Stain-removal potential of keratinase produced by Bacillus species isolated from feather waste

The aim of this study was to determine the potential of keratinases produced by Bacillus species isolated from poultry feather waste in stain removal. The effect of individual and combined detergent components on the keratinase activity of EZYKer-51, EZYKer-50 and EZYKer-53 enzymes produced from keratin degrading Bacillus licheniformis-K51, Bacillus subtilis-K50 and Bacillus sp.-K53 respectively was determined. EZYKer-51, which had the least enzyme inhibition in the presence of the detergent component was used as the enzyme component in detergent formulation and a wash performance analysis test was carried out to compare the stain removal capacity of DETKER 51 (detergent formulated using EZYKer-51 as enzyme component) with a commercial enzyme. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. EZYKer-51 showed a significantly higher (P≤0.05) enzyme activity in the presence of the detergent ingredients for both the crude and purified forms of the enzyme compared with the activities of EZYKer-50 and EZYKer-53, except for the activities (8.02±1.32 U/mL and 7.94±0.63 U/mL) in the presence of 15% LAS and 5% liquid paraffin. Visually, better stain removal was achieved when endogenous protease of commercial enzyme was replaced with EZYKer-51.

These results suggest that keratinase EZYKer-51 may be a useful alternative for applications in detergent formulation.