What’s Hydrolyzed Collagen? Uses, Benefits, Side effect

10 minutes read. 

   

Collagen is the most abundant protein produced by the human body especially type 1 collagen. It’s found in muscles, bones, skin, blood vessels, the digestive system, and tendons of vertebrates.

It’s mostly found in abundance in bovine and porcine.

Hydrolyzed collagen which is often referred to as peptide collagen is collagen extracted from bovine and porcine that have undergone a series of hydrolysis in the industry.

Hydrolyzed Collagen is widely used in several industries including food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, biomedical, and leather industries due to its biocompatibility and benefits.

If you have been wondering what hydrolyzed collagen (peptide collagen) is all about and why people use it, feel free to read on, you’re going to find out everything you need to know in this article.

Feel free to skip ahead.

• What’s hydrolyzed collagen?
• Sources
• Types of hydrolyzed collagen
• Structure of Hydrolyzed collagen
• Nutrition Facts of Hydrolyzed collagen
• Uses and Health Benefits
• Dosage
• Side Effect  
• The factor that damages collagen
• The factor that damages collagen
• How to maintain and protect your collagen
• Conclusion

What’s hydrolyzed collagen?

Hydrolyzed collagen (HC) is a group of peptides with a low molecular weight that can be obtained by enzymatic action in acid or alkaline media at a specific incubation temperature.  A process called hydrolysis.

Hydrolyzed collagen (HC) can be extracted from different sources such as bovine or porcine.

These sources have presented health limitations in the last few years. Recently research has shown good properties of the hydrolyzed collagen found in skin, scale, and bones from marine sources.

The main factors that affect the functions, solubility, and molecular weight of hydrolyzed collagen are its source of extraction and type.

Natural collagen produced by the body is a fibril tissue that provides structural support to all the tissues, organs, and connective tissues in vertebrates. In fact, it’s the glue that holds all parts of the body.

Native collagen (body) properties are very different from those of hydrolyzed collagen.

After denaturation, the triple-helix structure of native collagen changes to a random coil form due to the dissociation of the hydrogen bonds when collagen suffers hydrolysis.

This treatment can break the bonds in the polypeptide chain to obtain a large number of peptides.

In the industry natural collagen from bovine and porcine mainly are been extracted, then pass through hydrolysis to obtain hydrolyzed collagen (peptide collagen). Hence the name hydrolyzed collagen.

The hydrolyzed collagen contains the same exact set of Amino acids and nutrients as natural collagen just that it had pass through hydrolysis to break down the polypeptides (complex protein) into shorter chains of protein.

Its hydrolyzed form can be dissolved in both hot and cold water and can easily be absorbed into the bloodstream than regular collagen.

What’s the difference between Collagen and Gelatin?

Are you curious to understand this today?  Read on. 

Gelatin is derived from collagen “when collagen breaks down, it becomes gelatin”

The process occurs in bone broth: Bones are loaded with collagen, and as the bones simmer in broth during the cooking process that takes place over one to two days, the collagen slowly breaks down into gelatin.

Gelatin was actually one of the first foods used as medical treatment in ancient China.

It’s used by people that have food allergies because it helps them to manage food digestion difficulties by helping them repair part of the gastrointestinal tract.

By doing so gelatin facilitates the healing of the mucosal lining thereby improving nutrient absorption and reducing potential gut leaking.

Therefore a good source of collagen like bone will provide you with gelatin.

What of procollagen? Perhaps you want to know its relation with collagen. Here is it, very simple.

Procollagen is the “soluble precursor of collagen formed by fibroblasts and other cells in the process of collagen synthesis”.  As explained in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure.

Sources of Hydrolyzed Collagen.

The main source of hydrolyzed collagen in the industry are:

Bovine

Porcine

This is because collagen is found in abundance in these animals.

Alternative sources for native collagen extraction that are not of bovine or porcine origin have been developed from ovine tendon and skin, fish tissue such as bones, skin, and scales or waste fish byproducts, or other sources such as chicken, duck, and rabbit skin.

Recent research has revealed good properties of hydrolyzed collagen from these alternative sources.

When it comes to native collagen (natural), we get it from food such as:

Foods very high in protein, including beef (tough cut, rips part, lung part, skin part, and the bone part), chicken, fish, and eggshell membranes.

Types of hydrolyzed collagen

Hydrolyzed collagen (peptide collagen) can be extracted in different parts of animals.

The part of the animal where the collagen is extracted determines the type.

