An economical method to extract chondroitin sulphate-peptide from bovine nasal cartilage

Utilization of animal byproducts by extracting useful material is of econom ic importance in the livestock industry. This report describes a simple low cost procedure to release chondroitin sulphate (CS) from bovine nasal cart ilage without introducing any chemicals except acetic acid used for pH adju stment. More than 70% of total CS in nasal cartilage can be released as CS- peptide by incubation in water at pH 4.5 and 37 degreesC. This is likely th e most economical method currently available to extract CS from cartilage. Endogenous proteinases are probably involved in the release of CS. The extr act is boiled and dried at 90 degreesC to obtain a crude CS preparation. Th e purity of CS can be improved approximately 1.4 fold by anion-exchange chr omatography. This information may contribute to the development of a low co st method of preparation of CS for commercial purposes.