Research in Trikalinos Bottarga from the Harokopio University

Zafiris Trikalinos, current Chairman of Trikalinos Company – a powerful mind with forward thinking- took his own, personal step forward, by investing into the opening up of the new prospects that the traditional grey mullet bottarga production, was offering.  Realizing pretty soon that the application of a series of innovations into the production of bottarga could be the key to bring out the -almost forgotten- treasure of the ancient times, into today and attract the world’s attention back to it.

In order to achieve that, he has launched a series of researches, in collaboration with universities and research institutes. His main objective is to investigate the nutritional value of Trikalinos Bottarga and its potential beneficial properties for human health. After all, Bottarga, as a fish product, is a constituent of the Mediterranean diet and should be consumed regularly by all of us.

The first survey began in 2006 in collaboration with Food Department of Harokopio University. The research had two directions:

1. To Study the composition of the gray mullet roes’ fatty acids , but mainly from the bottarga.

2. To investigate the presence of biologically active lipids in the bottarga, as this may play a protective role against heart diseases.

The results, as presented in the final report of the University was quite encouraging and indicate that the Trikalinos Bottarga, which has been the food model for the research, is a food of high nutritive value, providing high amounts of protein and energy. It contains high levels of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids and a healthy lipid profile in terms of ω3/ω6 ratio.

Regarding the investigation of biological activity of its oil in vitro, the lipids of Trikalinos Bottarga has shown inhibitory effect on animal platelet aggregation, phase of formation of atherosclerotic plaques. The encouragement of scientists who participated in this survey was to make further investigation by experiments in vivo (in living organisms) in animals, followed by clinical studies to confirm the potential antithrombotic effects of Trikalinos Bottarga and the protection against cardiovascular diseases.

This research was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, in 2008.