Discarded squid skins can be refined into an anti-inflammatory liposome with applications for humans and pets, the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute said.
After fishermen skin squids and process them into slips, rings and dried products, the skins are usually discarded, institute assistant researcher Kao Yi-feng (高翊峰) said, adding that the nation’s fishermen catch nearly 260,000 tonnes of squid and generate roughly 27,000 tonnes of squid skins each year.
The institute has discovered that phospholipids can be extracted from skins after they have set, which after refinement could be processed into the liposome, he said.
After combination with a low-temperature, high-frequency ultrasound process, the institute was able to further process the liposome into pressurized sprays, similar to inhalers used by asthmatics, he added, adding that after inhalation, the body processes the liposome, which causes an anti-inflammatory reaction.
Applications for the squid skin liposome include easing pain or discomfort after cosmetic surgeries or for patients with large burns, Kao said, adding that as it is a unique compound prescription, it has yet to meet the single prescription legal requirement.
At least 10 years of research would be needed to develop the liposome into a medication, he said, adding that from the start, research has focused more on a healthcare product or for use on pets.
In related news, the institute said it has developed a solution for aquafarmed great tiger prawns laying fewer eggs than their counterparts in the wild.
The yields from the nation’s tiger prawn aquafarming have fallen by at least 70 percent annually since a large-scale die-off in 1988 caused by disease, the institute said, adding that numerous other diseases have made tiger prawn farming unstable.
The institute’s branch in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) said it got aquafarmed female prawns to lay an average of 800,000 eggs, with some going as high as 1.1 million.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: