Chemical map of skins secretions in Old-World snakes_Representative_chromatograms

Comprehensive understanding of snake skin secretion composition is important for studying some of their key physiological or behavioural processes. In the current study, we describe skin secretion composition of 13 Old-World snake species using samples from shed skins, as well as alive or dead individuals.

All samples were from adult snakes and were extracted by means of short immersion (for live individuals) or soaking for 24 hours in n-hexane (for shed skins and dead individuals). We used a standard coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for the analysis of the samples and detected 88 compounds in the skin secretions, with alkanes being the most common type. The identified compounds are likely to play a role in skin water permeability, host defence and chemical communication.