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Purification, characterization and analysis of sepia melanin from commercial sepia ink (Sepia officinalis)

Authors: Magarelli P.; PASSAMONTI, Paolo; RENIERI, Carlo;

Purification, characterization and analysis of sepia melanin from commercial sepia ink (Sepia officinalis)

Abstract

At the moment melanins are still enigmatic bio-pigments with structure and determination methods not clearly understood for the international scientific community. Among biopolymers, melanins are unique in many aspects. Some essential biopolymers (proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates) are chemically well characterized and can be determined using well established analytical methodologies. On the contrary, no available methods allow us to accurately determine melanin, mostly due to the intrinsic chemical properties of melanins. These pigments, in fact, are insoluble in a broad range of solvents and pH as well as difficult to purify as a result of the heterogeneity in their structural features. Mammalian melanins exist in two chemically distinct forms: the brown to black Eumelanin and the yellow to reddish-brown Pheomelanin. Sepia melanin obtained from Sepia officinalis consists of more than 98% of Eumelanin and is therefore used as standard material in the analysis of melanic black. Commercial sepia melanin is purified according to an undescribed procedure. In this research, extraction and purification studies were carried out on sepia melanin using a hydrochloric acid (0.5-3.0 M) treatment under mechanical or ultrasonic agitation. A high degree purity sepia melanin was obtained and further characterized using Elemental Analysis (EA), Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-VIS) and Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for metal ion analysis. Finally, quantitative studies of the chemical degradation of Eu polymers to Pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (PTCA) and Pyrrole-2,3-dicarboxylic acid (PDCA) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) were performed. The procedure we developed can be used to obtain a considerably less expensive sepia melanin which could prove important as a standard in future determinations of eumelanin and pheomelanin as well as in a vast field of scientific and industrial applications in such fields as human and veterinary medicine, pharmacology and cosmetics.

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Italy
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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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