The effect of urea and n-propanol on circular dichroism (CD) and viscosity of purified type1 collagen solution at various temperatures and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of rat-tail tendon (RTT) collagen fibre have been studied. CD reveals a spectrum with a positive peak at around 220 nm and a negative peak at 200 nm characteristics of collagen triple helix. The molar ellipticity decreases as the concentration of urea increases up to particular concentration (collagen solution treated with 265 muM of urea) and after that it increases (collagen solution treated with 500 muM of urea). There is a linear decrease in molar ellipticity as the concentration of n-propanol increases. Denaturation temperature of urea and n-propanol treated with purified collagen solution has been studied using viscosity method. Additives such as urea and n-propanol decrease the thermal stability of collagen triple helix in solution and in RTT collagen fibre. Thermal helix to coil transition of urea and n-propanol treated collagen depends on the degree of hydration and the concentration of these additives. Thermodynamic parameters such as the peak temperature, enthalpy of activation, and energy of activation for collagen-gelatin transition for native, urea and n-propanol treated RTT collagen fibre has been calculated using DSC. The change in the thermodynamic parameters has been observed for native, urea and n-propanol treated RTT collagen fibres. The experimental results show that the change in the water structure, dehydration and desolvation induced by different additives such as urea and n-propanol on RTT may vary with the type of denaturation. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.