Extraction of keratin from waste chicken feathers using sodium sulfide and L-cysteine

• Main Authors: Pourjavaheri, Firoozeh, Ostovar Pour, Saeideh, Jones, Oliver A. H., Smooker, Peter M., Brkljača, Robert, Sherkat, Frank, Blanch, Ewan W., Gupta, Arun, Shanks, Robert A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2019
• Subjects: QD Chemistry; TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/25071/1/Extraction%20of%20keratin%20from%20waste%20chicken%20feathers%20using%20.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/25071/; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2019.04.010; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2019.04.010
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Pahang

Keratin was extracted from different segments of disposable waste chicken feathers (CF) including the whole feathers, calamus/rachis (β-sheet) and barbs/barbules (α-helix), using sodium sulfide and L-cysteine. The yield of extracted keratin from sodium sulfide and L-cysteine was ˜88% and ˜66% respectively. The mass ratio of feathers to reducing agent was 1:20 and the reaction temperature was 40 °C for 6 h. Concentration of keratin extracted by each method was measured using the Bradford assay. The protein extracted from each feather section was characterised using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, vibrational spectroscopy including FTIR and Raman, nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermogravimetry. These results confirmed the keratin structures after each extraction methods. The study showed that α-helix and ß-sheet based keratin could be extracted from CF using sodium sulfide and L-cysteine with high yields. This is the first report of CF keratin extraction using L-cysteine.