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 keratinous wastes of the textile industry and poultry slaughterhouses may be used as sources of soluble keratins or hydrolysates. This review presents methods for processing raw keratin-based materials into bioproducts with functional and bioactive properties suitable for biomedical, cosmetic, food, and agricultural applications. Soluble keratin can be obtained by thermal treatment in some organic solvents, reduction, or oxidation...

This article compares the properties of bacterial cellulose/fish collagen composites (BC/Col) after enzymatic and chemical cross-linking. In our methodology, two transglutaminases are used for enzymatic cross-linking—one recommended for the meat and the other proposed for the fish industry—and pre-oxidated BC (oxBC) is used for chemical cross-linking. The structure of the obtained composites is characterized by scanning electron...