For instance,

Type I is the most common, present in skin, bone, teeth, tendons, ligaments, vascular ligatures, and organs.

Type II is present in the cartilage.

For collagen type III, the skin, muscle, and blood vessels are the most common sources of this protein.

Type IV has been reported in the epithelium-secreted layer of the basement membrane and the basal lamina.

Collagen type V is one of the principal components of cell surfaces and the placenta.

Nearly 28 types of collagen have been identified, but the above five types mentioned are the source of most collagen biomaterials made of hydrolyzed collagen.

Structure of Hydrolyzed collagen

What does Hydrolyzed collagen look like?

 Hydrolyzed collagen is mainly formed by the amino acid glycine (33%), proline, and hydroxyproline (22%) (primary structure) in a triplex helix which is formed by three α chains.

Each alpha chain is composed of 1014 amino acids approximately with a molecular weight of around 100 kDa.

These chains are coiled into a left-handed helix with three amino acids per turn (secondary structure). The chains are twisted around each other into a triple helix to form a rigid structure (tertiary structure).

Nutrition Facts of Hydrolyzed collagen

What does hydrolyzed collagen make up for?

Collagen is the most important protein produced by the human body. Chains of Amino acid give birth to protein in the body.

Proline, hydroxyproline, and glycine are the primary types of amino acids found in hydrolyzed collagen chains. Both proline and glycine aren’t abundant in animal meats, which is where most people eat.

Glycine makes up 33 percent while proline and hydroxyproline make up about 22 percent of hydrolyzed collagen chain and other amino acids.

In terms of hydrolyzed collagen supplement, fourteen grams of collagen peptide contain;

Calories: 50 kcal

Protein: 12 grams

Fat: 0 grams

Carbohydrates: 0 grams

Fiber: 0 grams

Sugar: 0 grams

Calcium: 29 milligrams

 Sodium: 44.9 milligrams

Potassium: 0.98 milligrams

Uses of hydrolyzed collagen and Health Benefits

Why do people use hydrolyzed collagen (peptide collagen)?

What does hydrolyzed collagen do for your body?

Why do industries extract collagen?

Are you curious to know all these today? Fine, feel free to follow me to the end.

Hydrolyzed Collagen is widely used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food, and nutraceutical industries to manufacture health products.

For example

1. Food industry

Uses

Hydrolyzed collagen produced in the food industry is used as an oral collagen supplement.

Oral hydrolyzed Collagen Supplementation

As you grow old, your level of collagen begins to decline. You will not know when this begins to happen but when it comes you begin to have symptoms like joint pain, dry skin, wrinkled skin, sagging muscle, and less hair growth.

 As a result, there’s a need to help your body with oral collagen supplements.  Especially when you don’t have abundant access to those natural foods rich in collagen.

A randomized controlled trial study had shown that oral supplementation of specific peptide collagen has a beneficial effect on human skin physiology.

The role of collagen in the body is very important because it helps the development of organs, wound and tissue healing, cornea, gums, and scalp repair. Collagen helps in bone and blood vessel reparation.

Health Benefits

• Taking oral hydrolyzed collagen may help increase your metabolism by adding lean muscle mass to your frame and helping with the conversion of essential nutrients.

Glycine which is one of the most abundant amino acids in hydrolyzed collagen plays a vital role in helping muscle tissue to form by converting glucose into energy that feeds muscle cells.

Remember that retaining muscle mass is crucial as you age, since it helps support posture and bone health and burns more calories than fat.

That’s not all that glycine can do for your metabolism. Research shows glycine also has important roles in both functions of the digestive and central nervous systems, which play big roles in maintaining a healthy, youthful body.

Glycine seems to help slow the effects of aging by improving the body’s use of antioxidants and is also used in the process of constructing healthy cells from DNA and RNA.

• It may also reduce joint pains and degeneration.

When we lose this vital protein, our connective tissues (including our tendons and ligaments) start moving with less ease, leading to stiffness, swollen joints, and more.

With its gel-like, smooth structure that covers and holds our bones together, collagen allows us to glide and move without pain.

Think of ingesting more collagen like greasing a creaky door hinge: It helps your joints move more easily, reduces pain often associated with aging, and even reduces the risk of joint deterioration.

One research in 2019, even found that collagen is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis and other joint pain and disorders.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, clinical study on the effectiveness of collagen peptides for osteoarthritis demonstrated that collagen is a “potential therapeutic agent as a nutritional supplement for the management of osteoarthritis and maintenance of joint health”.

