A study on chemical composition of caudal spines in stingray Hemitrygon bennettii aimed to hydroxyapatite extraction

This study was performed to investigate the chemical composition of the caudal spine in Hemitrygon bennettii (Muller and Henle, 1841) as a source for hydroxyapatite (HA) extraction. Therefore, the chemical structure of caudal spines of fish sampled from the mangrove swamps at Chabahar Bay was determined at calcined (baked at high temperature) and uncalcined conditions. The Raman spectroscopy and ICP-OES were used for structural and elemental analyses, respectively. The sharpest peaks in the Raman were observed at 962cm-1 which was probably due to the symmetric stretching vibrations of apatite phosphates. The adsorbed OH ions also indicated peaks at 3400-3500cm-1 of both calcined and uncalcined samples. The presence of organic residue in uncalcined samples was highlighted by several peaks at 2700-3050 and 1300-1500cm-1 which may be due to both stretching and bending vibrations of CH, CH2 and CH3 groups. Some peaks at 1200-1800cm-1 may also be related to amine residues of proteins. In terms of ion concentrations, high amounts of sodium and magnesium contents in the spine structure (compared to other natural resources of HA extraction) may improve the biocompatibility of extracted HA.