural 
fungicidal activity. Such fish oil prepa-
rations are less potent than organic 
insecticides; however, they are non-toxic 
to man, unlike the latter). The high 
unsaturation, easy susceptibility to oxida-
tion, flavour reversion and related changes 
create technological problems in its use 
in hydrogenated product, soap manufa-
cture and domestic consumption (Madha-
van & Kaimal, 1968). In recent years, 
refined deodorised herring oil is being 
used for canning fish, particularly in 
Norway. It has been reported that use 
of cold cleared and winterised sardine oil 
either as such or in admixture with 
ground nut oil in varying proportions can 
be successfully used as the medium in the 
canning of sardines. It has also been 
noticed that hydrogenation done at at-
mospheric pressure itself is quite rapid 
and can bring down the I. V. to 100, 
TABLE III 
COMPARISON OF THE QUALITIES OF COMMERCIAL OIL 
TO THAT PREPARED BY THE lMFROVED METHOD 
Commercial oil Oil prepared by improved 
methods 
Colour Deep brown to black Light yellow to brown 
Clarity at room temperature Turbid Clear 
Odour Rancid No rancid odour 
Refractive index L4780 1.4755 
Sp. gravity 0.9250 0.921 
Moisture % 0.25- 0.62 0.20- 0.40 
Nitrogen 0.02-0.10 Nil 
Saponification value 190-198 192- 195 
Iodine value 99 - 161 152- 175 
Perodixe value 0.4382- 7.2 0.32- 2.7 
Unsaponifiable matter % 0.84- L55 0.83 - 1.55 
Free fatty acids % 5.8 - 49.58 0.56- 3.89 
VoL XI No. 2 1974 104 
M adt1-avan, Unnifirisftnan Nair & 13alacftandran: A revierv on oil sardine 
when the typical 
is removed and 
Controlled direct 
rancid and fishy odour 
the oil IS stabilised. 
interesterification of the 
hydrogenated oil thus prepared gives a 
butter-like consistency (Sen & .Revankar, 
1968). 
Refined sardine oil could be used in 
the manufacture of hard soaps after hy-
drogenation at about 100 p. s. i. g. and at 
temperature of 150-l70°C using 2% Rufert 
nickel catalyst for 5 hours when the oil 
becomes hard pale white solid having I.V. 
10 (Aggarwal, 1968). The neutral sardine 
oil can be split into fatty acids by fractional 
distillation into three groups:-
(a) Fraction resembling mowah fatty 
acids having I. V. ranging from 65-82 with 
a yield of 47-58% constituting both sa-
turated fatty acids upto and including 
c]. s with comparatively low fishy odour, 
which if properly mixed with other oils 
can be used in the manufacture of laun-
dry soaps; 
(b) A low yield of 5-20% poly un-
saturated fraction with I. V. of about 220, 
comprising mainly of arachidonic, clupa-
nodonic and other unidentified fatty acids, 
useful in paints; 
(c) A non-distillable polymerised unsa-
turated fatty acid, neutral sardine oil and 
unsaponifiables which has found acceptance 
in varnish manufacture (Kotwal & Pai, 
1968). 
Application of fish oil fatty acids in 
the manufacture of oil-modified alkyd 
resins using pentaerythrytol and phthalic 
anhydride has been discussed (Ahluwallah, 
1968). M/s Godrej Soaps Pvt. Ltd. 
announced the introduction of fish oil fatty 
acids, a mixture of polyunsaturated fatty 
acids arachidonic and clupanodonic under 
the name "Distilled fatty acids" (paint 
105 
type) which is claimed to have high un-
saturation (I. V. in the range 230-250) of 
the conjugated type. A lower grade fish 
oil prepared by the same firm is called 
"Polymerised oil" suitable for dark colour 
varnishes (Ahluwallah, 1968). 
A further breakthrough in the possible 
application of modified sardine oil for 
the industrial purposes was achieved as 
a result of the investigations carried out 
at the Central Institute of Fisheries Te-
chnology. Conversion of sardine oil into 
factice, a filler in rubber compounding 
industry (Kaimal & Madhavan, 1967), use 
as a vehicle in surface coating material 
(Kaimal, Pillai & Madhavan, 1967), and 
as printing ink base, as an additive in 
lubricating oil etc. (Madhavan & Kaimal, 
1968) have been successfully tried. Atten-
tion is now being focussed on the pre-
paration of possible chemicals that could 
be obtained from sardine oil. 
It may not be wrong to envisage a 
great potential for the oil and industries 
based on that if sardine oil of supreme 
quality is made available. The only hazard 
that may affect the industry is the flu-
ctuation observed in the raw material 
landing. 
FISH MEAL 
It has been stated earlier that during 
glut seasons the whole fish as such were 
used as manure. The most common form 
of fertilizer is as fish guano, the residue 
left after oil extraction by the crude 
method. This is generally beach-dried and 
is found to contain 8-10% nitrogen and 
a good amount of phosphates. Being 
wen cooked, this desintegrates easily and 
mixes with soil quickly and is believed 
to be 15-20 times richer than ordinary 
cattle manure. 
Fish. Techno!. 
]\[adllavan, Unnilhisfman Nair & 'Balacfwndran: A review on oil sardine 
The trimmings and waste from the 
sardine canning factories, when this is 
taken up on a large scale, will constitute 
a good source for manure. A piece of 
investigation has been reported from Cen-
tral Institute of Fisheries Technology for 
preparing a liquid fertilizer from fish and 
shrimp wastes with 2 different NPK ratios, 
8:8:16 and 7:10:15, suitable for common 
crops like coconut. arecanut, ginger, ta-
pioca, pepper and vegetables (Ismail & 
Madhavan, 1970). 
The press cake left after extraction 
