Molecular Origin
Animal Derived
Last updated
The material is extracted and purified from animal tissue rather than synthesised or expressed in culture. Bovine, porcine and marine sources are the usual ones, and thymus extracts and older insulin preparations are the classic examples. An extract is defined partly by its process, so batch-to-batch variation and what else came along with it are inherent questions.
Why it matters here
Origin tells you whether a record's identity rests on a defined synthesis or on a tissue extract. A named sequence and a tissue extract sold under the same name are not the same product, and evidence for one is not evidence for the other.
What it is not
Animal-derived describes the source of the material, not the sequence: a peptide extracted from pig tissue can be identical to the human one, and a synthetic product can copy an animal sequence exactly, in which case its origin here is Synthetic. This value also exists in the compound type domain, where it describes what the product fundamentally is rather than where the molecule came from.
Also called
- animal derived
- animal source
- bovine
- porcine
Bovine means from cattle and porcine means from pigs. Both are indexed here because listings state the species rather than the category.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.