DIFFERENT COLLAGEN PROCESSING AND EXTRACTION TREATMENT IMPACT THE STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF THE COLLAGEN PRODUCED  

Nicholas M.H. Khong*, Fatimah Md. Yusoff, B. Jamilah, Mahiran Basri, Maznah Ismail, Che Azurahanim Che Abdullah & Kim Wei Chan
*Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Collagen is a functional ingredient, valuable for the construction of medical devices as well as adding value to nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and nutricosmetics. Sources of collagen are naturally exclusive to animals and collagen from land-based animals differs from their aquatic-based counterparts. The study aimed to examine the effects of various collagen extraction processes to the structural properties of the collagens produced, especially ultrastructure and secondary structures. Collagen from the jellyfish, Acromitus hardenbergi is extracted using acid-assisted extraction (AAE), enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) and a new physical-aided acid-assisted extraction (PAAE). The collagens produced were then subjected to Fourier Transform Infrared and electron microscope analyses. It was found that EAE caused the highest alterations to the collagens extracted followed by AAE; and PAAE exhibited minimal alterations to the structural properties of the collagen produced. Extraction procedures involving treatment which inflicts biochemical changes to the biomaterial affected the collagen produced in secondary structures significantly (p<0.05). Understanding the impacts of various processing treatments onto the collagen produced would be most practical for effective development and delivery of collagen to the final product, as different industries would need collagen of different grade and quality.

Keywords: collagen, jellyfish collagen, processing effects, extraction methods, secondary structures, ultrastructures.