As byproducts of chicken slaughtering, chicken feathers are produced and mostly discarded without proper treatment, which results in serious environment pollution. Therefore, the appropriate treatment and utilization of chicken feathers are needed. In particular, chicken feathers can be used as protein sources for the preparation of protein hydrolysates, considering that chicken feathers have a large amount of proteins. In this study, chicken feather protein hydrolysates were prepared and their iron-binding peptides were isolated. Chicken feather protein was extracted from feathers of slaughtered chicken, and its hydrolysates were prepared via hydrolysis with Flavourzyme for 8 h. Then the chicken feather protein hydrolysates were ultra-filtered to obtain small peptide fractions and fractionated using Q-Sepharose and Sephadex G-15 columns to isolate their iron-binding peptides. Two major fractions were produced from each of the Q-Sepharose ion exchange chromatography and the Sephadex G-15 gel filtration hromatography. Among the fractions, the peptide fraction with a high iron-binding activity level, F12, was isolated. These results suggest that chicken feather protein hydrolysates can be used as iron supplements.

We investigated usefulness of chicken feather as bioadsorbent for removal of hexavalent chromium[Cr(Ⅵ)] and oil from aqueous solution. Chicken feather was chemically treated with DTPA, EDTA, NaOH and SDS, respectively. Among them, EDTA was the most effective in adsorbing Cr(Ⅵ). Cr(Ⅵ) uptake by chicken feather was increased with decreasing pH; the highest Cr(Ⅵ) uptake was observed at pH 2.0. By increasing Cr(Ⅵ) concentration, Cr(Ⅵ) uptake was increased, and maximum Cr(Ⅵ) uptake was 0.34 mmol/g. Cr(Ⅵ) adsorption by chicken feather was well described by Freundlich isotherm than Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich constant(1/n) was 0.476. As the concentration of chicken feather was increased, Cr (Ⅵ) removal efficiency was increased but Cr(Ⅵ) uptake was decreased. Most of Cr(Ⅵ) was adsorbed at early reaction stage(1 h) and adsorption equilibrium was established at 5 h. On the other hand, chicken feather adsorbed effectively oils including bunker-A and bunker-C. In conclusion, our results suggest that chicken feather waste could be used to remove heavy metal and oil; it is a potential candidate for biosorption material.