https://doi.org/10.65770/UNBX5666
ABSTRACT
Fish scales are a well-established source of type I collagen and represent a potential route for recovering higher-value materials from fish-processing by-products. However, fish-scale collagen is often treated as a single material even though processing can generate products with markedly different structures, functions, and levels of supporting evidence. This narrative review examines fish-scale-derived collagen across the source-processing-material form-property-application-evidence continuum, with emphasis on cosmetic, nutricosmetic, and biomedical uses. Four material categories are distinguished: purified collagen, collagen peptides or hydrolysates, collagen-containing composites, and retained whole-scale collagenous matrices. Available studies show that fish species, scale composition, demineralization, extraction, hydrolysis, and material modification influence collagen recovery, structural integrity, thermal behavior, fibril formation, and downstream performance. For skin-related applications, several controlled human studies support defined orally administered fish-scale collagen peptide preparations for selected hydration, elasticity, and wrinkle-related outcomes, whereas controlled human evidence for topical application remains limited. Biomedical evidence is most developed for wound-healing materials, while bone, oral, periodontal, and corneal applications have progressed through cell-based and animal studies. Many favorable outcomes, however, involve composite materials or retained scale matrices and cannot be attributed to collagen alone. Translation remains constrained by raw-material heterogeneity, inconsistent extraction and yield reporting, incomplete product-specific safety assessment, sterilization and manufacturing requirements, limited human biomedical evidence, and insufficient environmental and economic evaluation of scale-up. Fish-scale collagen should therefore be considered a family of application-dependent materials rather than a uniform alternative collagen source.
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