The fish are a rich source of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that give benefits to human health beyond basic nutrition. For this reason a lot of studies have been done focusing on the analysis of the content of the substances that compose the foods and the processing effects on foods. These studies have been spread to fishing resources. Many studies about thermal oxidative stability and the kinetic behavior of vegetal oils have been made by Thermogravimetry (TG), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). However, the studies about the oil and fat (from animals) thermal behavior are still lacking. Therefore, on this research analysed the thermal stability of five fish species from Araguaia river (Goiás - Brazil) in a nitrogen atmosphere by TG/DTG. The results showed losses of mass between 235ºC and 490ºC and it points to an equivalence of thermogravimetric behavior between the oils of the five fish species and also between the fish oils and some vegetal oils, such as, araticum, Brazilian wine-palm and palm oils.
Fish oils; thermal stability; thermogravimetry
