Student of IPB: Researched the Collagen on the Skin of White Snapper
Collagen played an important role in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Its function could be biologically felt i.e. in the formation of tissues and organs, and it was involved in the cell division, defense, and differentiation. In the pharmaceutical field, the collagen was widely used for implantation, cancer treatment, and drug delivery.
However, the chemical collagen extraction could only be done by the raw materials with little crosslinking such as pig skin and fish skin. According to Reny Hardiyanti, the student of the Department of Aquatic Product Technology (FPIK), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), the enzymatic extraction (usually using the pepsin enzyme) had a weakness, because the commercial pepsin circulating in the market came from pigs, so that it could not be used by Muslims related to halal thing. While the pepsin enzyme derived from cows was difficult to find and expensive.
It was this that made her moved to find another alternative in the process of collagen extraction by conducting the research entitled “Optimasi Ekstraksi dan Karakterisasi Kolagen dari kulit Ikan Kakap Putih (Lates calcalifer) / Optimization of Collagen Extraction and Characterization of the Skin of White Snapper (Lates calcalifer)” under the guidance of Dr.Dra. Pipih Suptijah, MBA and Dr.Ir. Agoes M Jacoeb, Dipl-Biol.
“The extraction of collagen which is currently widely used is the method of enzymes and the acid methods. But this method has some disadvantages such as taking a long time, many chemicals that lead to high production cost,” explained Reny.
Based on the previous researches, the collagen derived from the fish skin and and fish bones had a smaller molecular structure compared to the collagen made from cattle or pig, so it was easier to be absorbed.
“Ironically, the waste generated at the time of fish processing can reach 20-60 percent from the raw materials, and the waste in the form of fish skin and fish bone itself containing the high collagen reaches 30 percent,” she added.
In her research, Reny used the hydro-extraction method which was previously expected to be the extraction method having the advantage in producing the collagen in a relatively fast time and a more rendemen.
“From my research result, the collagen is present in the stratum of compactum, perimisium, and epimisium. In the extraction of white snapper skin, the best treatment combination is when NaOH 0.05 M for 8 hours with the collagen rendemen which is equal to 13.87% with the characteristics of dominant amino acid composition i.e. glycine, proline, glutamic acid. The content collagen I found is in amides I and III having the triple helical structure,” closed Reny. (SM/Zul)
