title: [Extraction and antioxidant activity of collagen from elephant skin, pig skin and fish scales].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study collagen structure of the traditional Chinese medicine elephant skin and the proposed alternatives such as pig skin, fish scale, and antioxidant activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Orthogonal experimental design method was employed to determine the optimal extraction condition of collagen from the elephant skin, and the structure and content of collagen of proposed alternatives were compared, their scavenging ability were determined by salicylic acid.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Collagen extracted from elephant skin with the optimal conditions was the structural integrity and good quality first time, and collagen structure of the elephant skin was similar to the proposed alternatives. Free radical scavenging capacity of collagen, values of IC50, were 0.51 g x L(-1) of elephant skin, 0.60 g x L(-1) of pig skin and 0.42 g x L(-1) of fish scale.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By comparing and identification of proteins that the collagen of elephant skin is type I collagen, with a strong antioxidant capacity, is the active ingredients of elephant skin. It provides a further study of alternatives as an important reference.
authors.affiliation: The Research and Development Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioengineering, Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changchun 130117, China. nannan.yu@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Chunnan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiaming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D003094:Collagen / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004606:Elephants; D005399:Fishes; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry*; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D003094:Collagen