Extraction of Amino Acids and Proteins from Chrome Leather Waste

Hides are the by-product of the meat business, which are converted into leather through tanning processes. Solid wastes of leather industry are raw trimmings, flashings, chrome shavings, buffing dusts and keratin wastes Chromium salts are used in processing of leather, which creates difficulties in its throw out. The leather industry waste has a large amount of nitrogen content which is amino acids, i.e. protein, which can be used for different purposes, after extraction through different methodsThe objective of the present work is to isolate protein products from chrome leather waste and to evaluate acid and alkali for efficiency to convert chrome leather waste into useful products, as the most practiced methods are acid and alkali methods, for extraction of protein. Chromium is precipitated by raising its pH through an alkali, in to Cr(OH)3, while the insoluble protein is collected by lowering the temperature. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer is used for chromium determination, for protein determination Biuret and Kjeldhal’s method was used. The highest amount of protein was extracted by using 40 ml and 80 ml 10% sulfuric acid for the shaking time 60 and 30 minutes at 40°C and 25°C respectively. In alkali method 7 g of NaOH at 50°C and 10 g of MgO at 50°C for 6 hours give the best results. While the high amount of temperature and time along with high quantity of acid denature the protein. The results of chromium and protein determination was analyzed by using SPSS one-way ANOVA factorial design.

Author(s): Maria Khatoon, Saif-ur-Rehman Kashif, Saman Saad, Zeeshan Umer and Ayesha Rasheed

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