Comparative study on collagen and bioapatite from scales of three exotic carps Cyprinus carpio LINN Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Valenciennes and Ctenopharyngodon idella Valenciennes

Abstract

Fish scale biowastes, such as bioapatite and collagen, originating from the fish processing industry can be an attractive source of biomaterials. This production of bioapatite and collagen can be considered as an environmentally friendly and economically sustainable process of fabricating biomaterials. The present study aims to extract and characterize bioapatite and collagen from the scale waste of three exotic carps i.e., Cyprinus carpio (common carp), Ctenopharyngodon idella (grass carp) and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (silver carp), so that they may be used as potential marketable biomaterial. The bioapatite and lyophilized collagen samples prepared from the scales of these exotic carps have been characterized in detail using different physicochemical techniques. The extracted bioapatite has been analysed for its physicochemical properties such as crystallinity, good thermal stability, high calcium- phosphate ratio (which happens to be similar to bone apatite), rod and plate-shaped morphology, porosity and good bioactivity. These physicochemical properties were similar to the physiological apatite present in the bones. Similarly, the collagen derived from these fish scales, has properties such as good yield, high thermal stability, fibrous and porous morphology, suitable for cell migration and tissue vascularization; and showed presence of industrially important amino acids. As such, fish scale-derived bioapatite and collagen may have better biocompatibility in vivo to bond with native tissues, as implants. Thus, the collective information provided in this study about the three newlineexotic carps scale biowaste will open up the floodgates for the development of collagen and bioapatite scaffolds from aquatic sources for tissue engineering applications. newline newline