ISSN 2456-0235

​​​​​​​July 2019, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp 174-179. 

​​​Extraction and Characterization of Natural Protein (Keratin) From Waste Chicken Feather

Gadissa Tokuma Gindaba¹*, Samuel Gesesse Filate², Bulcha Belay Etana²
¹*Department of Chemical Engineering, Haramaya Institute of Technology, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia, P.O.Box 138.
²School of Chemical Engineering, Jimma Institute of Technology, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia, P.O.Box 378.

​​​*Corresponding author’s e-mail: gadissatokuma@gmail.com  

​Abstract

​Currently, the abundant quantity of chicken feathers produced by the poultry industry as waste is one of the major problems. The burning and burying disposal method of chicken feathers results in the release of more carbon dioxide, and methane respectively. Thus, it is imperative to convert these wastes into valuable products like keratin. The use of keratin in biomedical applications, and nanoparticles for food, medical, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industry become a current global issue. Therefore, it is important to extract keratin from waste chicken feathers. In this research, keratin was extracted from waste chicken feathers at lab scale using different concentrations of sodium sulfide as a reducing agent. The main processes include; pretreating, solution preparation, filtration, centrifugation, precipitation, and purification. From different experimental work conducted, about 63.25% of pure keratin was extracted using 0.5 M of sodium sulfide at optimum temperature and PH value of 30°C and 10-13 respectively. The effect of temperature, the concentration of sodium sulfide, retention time and PH value were investigated. It was observed that as the concentration of sodium sulfide increase to about 0.5 M with an optimum temperature of 30°C, PH value restriction of 10-13 and an extraction time of 6 h the yield also increased. The result of characterization using a UV-visible spectrophotometer and a biuret test showed that keratin was already extracted. By this research, it can be concluded that keratin can be extracted from waste chicken feathers and can be used for several purposes.

Keywords: Extraction; Keratin; Characterization; Waste Chicken Feather; Reducing agent.

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