Available online 13 August 2022

Major portion of poultry feather waste is constituted by keratin which is recalcitrant to degradation by common proteases. Feather waste contributes a significant volume of biowaste load to the environment. Valorization of these wastes into various products has been attempted by many researchers. The objectives of the present study were to produce peptides (Molecular weight <10 kDa) from feather waste by the action of keratinolytic bacteria or keratinase enzyme and to screen the peptides for pharmaceutical, and therapeutic properties. The feathers were subjected to hydrolysis by using locally isolated keratinolytic microbes viz., Streptomyces tanashiensis-RCM-SSR-6, Bacillus sp. RCM-SSR-102 and purified keratinase enzyme KER-102.

The feather keratin hydrolysate, obtained by using different bacterial species/enzymes hydrolysis, showed different protein profiles in SDS-PAGE. As indicated by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, there was a difference in the composition of α-helix and β-sheet in peptides produced by different microbial/enzymatic methods. The peptides were screened for the antioxidant potential, antityrosinase property, and inhibitory activity against angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), lipoxygenase, and xanthine oxidase. The peptides exhibited promising results in all the assays except peptide-102 which did not show ACE inhibitory activities. Interestingly, the crude peptide-6 (4.06 µg/mL) and peptide-102 (10.21 µg/mL) showed a lower EC50 value than the standard Kojic acid (27.04 µg/mL) in antityrosinase assay.

Degradation of chicken feather waste with microbial or enzymatic method is an eco-friendly approach to yield diversified bioactive peptides. Hence, the present study established that feather keratin could be a potential source of many health-beneficial peptides.

Bioactive peptides

Biowaste

Eco-friendly

Feather

Hydrolysis

Keratin

Keratinase

Keratinolytic bacteria

Peptides

Poultry feather waste

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