Bovine bone-derived bone substitutes are widely used for treatment of bone defects in dental and orthopedic regenerative surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the basic characteristics of deproteinized bovine bone mineral as a bone graft substitute. Commercially available products from three different bovine bone minerals-Bio-Oss(Geistlich-Pharma, Switzerland), BBP(Oscotec, Korea), Osteograf/N-300(Dentsply Friadent Ceramed, USA) - were investigated. They were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer(EDS), surface area analysis(BET), and Kjeldahl protein analysis. Cell viability on different products was evaluated by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay. The results of this study indicated that each bone substitute displayed distinct surface properties. Furthermore, Kjeldahl protein analysis indicated that residual crude proteins are present in deproteinized bovine bone mineral. BBP showed relatively large amount of residual protein, which indicated that the possibility of disease transmission can not be safely ruled out. Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that active quality management is strongly needed in operations that involve processing bovine bone tissue for medical use.