Characterization of Low-Molecular-Weight Collagen from Korean Native Chicken Feet Hydrolyzed Using Alcalase

Woo H, Jeong GA, Choi H, Lee CJ · Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The heat-only extract is the part closest to home cooking: the 9-h hot-water extract held 13.9 g collagen per 100 g (crude protein 15.5, not significantly above the 7-h 14.9), and the authors recommend 8 h. Heat alone left an average molecular weight of 12,131 Da with about a fifth of the peak area already under 5 kDa; reaching supplement-scale weights required the added enzyme — 6,088 Da after 1 h with 1% alcalase and 4,929 Da after 5 h, with 1,000-5,000 Da peptides the main fraction from 1 h of enzyme treatment.

Population

Korean native chicken feet (no biological subjects)

Intervention

Hot-water extraction at 100 C for 3, 5, 7 and 9 h, then hydrolysis with alcalase at 0.1% and 1% for up to 7 h

Limitations

Industrial process-optimization study with no biological endpoints; one chicken breed; measured 3, 5, 7 and 9 h, so the 8 h it recommends was not itself a time point. Funded by Wonkwang University; no conflicts declared.