Scaling New Depths: Innovations in Fish Collagen Extraction and Biomedical Frontiers Explored

Collagen is a fibrous protein commonly found in the bodies of human and other animals. It is referred to be the most abundant protein which comprises 30% of animal’s overall protein. It is broadly used in diverse applications such as food, pharmaceutical, biomaterials, cosmetics, and biomedical industries. Fish waste is one of the cost-effective sources of collagen. The increasing adoption of marine-based and freshwater-based collagen is driven by their distinctive properties, which include advantages over mammalian-based collagen. These advantages encompass the absence of disease transmission risks, freedom from religious restrictions, cost-effective production, biocompatibility, and enhanced absorption within the human biological system. This review provides an overview of recent research regarding the extraction of collagen from marine and freshwater sources, with a specific focus on fish by-products. It encompasses subjects including the primary sources of fish collagen, pretreatment of fish materials, extraction techniques, collagen characterization, and its wide-ranging applications. More particularly, the study focuses at the procedures used to extract fish collagen, with an emphasis on isolating acid-soluble collagen (ASC) and pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC). Likewise, the fish derived collagen’s application in biomedical engineering such as drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, therapeutic applications and cosmetic industry is summarized.