CHENNAI: In a novel technology, scientists at the CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in Chennai have made a useful breakthrough, extracting high-grade gelatin from raw animal hide and skin trimmings wastes at leather tanneries.
In the leather manufacturing process, as one of the first operations in tanneries, hides and skins are trimmed, especially the uneven edges from the neck and tail area of the whole animal skin before it goes through multi-stages of leather manufacturing.
This operation generates huge amount of raw trimming wastes, which accounts for about seven percent of the total quantity of raw material processed. On an average in India, about 800,000 tons of raw hides and skins are processed annually for leather manufacture. So, more than 50,000 tons of raw trimming wastes are generated from various leather tanning clusters in India.
According to B Madhan, principal scientist, CLRI, the predominant constituent of the raw trimmings are collagen, a structural protein present in the extracellular matrix. The collagen is chemically and thermally processed to make gelatin.
“Collagen is found in the tendons, skin, bone, connective tissue of mammalian, avian and fish species. The destruction or partially hydrolysis of cross linkages between three polypeptides chains of collagen is transformed to gelatin through extraction. Gelatin is a translucent brittle solid substance, slightly yellow, nearly tasteless and odorless.
The quality of the gelatin is determined by molecular weight distribution as well as various parameters such as bloom strength, clarity and organic content. Using one tonne trimming waste, we can produce about 200 kg of high-grade gelatin, which costs `500 per kg and in retail it can be sold up to `1,000 per kg,” Madhan said.
P Saravanan, Head (Project Planning & Business
Development), CLRI, said high-grade gelatin is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to make capsules for drugs as well as in the food industry to make jelly candies, ice cream, and as thickening agent in cakes and soups.
It is also used in the cosmetic, photographic, metal refining and paper industries.
“The characteristics of gelatin made from raw hide trimming wastes using CSIR-CLRI technology, is of high grade which could be used even for hard capsule manufacture,” he said.
In India, high grade gelatin is manufactured from animal bones, which does not meet the requirements of domestic consumption and India annually imports more than US $50 million dollars worth of high grade gelatin, which are mainly for making capsules in the pharma industry.
“CSIR-CLRI technology of making high grade gelatin from raw trimming, presents an opportunity for value creation from waste,” Madhan added.
After from gelatin, the collagen from raw trimmings also contain keratin as one of the major constituents. The technology developed by CSIR-CLRI is towards complete utilisation of proteinous constituents present in the trimmings.
Saravanan said the technology was exclusively licensed at a cost of 10 million rupees to Chennai-based M/s Anipro Manufacturing Company for making gelatin and protein hydrolysate within India.
Useful for many products
High-grade gelatin is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to make capsules for drugs as well as in the food industry to make jelly candies, ice cream, and as thickening agent in cakes and soups. It is also used in the cosmetic, photographic, metal refining and paper industries. CSIR-CLRI technology of making high grade gelatin from raw trimming, presents an opportunity for value creation from waste, says B Madhan, principal scientist, CLRI, Chennai