Epidermal membranes cover the skin of fish and secrets protective mucus which serves as a first line of defense against pathogens. The purpose of this work was to determine the proximate composition and amino acid profile of Mastacembelus armatus epidermal mucus. Proximate composition was determined using AOAC method. Using an Automatic amino acid analyser, the amino acid composition was determined. The result obtained from the analysis revealed that proximate composition of fish epidermal mucus was moisture 53.41%, carbohydrates 29.3%, total ash 3.29%, total lipid 13.1% and total protein 32.49%. Present study amino acid analysis of the mucus reveals that is high content of   glutamic acid (1.221%), lysine (0.747%), aspartic acid (0.741%), arginine (0.737%), leucine (0.741%), moderate amount of serine (0.531%), histidine (0.503%), alanine (0.481%), threonine (0.415%), valine (0.427%), isoleucine (0.361%), and phenylalanine (0.361%) were observed.  Amino acid such as tyrosine (0.279%), proline (0.275%), methionine (0.057%) was found in lesser quantity. The proximate composition and amino acid profile from the epidermal mucus of Mastacembelus armatus contains most of the essential components required to play a possible role on antimicrobial activity and it is also used as good food for a human being.

KEYWORDS: Fish mucus, proximate composition, amino acid