Gelatin comes from the Latin word "gelatus" which means "stiff" or "frozen". It comes from the collagen that takes the body parts of the animal. Now this kind of substance is used in food, medicine, photography, cosmetics and other industries.
Pic from: flickr. By Kārlis Dambrāns
- In the Middle East 8,000 years ago, when people were cooking animal tissues, they found a sticky gum.
- 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used the glue of animal glue to mix with wood glue as a furniture binder.
- In 1682, the British man John Evelyn's diary mentioned "jelly made of bones of beef ", referring to the gelatin produced from the bones of cattle.
- In 1754, the UK received the first patent for gelatin manufacturing.
- The nutritional value of gelatin was recognized in 1800-1815 and was systematically studied as a protein.
- In 1834, the French pharmacist François Mott put a small leather bag filled with mercury into a gelatin concentrate, cooled and dried, and then removed a thin film covering the leather bag to form the initial gel capsules.
- In 1845, Peter Cooper obtained a patent for gelatin dessert powder called Portable Gelatin (US Patent 4084).
- After 1860, gelatin began to be used in other industries such as industry, such as using it as a photosensitive material in the photography industry.
- After 1940, gelatin has become more and more widely used in the medical field. Gelatin-based substances replace plasma or thicken plasma.
Reference: History of Gelatin, Gelatine, and JELL-O
Journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences
