Antioxidant Effects of Keratin Hydrolysates

The antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of keratinhydrolysates from acid and from oxidative hydrolyses werestudied. For in vitro studies of antioxidant properties of the keratinhydrolysates, high-molar-mass hyaluronic acid (HA) that isespecially sensitive to the effect of oxidants was used as a substrate.Cu(II) ions and ascorbate-mediated degradation of hyaluronan inthe absence and presence of keratin hydrolysate as antioxidantwere examined using the method of rotational viscometry. Resultsindicate that keratin effectively inhibited HA degradation andthereby the formation of hydroxyl-, alkoxy- and peroxy-typeradicals. Results of the ABTS assay show that keratin hydrolysateefficiently reduced ABTS•+ cation radical. The keratin hydrolysatesalso had antimicrobial effects on selected bacterial strains andcaused decreases in formaldehyde emission from ureaformaldehydebonded materials.