Extraction and Characterization of Keratin and Keratin Hydrogels from Wasted Rabbit Hair
NaiWei Ge, Yi Zhang, Hao Zhang, Ling Cheng, Shi XuePing
Abstract
Abstract Fabrication and characterization of keratin hydrogel extracted from waste rabbit hair with the application of L-cysteine as reducing agent, using heating-and-cooling method at different pH and heating temperature, are the mainly focus of this study. The structural, morphological and chemical characteristic of different keratin samples-were compared. It is concluded that the recovery rate of keratin of waste rabbit hair had reached 61%, and the hydrogel was fabricated in the condition that the concentration of keratin powder was above 125mg/ml and the temperature was above 55 °C. Furthermore, rabbit hair keratin hydrogel could be potential applied in a diverse range of food, feed and wound dressing fields.