LAUSR

Fish has always been used as the richest source of essential PUFAs, including n-3 and n-6 which have beneficial effects on human health. PUFAs have the potential to address depression and other mental disorders (Ab Latif Wani & Ara, 2015). A docosahexaenoic fatty acid is also found abundantly in fish and essential nutrients for eye development, nervous system, and brain development of the fetus (Silva et al., 2015; Fu et al., 2017). The n-6 such as arachidonic acid and n-3 like eicosapentaenoic acid are have been proven precursors of lipid mediator signaling molecules, named “eicosanoids,” that play important roles in the regulation of inflammation (Patterson et al., 2012). The crosssectional studies conducted on human beings have shown that the patients having a higher ratio of n-6 to n-3 demonstrated unpleasant moods while and lower has a significant effect on good mood by probably reducing the vulnerability to depression and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) (Berger et al., 2017). Labeo rohita (rohu) is one of the prime species of fish cultivated in Asia. It has high commercial and nutritional values due to the high amount of PUFAs and white meat (Memon et al., 2011). Rohu belongs to the carp family and is abundantly found in freshwater lakes and rivers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Thailand. It is considered one of the most popular, crucial, and economic freshwater fish. Drying is one of the ancient methods of preserving fish meat. The need for developing dried fish powder (FP) and the formation of functional and ready-to-eat foods is growing day by day (Shaviklo et al., 2013). The quality and safety characteristics of dried fish directly depend upon the source of raw material and process applied for drying purposes (Shaviklo et al., 2011, 2012). Novel processing is further helping to prepare FP which is helpful for the storage of fish for a longer period. The microwave vacuum drying (MVD) method is a combination of both microwave and vacuum drying as it has more uniform heat transferring potential and a more energy-saving process for all kinds of foodstuffs (Cui et al., 2008). While extrusion is a multi-functional and multi-purposes thermal and mechanical cooking process widely used in food industries to exhibit higher nutrition value containing essential amino acids and essential fatty acids along with pharmaceutical applications (Li et al., 2007). The geometry of extruders, food mix composition, and processing conditions play a vital role in physiochemical and nutritional changes in food material (Zhang et al., 2014; Shahzad et al., 2020). Research studies have reported that thermal extrusion causes complete inactivation of enzymes in food unlike that of high-temperature short-time processing methods. Most of the anti-nutritional substances are destroyed in extrusion processing. Proteins and Characterization of bioactive fatty acids and oxidative stability of microwave vacuum dried fish powder supplemented extruded product