ReviewAnimal-derived natural products review: Focus on novel modifications and applications
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Recently, considerable attention has been focused on bio-based natural products because of their environmental friendliness [1], [2], [3]. Among them, animal-derived natural products have become highly attractive due to their good biocompatibility, high adsorption capacity, and excellent film-forming property. All of these make them visible in pharmaceutical, leather, cosmetic, and wastewater treating fields [4], [5], [6], [7].
Animal-derived natural products occur to varying extents in nearly all forms of animals. They are the secondary metabolites extracted from living bodies and possess a great many unmatchable properties [8]. However, they always suffer from a few defects, such as poor machinability, low mechanical properties and weak environment resistance, thus limiting their application. In this case, modifications must be made to endow the final products with a wider range of applications [9], [10], [11], [12], [13].
Casein, chitosan, and collagen are three conventional animal-derived natural products with unique structures (Fig. 1) and have broad applications [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. Substantial active groups on their primary structures promise them unparalleled opportunity for functional modifications. For example, NH2 groups on casein chains are able to react with functional monomers via graft polymerization. Realizing this superiority, a growing exploration of their modifications has been exerted. In our group, a series of researches has been conducted on casein and collagen. For example, casein-based coatings have been successfully designed for leather finishing and ink binders, which laid a good foundation for the further study. Accordingly, this review mainly gives an account of the modification and application of these three bio-based products. The list of examples provided in this review was selected from the recent literatures, especially in terms of their applications in controlled drug delivery, leather finishing, and pollutant adsorption. Finally, some prospects for the future research of animal-derived natural products are proposed.
Section snippets
Casein
Casein is one of the most abundant proteins in bovine milk [20], [21]. Its structure mainly contains four phosphoproteins, αS1-, αS2-, β-, and κ-casein [22], [23], [24]. As a bio-based protein, casein possesses various singular properties. However, there are a mass of polar groups (such as OH, NH2, and COOH groups) on its molecular chain, which often result in unexpected weak water resistance and stability [25]. Therefore, modifications are required to improve its properties.
Applications
Since animal-derived natural products have attractive properties, they have sparked interests in at least three major industrial sectors:
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Drug delivery (drug loading, controlled release, target release, etc.).
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Leather industry (tanning, re-tanning and finishing process).
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Pollution treatment (air purification and pollutants adsorption in wastewater).
Considering the rapidly expanding body of literature in these fields, in the following, we mainly focus on their novel applications in controlled drug
Conclusions and outlooks
Up to now, great efforts have been made to modify bio-based casein, chitosan and collagen for more advanced materials. These animal-derived natural products hold much promise in extensive areas, e.g. controlled drug delivery, leather finishing and pollutant treatment. However, the performances of these animal-derived materials still need to be further improved especially in the following aspects.
In the controlled drug delivery system, animal-derived materials may be the most promising
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Science Foundation of China (21176149), Shaanxi Team Innovation Project (2013KCT-08), Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation Research Project (2014JQ2052) and Shaanxi Provincial Education Fund Project (14JK1087).
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