Another research published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences found that people with osteoarthritis joint pain treated with type 2 hydrolyzed collagen show significant enhancements in daily activities, such as walking upstairs, ascending, or sleeping, and a general improvement in their quality of life.

Collagen hydrolysates can attach calcium ions, improving its bioavailability, therefore, hydrolyzed collagen can be used in functional food ingredients in the management of mineral deficiencies.

The development of a hydrolyzed collagen biomaterial could be beneficial for the management of bone and joint disorders because of hydrolyzed collagen’s low molecular weight and amino acid composition.

It is more bioavailable and induces better osteointegration by promoting collagen synthesis.

I hope you getting value.

• May improve the health of skin and hair.

When it comes to skin and hair, oral hydrolyzed collagen has made a classic name. Skin aging control is a challenge in the cosmetic industry, but hydrolyzed collagen has proved to be an alternative solution for slowing down the effects of aging.

Hydrolyzed collagen from milkfish scales exhibited excellent water-holding capacity, moisture absorption, and retention as well as anti-skin aging, and anti-melanogenic capacities, proving a potential active ingredient in skin care products.

Hydrolyzed collagen acts in two different forms in the dermis; in the first action, the free amino acids provide building blocks for the formation of collagen and elastin fibers.

In the second action, collagen oligopeptides act as ligands, binding to receptors on the fibroblast’s membrane and stimulating the production of new collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid.

In recent years, oral hydrolyzed collagen supplementation has become popular as it has been increasingly marketed to consumers as an anti-aging product.

Because hydrolyzed collagen oral supplementation reaches the deeper layers of the skin and improves skin physiology and appearance, increasing hydration, elasticity, firmness, wrinkle reduction, and skin rejuvenation.

Studies in vivo carried out on women between 40 and 60 years of age using hydrolyzed collagen oral supplementation for 12 weeks, showed a significant improvement in skin hydration, wrinkling, and elasticity.

Hydrolyzed collagen as an oral nutrient supplement in women between 35 and 65 years of age, after three months showed enhancement in dermal thickness, skin firmness, and elasticity.

Another study with 120 subjects for 90 days, where they consumed daily oral supplementation of a liquid nutraceutical containing fish hydrolyzed collagen, resulted in an improvement of skin texture and elasticity.

In addition, a protective effect on joint health was observed also.

Oral supplementation of hydrolyzed collagen in women between 40 and 59 years of age revealed a significant increment in skin hydration and collagen density at the dermis level.

However, fragmentation of the dermal collagen network significantly decreased after four weeks of supplementation and these effects persisted after 12 weeks.

Another study of sixty healthy female subjects, aged between 40 and 50 years, after 28 days of oral supplementation showed that this acted on skin elasticity and presented a more pronounced effect on dermis echogenicity, reducing skin pores, improving hydration, texture, elasticity, and firmness of the skin.

The oral supplementation product was composed of hydrolyzed collagen with a mix of vitamins A, C, E, and zinc.

Hydrolyze collagen from tilapia fish scale (Oreochromis Mozambique) in the form of 20 mL beverage (Nitta Gelatin India) was consumed by healthy women aged 30 to 60 years over 12 weeks, after this time the result enhanced facial skin moisture.

Hydrolyzed collagen drinking ampoules with fruit extract, Vit C, E, zinc, and biotin ELASTANE were supplied to 36 healthy women aged 35 years or older for 12 weeks and their skin showed higher hydration, elasticity, smoothness, and density.

• In addition, in the food industry, hydrolyzed collagen which has antioxidant and antimicrobial activity can be used as a functional ingredient in food supplements.

Collagen hydrolysates can attach calcium ions, improving its bioavailability, therefore, hydrolyzed collagen can be used in functional food ingredients in the management of mineral deficiencies.

Hydrolyzed collagen acts as an anticoagulant because it helps to decrease the damage in cells and tissues originating from low temperatures, therefore, it could be useful in foods that require storage in cold or freezing temperatures.

Hydrolyzed collagen has been used in the preparation of different food products such as meat products, beverages, soups, and others.

It helps increase and maintain their sensorial, chemical, and physical properties.

Hydrolyzed collagen has been used in processed foods such as sausages to replace pork fat at a 50% level of replacement. 

The final product results had greater water holding capacity, better stability after cooking, and improved texture such as hardness and chewiness.

The use of fish hydrolyzed in meat products such as buffalo patties resulted in higher protein content, lower fat content, similar sensory acceptability, and better texture as compared to buffalo patties without hydrolyzed collagen.

