Gelatin is a product obtained by partially hydrolyzing collagen obtained from the skin of an animal, connecting tissues and bone. Its main ingredient is protein. It has many excellent physical and chemical properties, such as adhesion, surface activity and the like. Depending on the application, gelatin can be divided into edible gelatin, medicinal gelatin, photographic gelatin and industrial gelatin.
Edible gelatin is a collagen protein extracted from fresh animal skin, degreased, rinsed, neutralized, hydrolyzed, etc. in more than a dozen processes. It contains 18 kinds of amino acids essential to the human body. It is used as an excipient, thickener and as a clarifying agent in the food industry. It is an additive widely used in the food industry.
Medicinal gelatin is used in the production of pharmaceutical products. Its unique properties such as gelation, water retention, adhesion and solubility, as well as its purity, make gelatin widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. The most important uses are in the production of hard capsules, soft capsules, plasma and coatings. As a empty pharmaceutical capsule, medicinal gelatin is a special kind of medicinal excipient. It enters the digestive system of the human body together with the medicine and is finally absorbed by the human body. Therefore, its quality is directly related to the safety of the medicine.
Photographic gelatin is mainly used in the production of photosensitive materials. It suspends the photosensitive silver salt and controls the maturity of the halide, thus playing an important role in the exposure and development stages of the film. It can be widely used in the production of various film, medical X-ray film, printing film, photo paper and other photosensitive industries.
Industrial gelatin is widely used in sheet metal, furniture, feed, packaging, paper, silk, metallurgy and other industries. It mainly plays the role of thickening, stabilization, cohesion, blending, sizing, bonding and so on. Although there is no essential difference between industrial gelatin and medicinal gelatin in terms of composition, industrial gelatin may use leather waste as a raw material, and contains elements such as lead and chromium which may affect human health, and thus cannot be used in the pharmaceutical or food industry.
