Utilization of human hair in animal feed

Abstract

Protein-rich (approximately 84%–86%) keratins—epidermal derivatives—have not yet found a wide area of effective application as proteins. This is because of the disulphide bridges of cystine molecules, which make the proteins very rigid and strongly resistant to solubilization and normal enzymatic degradation. The present study was chiefly aimed at breaking up this resistance so as to explore the possibility of utilizing keratins, particularly hair-keratin, as a part of the protein component of animal feeds. The results were encouraging in the sense that human hair could be degraded either by physical or chemico-physical or chemico-enzymatic means and the protein so obtained was found to be good enough to serve as a partial, but effective, supplement supporting the growth of rats. The PER values ranged from 1·49 to 2·20 and the NPR values indicated that all the test diets were at par in maintaining the growth of either sex.