Structure of Hyla rabbit skin gelatin as affected by microwave-assisted extraction

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) on the yield, structure, and properties of rabbit skin gelatin. Compared to water bath extraction gelatin, short-term (5–30 min) MAE gelatin had better gel properties, which formed gels at a slower rate due to destruction of more hydrogen bonds, but had more powerful triple helix-like structures after a sufficiently long maturity (16–18 h) since more high-molecular-weight subunits were retained. Scanning electron microscope showed that MAE could form numerous holes on the surface of gelatin. This study will be of great significance for high efficiency of gelatin extraction.