Collagen is the most abundant protein in humans and animals. Taking food supplements with collagen has positive effects, especially on the skin and joints. Due to its complex structure, various techniques such as spectroscopic, chromatographic and others are used for characterization of collagen. The main objective of our work was to develop and optimize several simple chromatographic methods for the evaluation of collagen content in food supplements.
We focused on reversed-phase and size-exclusion chromatography. Methods were optimized by testing different columns, mobile phases, gradients and flow rates. The final methods were selected based on resolution, shape of chromatography peaks and run time for a sample. Size-exclusion chromatography was used only for the qualitative evaluation of the size of collagen peptides in food supplements. In addition, four reversed-phase chromatographic methods for the quantitative determination of collagen content for various sample preparations were developed. The collagen content was determined in intact collagen hydrolysates and in the enzymatically hydrolysed sample, in which the collagen content was determined via the tripeptide Gly-Pro-Hyp. A chromatographic method with fluorescence detection was developed for the derivatized enzymatically hydrolysed sample. In the fourth method, the collagen content was determined by basic hydrolysis of collagen to amino acids, whereby hydroxyproline was derivatized. The selected reversed-phase methods were validated according to ICH guidelines. All four methods met the acceptance criteria. The developed chromatographic methods were compared with already established spectroscopic methods. Chromatographic methods are more selective, some also distinguish between marine and bovine collagen. The method for intact collagen hydrolysates proved to be the best in terms of sample stability, validation parameters and simplicity.
Thirteen food supplements were analysed with the developed methods and the determined contents were compared with the declared contents. The contents for the most of collagen hydrolysates were between 80 and 115 %, which is in line with expectations, as the regulations for food supplements are less strict than those for medicines. Comparable results were obtained using different methods and the methodology is suitable for the intended use.
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