of oil from oil sardine forms one of the 
chief sources of raw material for the 
manufacture of fish meal. Lean fish and 
wastes from fish canneries also are imp-
ortant raw materials. India had the 
privilege of exporting sizeable quantities 
of fish meal until recently, but reduced 
considerably as the meal produced was of 
inferior quality. Now the Indian Standard 
Institution have laid down quality specifi-
cation for fish meal to be used as live 
stock feed (Anon, 1967) Organised fish 
meal industry shows signs of revival 
and emergence to prominence. In late 
SO's an exp;:rimental unit with a throuo-h-
"" put capacity of l ton fish has started 
functioning at Calicut under Kerala Fish-
eries Department followed by the one 
with 15 tons Capacity in Bombay. In lat~ 
sixties, three more plants, one at Jaffrabad 
in Gujerat with 15 tons capacity and 
another in Margao with 40 tons capacity 
and the third at Malpe with 40 tons capacity 
were commissioned. A pla"t under the 
Integrated Fisheries Project with a capacity 
of 40 tons was started in Mandapam in 
1970. Another plant with 25 tons capacity 
was commissioned in 1972 at Azhikode 
under the Kerala Fisheries Corporation. 
The total installed throughput capacity 
thus available presently is more than 175 
VoL XI No. 2 1974 
tons per day. However, the shortfall in 
production compared to the instaUed cap-
acity, is alarming. Our plants idle most 
of the time. The gap to some extent 
can be made up by utilising low-cost trash 
fish, wastes from prawn and fish canneries 
etc. This valuable protein source with 
aU the essential amino acids and minerals 
]ike phosphorus and calcium can be made 
use of as the main ingredient in the 
feeding stuff of our domestic animals 
and poultry. At any rate, with the proposed 
increase in the fishing activities. and the 
expected high landings of fish in general 
and judicious exploitation of sardine fishery 
raw materials for fish meal manufacture 
will be available in adequate quantity 
and by proper processing export market 
can be re-established thereby contributing 
to our national income. 
Whereas insufficient material compel 
the plants to be kept idle, relatively lower 
catches of trash fish have again to be 
wasted without proper utilization, being 
inadequate for economical operation of 
bigger plants. This can be greatly over-
come by using a rotary fish meal dryer 
designed by CIFT suitable for handling 
smaller quantities of fish, in fishing villages 
(Chakraborty, et. a!., 1970). 
FISH PROTEIN CONCENTRATE 
Sardine press cake can profitably be 
utilised for human consumption after 
converting it to fish protein concentrate. 
In a country like India where the per 
capita intake of protein is far below the 
essential requirement, as our staple food 
is based on rice and other cereals, emphasis 
should be given for the conversion of 
sardine press cake into fish protein con-
centrate. Investigations carried out at 
CIFT (unpublished) and CFTRI (Lahiry 
et. a!, 1962) have shown that solvent 
106 
Madflavan, Unnilhislhwn Nair & 'Balactlandran: A review on oil sardine 
extraction of the odor-bearing compounds 
and residual fat from the sardine press 
-cake prepared under sanitary conditions 
can result in a more c::mcentrated light 
coloured flour containing more than 80% 
protein of almost blunt taste. It has 
been proved by the experiments done at 
CIFT that such a product can be emplo-
yed for the enrichment of other traditional 
food products as well as in delicacies both 
for children and convalescent people 
(unpublished). The product in addition 
to being nutritious can be mcorpo-
rated into a variety of foods like 
chapathis, breads, soups, flakes etc. with-
out imparting any fish flavour, thus 
making it palatable to those who do not 
like fish taste. 
REFERENCES 
Aggarwal, J. S. 1968. Paintindia; 18, 4:43-45. 
AhluwaHah, A. J. 1968. Paintindia; 18, 
4:46-49. 
Anon. 1952. Bull. No. 89. Marine Oils 
with particular reference to those of 
Canada. Fisheries Research Board 
of Canada. p 319. 
Anon. 1967. Indian Standard Specification 
for Fish Meal as Livestock Feed. 
IS: 4307. 
107 
Anon. 1962. The Wealth of India : Raw 
Materials (Council of Scientific and 
Industrial Research, New Delhi). 4:111. 
Chakraborty, P. K., S. Ayyappan Pillai 
and K. K. Balachandran. 1970. Fish. 
Techno!; 7, 1:164-168. 
Devidas Menon, M. 1971. Seafood Export 
Journal., l, 12 : 7-12. 
Gopakumar, K. and M. Rajendranathan 
Nair.l966. Fish Techno!; 3, 1:21.25. 
Ismail, P. K. and P. Madhavan, 1970. 
Fish. Technol; 7, 2:216-217. 
Kaimal, M .N .N., A G. Gopalakrishna Pillai 
and P. Madhavan. 1968. Res. & Ind.' 
131, 1:24-26. 
Kaimal, M. N. N. and P. Madhavan. 1967. 
Res. & Ind., 12, 4:251-252. 
Kotwal, K. F. and V. M. Pai. 1968. 
Paintindia., 18, 4:54-55. 
Lahiry, N. L., M. N. Moorjani, K. Viswe-
saraiah, S. R.·Shurpalekar, M. Swami-
nathan, A. Srinivasan and V. Subra-
manian. 1962. Fd. Sci, n., 2:37-39. 
Madhavan, P. and M. N. N. Kaimal. 1968. 
Paintindia; 18, 4:50-53. 
Sen, D. P. and G. D. Revankar, 1968. 
Paintindia; 18, 4:42. 
Sundar Kini, U. 1968. Paintindia., 18, 4: 
31-34. 
Fish. Techno!. 


A review on oil sardine 3. Oil and meal industry

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A review on oil sardine 3. Oil and meal industry

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