Gelatin raw materials

A bloom strength determination is part of the acceptance criteria for each receipt of gelatin raw material. The bloom gelometer numbers range from 125 to 195 for the 12 lots, with a mean of 147. This number was compared to gelatin ribbon thickness and die rotation speed during encapsulation to ascertain whether lot-to-lot differences had to be compensated for. No relationship was found. 

Cooking. Cooking is the gelatinization by heat treatment and a-amylase Hquification of raw material starch (qv). 

Bone cleaning is the second stage of en2ymatic extraction. The soHd bone fraction from the first separation is mixed 1 1 with hot water (65—75°C) and treated with alkaline-type proteases. After a reaction time of one hour, the bones are separated and washed with water. The cleaned bones make an excellent raw material for the production of gelatin. 

Gelatine explosives are more costly in raw materials than the powder or semi-gelatine types, although this can to some extent be offset by greater ease, and therefore less expense, in manufacture. Their popularity throughout the world rests on a number of important advantages over other available explosives ... 

The usual alkali employed is lime. The raw material for gelatine is tropocollagen, which is present in the original hides or bones. This protein consists of three polypeptide chains arranged in a triple helix. In contrast, gelatine consists of several free or interassociated chains, ranging in molecular weight from around ten thousand to several hundred thousand. On extraction, monomers (a-chains MW 100 000), dimers (P-chains) and trimers ( -chains) and some lower order peptides are released. 

Gelatin is obtained by heating collagen (the major intercellular protein constituent of the entire connective tissue of animal skins and bones) with water or dilute hydrochloric acid. Its production differs from that of glue in that (he raw materials are selected, cleaned and treated with especial care, so that the resulting product is practically Colotless... 

Collodion nitrocotton for manufact uring blasting gelatine and dynamite, also called dynamite cotton or dynamite collodion, is characterized by the very high viscosity of its solutions in organic solvents. It is produced by selecting a suitable cellulosic raw material, and performing the nitration at a low temperature, followed by a brief stabilization boil in a neutral or nearly neutral medium. The most important factor is the choice of suitable raw material. 

An important specification for gelatin is bloom strength, a quality of the raw material that determines whether or not a capsule can be formed and sealed. As with active ingredient purity, we will want to know this value for each lot of gelatin used in the validation study. 

With the system that employed these raw materials, numerous advantages of fluid mixtures were established, but a need to improve the economics of the procedure was obvious. Pure electric-furnace acid is much more expensive than wet-process acid, so ways were sought to use the cheaper but impure wet-process acids. Direct ammoniation of wet-process acid causes precipitation of numerous impurities as an intolerable, gelatinous sludge. Also, plant-food solubilities are undesirably limited in the orthophosphate system, so the concentration (grade) of the product made with electric-furnace orthophosphoric acid was limited to 8-24-0. A series of developments by TVA led the way to solving both of these problems. 

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