Potential Health Functions of Collagen Bioactive Peptides: A Review

Collagen is the most abundant protein in nature and widely exits in animals. However collagen usage is not good enough, which is a waste of natural resources and an environmental burden. Collagen peptides have some special characters and functions. These functions can decide their usage. Therefore producing, discovering and using new functional collagen peptides are promising way to deal with this issue. Collagen peptides are produced by hydrolysing collagen or gelatin via chemical or biochemical methods. Biochemical hydrolysation is more proper to produce functional collagen peptides than chemical hydrolysation. The collagen hydrolysates or peptides have four levels of functions: Nutrition, basic functions, special biological functions and other useful properties. The nutrition is providing amino acids and small peptides. The basic functions are improving the state of connective tissues, such as skin and bone. The special biology functions include antioxidant, antihypertensive and other bioactive benefits. Other useful functions include antifreeze, metal chelation and forming edible film. All these functions decide that they can be used in food as well as other fields. The present work is a compilation of current information on the preparations and functions of collagen peptides. At last, recommendation for the further research of collagen peptides is proposed.