gh SALUTARY PROPRETIES OF THICK BROTH

The most common protein of vertebrate animals is collagen; collagenous fibres are found in skin, cartilage, bone, and other connective tissues. Fibrous, insoluble, and indigestible collagen is converted by boiling into gelatine - a mixture of short proteins (peptides). Thus, broth is a gelatine solution, and the thicker is the broth, the higher is the gelatine concentration. Collagen and, therefore, gelatine are composed mainly of four amino acids: glycine, alanine, proline, and 4-hydroxy-proline. In other proteins, these amino acids are found in very insignificant quantities, and collagen has a little value as food. However, broth is cooked not only of cartilages and tendons, but meet is added too. So, besides peptides derived from collagen, it contains some other substances. And it is valuable not only as nourishment. L.A. Lyapina and her colleagues from the Department of Human and Animal Physiology of the Moscow State University have revealed that collagen products rich in proline are necessary for a successful performance of many vital processes in the body.

The team of Moscow physiologists is headed by Professor I.P. Ashmarin. The scientists have studied the properties of proline-containing peptides for several years. It has been discovered that these peptides maintain the mucous membrane of the stomach in a proper condition, participate in memory processes, prevent the blood coagulation, and dissolve thrombi. Natural substances with such valuable properties are always of interest as potential drugs, and the scientists have begun to test their pharmaceutical properties. The first tests were aimed at estimating the effectiveness of peptides against the blood coagulation. The experiments were conducted on rats, whose blood becomes more concentrated with aging, and thrombi form easier and dissolve slower. A solution of gelatine or of one of collagen-derived peptides was given for several days to rats 9-11 month old. The peptide consisting of only three amino acids (proline-glycine-proline) was synthesized in the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. After drinking those solutions for 7-10 days, the blood of mature animals became similar to that of 3-month-old baby rats, i.e., fluid and with no risk of thrombi formation. Thus, the preparation offsets unfavourable changes in the blood caused by aging. But, can it restore the anti coagulation system in case of an illness, e.g., insulin-dependent sugar diabetes?

The diabetes was immediately given to experimental white rats through an intravenous injection of specific agent, alloxan. Diabetes occurred to all the animals: those from the control group and rats treated with gelatine or the peptide before and after the injection. However, most members of the control group died by the 7th day of the suffering, while in the other group 70% of animals were still alive.

Thus, a regular drinking of collagen products in form of solution of gelatin or of its constituent, the proline-glycine-proline peptide, restores the anti coagulation system of the blood and hinders the development of sugar diabetes. Hence, both gelatin and the peptide should be further studied as prospective medicine against thrombosis and hypoglycemia. Rats were given 10 mg of gelatin or 0.1 mg of the peptide per kilogram of their weight. Unfortunately, at this stage of research, the physiologists cannot give recommendations of a daily dose and concentration of broth needed for people.

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