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Effects of Ultrasonic Pre-Treatment on Physicochemical Properties of Sericin Poteins Extracted from Cassava Silkworm Cocoon

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Abstract

Extraction of sericin protein from Cassava silkworm cocoons is beneficial to the value-added utilization of these natural waste resources. However, existing methods still are involved in extensive energy consumption, complex chemicals, or extended periods. Herein, an efficient intermittent ultrasonic pre-treatment strategy has been developed to improve sericin protein production from Cassava silkworm cocoon. The protein is obtained by boiling cocoons in Na2CO3 solution after 300 W ultrasonic pre-treatment, and the effect of ultrasonic pre-treatment on the physicochemical properties of sericin protein is investigated. The results show that the protein yields are affected by the ultrasonic power and the ultrasonic time, and the ultrasonic pre-treatment can significantly increase the protein yield compared with that from conventional treatment. The protein is identified as sericin protein in electrophoresis and chromatography patterns. The morphology and particle size analysis reveal that the sonication can disorder protein molecular structure with lower particle size, leading to the change of secondary structure and thermal stability. The cell viability results indicate that the sericin obtained with ultrasonic pre-treatment exhibit excellent cytocompatibility with fibroblast cells after 24 h incubation. In conclusion, this study provides a way for the separation and future application of waste sericin, which may valorize the waste sericin to high-end biomaterials products as well as reduce environmental issues.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51963002), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (No. 2018GXNSFBA281084) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Plan Project (JSGG20210629144538010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, 545006, China

    Enping Lai, Yifei Zhu & Haitao Lin

  2. Silk Engineering Research Center of Guangxi, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, 545006, China

    Enping Lai & Haitao Lin

  3. National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen, 518110, China

    Chen Lin & Jiamian Wang

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  1. Enping Lai
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  2. Yifei Zhu
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  3. Chen Lin
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Contributions

EL: Data curation, Writing-Original draft preparation, Reviewing and editing, Supervision. YZ: Investigation, Data curation, Writing-Original draft preparation. CL: Investigation, Data curation. JW: Methodology, Resources. HL: Resources. Funding acquisition. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Enping Lai.

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Lai, E., Zhu, Y., Lin, C. et al. Effects of Ultrasonic Pre-Treatment on Physicochemical Properties of Sericin Poteins Extracted from Cassava Silkworm Cocoon. J Polym Environ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-024-03221-9

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