Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
710
Vol. 66, September 2007, pp.710-715
Keratin, a fibrous protein forming main structural constituent of feather, hair, wool, horn, hoof etc., is abundantly available
as a by-product from poultry, slaughterhouse, tanning and fur processing industry. Keratins though find applications in food,
pharmaceutical, cosmetic and fertilizer industry, considerable amount of these products is wasted repeatedly. Keratins are
difficult to degradation and their disposal leads to environmental problems. Research is being done globally to utilize these
wastes. Keratin hydrolysates find potential application in leather tanning industry.
Keywords: Fibrous protein, Keratin, Leather tanning industry
Introduction
India has a large livestock population, which produce
annually: goatskins, 82; sheep skins, 30; cattle hides, 23;
and buffalo hides, 28 million1. World production of bovine
and ovine skins during 2000 was 1,192 million pieces2.
Feathers constitute up to 8-10% of total chicken weight
and it is estimated that several million tons of feathers
are produced annually. Bovine and ovine hair is obtained
as a by-product from the tanneries during hair-saving
unhairing process and it is estimated that about 5% of
dry hair is recovered based on the raw hide weight3,4.
But still most of the tanneries are following hair-burning
process, which destroy the hair completely and contribute
high amount of COD, BOD, TDS etc., to the effluent5-8.
Microbial proteases offer potential solution to remove
the hair completely from the raw skins9-12.
An enormous quantity of keratins in the form of hairs,
feathers, horns and hoofs are wasted each year13.
Keratins are broadly classified as hard (5% sulfur) and
soft (1% sulfur) keratins. Keratin is mechanically robust
and chemically unreactive due to tight packing of protein
chain in the form of -helix or -sheet into a super coiled
polypeptide chain crosslinked with disulfide bonds. In
horns, hoofs and hair, keratin is in the form of -keratin,
whereas in feathers it is in the form of -keratin14-17.
*Author for correspondence
E-mail: sehgal_pk@yahoo.co.in
711
712
3
4
6
7
Report of All India Survey on Raw Hides and Skins, vol I (CLRI,
Chennai) 2003, 86-122.
FAO, World Statistical Compendium for Raw Hides and Skins,
Leather and Leather Footwear1982-2000, (Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy)
2001, 1-127.
Scroggie J G, Preventive technology for improvement of tannery
effluent, Leder, 33 (1982) 100-103.
Cranston R W, Davis M H & Scroggie J G, Development of the
sirolime unhairing process, J Am Leath Chem Assoc, 81 (1986)
347-355.
Thanikaivelan P, Rao J R, Nair BU & Ramasami T, Zero
discharge tanning: A shift from chemical to biocatalytic leather
processing, Environ Sci & Technol, 36 (2002) 4187-4194.
Ramasami T & Prasad B G S, Environmental aspects of leather
processing, Proc LEXPO XV, (ILTA, Calcutta) 1991, 43-71.
Marsal A, Cot J, Boza E G, Celma P J & Manich A M, Oxidizing
unhairing process with hair recovery. Part I. Experiments on
the prior hair immunization, J Soc Leath Technol Chem, 83
(1999) 310315.
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
713
714
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
715