• Gelatin was extracted from the Yak (bos grunniens) skin. • The different molecular weight distribution (MWD) Yak skin gelatin was extracted with pepsin by controlling the enzymolysis time. • The broad MWD Yak skin gelatin has higher imino acids contents and lower foamability and emulsibility compared with the narrow MWD gelatin. • The Yak skin gelatin has good thermotolerance.
Different molecular weight distribution (MWD) gelatin was extracted from Yak skin after enzymatic pretreatments and their physicochemical and functional properties (SDS-PAGE, UV-vis absorption spectra, DSC, FT-IR, Amino acid analysis, AFM, emulsibility and foamability) were analyzed. The gelatin was extracted by pepsin and got different MWD of Yak skin gelatin by controlling the enzymolysis time. The SDS-PAGE showed the MWD of the Yak skin gelatin. The UV-vis absorption turned out that the broad MWD of Yak skin gelatin had a higher maximum absorption peaks. The FT-IR and AFM indicated that the gelatin structures and microstructures changed with the change of the MWD. The broad MWD of the Yak skin gelatin had a higher denaturation temperature (TD), and it was higher than most of the other mammals and marine biological gelatin. The broad MWD gelatin also had higher imino acids (proline and hydroxyproline) contents and lower foamability and emulsibility compared to the narrow MWD gelatin. These findings, obtained for the first time for Yak skin gelatin, showed that it has great potential for application as an alternative to commercial gelatin due to its good thermotolerance, particularly in the applications of the biological materials, stabilizer of thermo-tolerant and so on.