Connective tissue of meat: I.—separation and determination

The principles of the available methods for determining collagen and elastin (as a measure of the connective tissue) in meat have been examined. It has been shown that O‐IN‐NaOH is a more satisfactory reagent than either O‐IN‐ or O‐OIN‐HCl for leaching muscle tissue from connective tissue. When preparations of connective tissue dissected from shin of beef were treated in a blender or macerator with the extracting liquid o‐OIN‐HCl tended to dissolve collagen. Furthermore, the dissolution of muscle tissue by O‐IN‐ and O‐OIN‐HCl was less complete than by O‐IN‐NaOH. When the method of Lowry, Gilligan & Katersky (1941) was modified by disintegrating a 10‐g. sample of chopped meat in a blender, replicate determinations of collagen in one sample of meat generally agreed to within ± 10%.