Hydrolyzed collagen from fish can be added to beverages such as orange juice (2.5%), and the product showed an improvement in nutritional and functional properties with a higher protein content, bioavailability, and low viscosity as well as high solubility in water.

The development of a fermented dairy drink using ricotta cheese whey with hydrolyzed collagen added as a functional ingredient presented low syneresis and sedimentation, with good physical, chemical, and microbiological properties.

Dairy beverages using hydrolyzed collagen, açaí pulp, and cheese showed higher sensorial acceptability, affecting positively the viscosity and presenting adequate physicochemical and microbiological parameters after 28 days of storage.

Hydrolyzed collagen can be added to soup as well, it has an effect on its viscosity and functional properties.

 The addition of hydrolyzed collagen from pig skin shavings (collagen waste) in a chrysanthemum beverage, showed an excellent clarification effect, better sensorial quality, and storage stability.

However, the amount of hydrolyzed collagen added as a clarifier was lower compared to that of other commercial clarifiers.

Additionally, hydrolyzed collagen has been used in different food products to develop their physicochemical and functional properties.

This makes hydrolyzed collagen one of the most promising functional ingredients because it does not affect sensorial properties.

2. Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries

Uses

Biomaterials collagen presents good biocompatibility and biodegradability, hence, it is safe and effective as a biomaterial.

 It has been used in the last few years as a safe and effective biomaterial in tissue engineering and clinical applications.

Compared to native collagen, HC has a main advantage, it presents higher solubility; moreover, hydrolyzed collagen (HC) extraction is simple and does not require a multistep extraction procedure.

However, Hydrolyzed Collagen cannot form scaffolds by itself because of the low molecular weight of the peptides, but it can be mixed with other biopolymers such as cellulose and chitosan.

Films prepared with a blend of cellulose hydrolyzed collagen exhibited good transparency, good ultraviolet radiation absorption, and excellent support for cell adhesion and proliferation.

 High biocompatibility dictates that the films would have promising applications in the biomaterial field.

Hydrolyzed collagen films developed from leather waste were very transparent and had excellent barrier properties against UV light and studies such as FTIR and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed total miscibility between both polymers.

Alternative biomaterials with HC are chitosan sponges.

They are prepared by sol-gel transition methodology showing porous morphology, improved biostability, good water uptake capacity, excellent biocompatibility, and antimicrobial activity by the presence of hydrolyzed collagen.

HC has been used in hydrogel development for the delivery of drugs such as insulin and methylene blue, showing lower water absorbency. The hydrogel delivery was faster at pH 2.

It is useful for drugs susceptible to degradation under the acidic and proteolytic environment of gastric fluids.

Hydrogels prepared with chitosan and fish HC showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, pro-cell proliferation, and migration, and wound healing efficiency.

Nanofibrous scaffolds can be functionalized with HC as a regenerative component using electrospinning methodology.

It presented porous morphology, adequate mechanical strength, excellent biocompatibility, and antimicrobial properties against E.coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

How to know the best collagen?

When it comes to choosing a collagen supplement, you want to consider which form is best for you — for example, powder or capsules, or cream for skin, and also which types best suit your needs.

While some supplements may contain only one or two types of collagen, other collagen products may offer a blend of several different types.

When looking for an oral collagen supplement, ideally choose a hydrolyzed collagen peptide product, such as a powder, which features the type that’s most absorbable.

Look for terms like “collagen peptides,” “collagen hydrolysate” or “hydrolyzed collagen” on the ingredients label of your supplement to ensure you get the real deal.

Dosage

How to use Hydrolyzed collagen?

Is it good to take hydrolyzed collagen at least once every day? For most people, yes.

The best ways to consume more include:

Making or drinking real bone broth and eating ligament and tough-cut meat.

Using protein powder made from the bone broth in recipes. You can consume bone broth on its own or use it in all sorts of sweet and savory recipes depending on the type of product.

A collagen supplement can be found typically as hydrolyzed collagen, which helps you to protect and maintain body collagen — this may take the form of collagen protein powder or collagen pills. When you hydrolyze collagen, collagen peptides become bioavailable.

Eating a well-rounded diet that helps increase the absorption of the collagen peptide you consume is also important.

Side Effect of hydrolyzed collagen

What is the possible side of hydrolyzed collagen?

Fortunately, a negative side effect of hydrolyzed collagen is rare.

