Isolation, Purification and Characterization of Sericin Protein from the Discharge Water of Silk Industry

Sericin is a silk worm secreting protein occurring naturally as a silk cocoon.It is a typical example of a natural core-shell structure. Silk cocoon constitutes about 75% of core silk fibroin (SF) and 25% of shell silk sericin (SS). Silk fibroin has a potential application in the textile and biomedical field due to its inherent mechanical strength. Sericin is a hydrophilic protein that has a greater affinity with silk fibroin;hence it binds with silk fibroin coaxially to protect pupa from predators, temperature variations, moisture, mechanical abrasions, etc.. During the commercial production of raw silk fiber, sericin will be degummed by treating the cocoon with hot water at high temperatures and discharged as wastewater after extraction of silk fibroin from cocoons. Sericin protein posse’s potential application in the field of cosmetics as an additive in skin moisturizer, shampoo, anti-wrinkle creams due to the presence of hydroxyl amino acids, wound healing, promoting cell growth and differentiation in pharmaceutical industries due to its biological origin without causing an undesirable immunological response. Sericin protein was extracted from discharge water collected from the silk industry was purified and characterized using SDS-PAGE, FTIR, CD, SEM, DSC & TG-DTA was reported.