The phospholipid content of the shrimp oils obtained by acetone
and hexane soxhlet extraction was 3.6% and 3.1%, respectively.
With regards to phospholipids, the literature suggests that
they are generally present in high levels in aquatic organisms
and Yamaguchi et al. (1986) also reported that they readily deteriorate
and hamper the effective utilisation of these oils. Furthermore,
phospholipids are undesirable in the oil since they affect
its stability by chelating metal ions, therefore increasing oxidative
processes (Nzai & Proctor, 1998). Yamaguchi reported that the SFE
of Antarctic krill was effective in obtaining non-polar lipids without
phospholipids (Yamaguchi et al., 1986). Similarly, the shrimp
oils we extracted by SFE only contained traces of phospholipids
with an average of 0.25% ± 0.02.