Most people who experience negative side effects from collagen either went over recommended dosages or have pre-existing allergies.

Check the sources of hydrolyzed collagen in the supplement bottle. If you’re allergic to fish, and fish collagen is used in the product, then obviously avoid it.

If the supplement only lists the collagen types, then it’s important to know that type 2 collagen is usually chicken, while types 1 and 3 can be bovine, fish, or egg whites. If you are allergic to any of those proteins, then steer clear.

It’s not really a collagen powder side effect, but one’s complaint.  Some users’ registers may be a bad aftertaste from the powder or pills.

This bad taste will go away in a few minutes, but it can usually be avoided altogether by taking the powder in a smoothie, for example.

The factor that damages collagen

The factor that damages your body’s collagen

As our body can produce collagen on its own via a healthy diet, there are some factors that can jeopardize the health of your body’s collagen:

• Smoking: Smoking decreases collagen production. It damages collagen and elastin, leading to wrinkles and slow wound healing. Nicotine constricts blood vessels near your skin’s surface, preventing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients.

• Eating too much sugar and refined carbohydrates:

Sugar attaches to proteins to form advanced glycation end products. These molecules damage nearby proteins and cause collagen to become weak, dry, and brittle.

• Exposure to ultraviolet light: Too much sunlight reduces collagen production and caused collagen to break down more rapidly which will later result in skin wrinkles.

• Apart from the above mention lifestyle, other known factors that can affect or damage human collagen include;

• Autoimmune diseases (your body’s immune system attacks its own tissue) can damage collagen. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, dermatomyositis, and scleroderma are autoimmune connective tissue diseases known to damage collagen.

• Genetic mutations can also damage collagen. Collagen construction errors result in conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and osteogenesis imperfecta.

• Hormonal changes, drugs, alcohol, hydrogenated oils, overwork, fluoridated water, nutritional deficits, dehydration, stress, and trauma.

It is true, the above-mentioned factors can really damage your body’s collagen.

To reduce your risk of collagen damage by avoiding or doing it at a minimized rate.

How to maintain and protect your collagen to slow the sign of aging?

There are some kinds of lifestyles you must adopt if you want to improve your natural body collagen level.

• To slow the effects of skin aging, wear sunscreen every day. Exposure to ultraviolet light damages collagen.

• Use products with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or higher.

• Use hydrolyzed collagen in the form of oral supplements, body creams, and hair creams if you have access to them.

• Wear a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses with UV protection, and lightweight long-sleeved shirts and pants while outside.

• Look for clothing with an ultraviolet protection factor label for extra protection. Avoid tanning beds.

You can help your body make more collagen by eating healthy foods rich in collagen. 

Your body puts together those amino acids, “glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline” that are responsible for the formation of the triple helix structure of collagen to produce new ones.

You find these amino acids in high-protein foods such as chicken, fish, animal organs (e.g lungs) beef (tough cuts and ribs part), eggs(eaten with the membrane), dairy, and beans.

Other nutrients, like vitamin C, zinc, and copper, also play an important role. You can get vitamin C, from citrus fruits, tomatoes, leafy greens, bell pepper, and berries.

Collagen production requires nutrients like zinc and copper which you get from eating shellfish, beans, meats, nuts, tiger nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

Phew! That’s a lot of information on this!

Conclusion

Hydrolyzed collagen has a wide range of applications due to its properties such as low viscosity in aqueous solutions, neutral odor, colorlessness, transparency, emulsification and stabilization, foam forming, film forming, wettability, solubility, dispersibility, powder compressibility, substance carrier of low allergenicity as well as antioxidant and antimicrobial activity.

Some studies have shown that hydrolyzed collagen has good biological functions such as increment of cell proliferation, water-holding capacity, moisture absorption, retention, and anti-aging in the skin as it’s used in many cosmetics products.

Hydrolyzed collagen is widely used as a functional ingredient in the food industry because of its properties to increase water holding in meat products, sensorial development, and improvement of chemical and physical properties in beverages and dairy products.

What more can I say? Hydrolyzed collagen has it all.

If you can follow and maintain all the safety precautions I mention above to protect your body collagen that will go a long way, and when supplementing it with hydrolyzed collagen and a balanced diet with minimum exercise you may look ageless.

I hope you get the value worth your time. I appreciate the time you spend with me. Leave a comment if you like this post. Do you have any questions as regards hydrolyzed collagen I didn’t touch here? Do you use any hydrolyzed collagen-based products? Feel free to share your story with me in the comment below.

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