Alternative Methods of Preparation of Soluble Keratin from Chicken Feathers

Huge amount of keratinous waste, especially birds' feathers, demands more value-added application instead of dumping. The present work reports the results of experiments aimed at preparing soluble keratin useful for novel bioproduct formation. The effect of thermo-chemical treatments with various reducing agents, i.e. 2-mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol, sodium m-bisulphite, and sodium bisulphite, as well as sodium hydroxide, on the yield of keratin extracted from chicken feathers was determined. It was shown that after 2-h reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol and sodium bisulphite, the yield of soluble keratin was about equal and amounted to 84 and 82 %, respectively. The cheaper and harmless sodium bisulphite additionally decreased the extraction time to 1 h with the same yield. Moreover, treatment of the feathers with 2.5 % NaOH further improved the extraction effectiveness by increasing the yield up to 94 %. The results of the study demonstrate the viability of hydrolytic processes to obtain soluble keratin useful for biodegradable film formation for food application, that are harmless and more effective than solubilization by reduction of the disulphide bonds.