Keratin is a fibrous protein found in hair, nails, feathers, and other animal materials. It can be extracted from biowastes through various methods like oxidation, reduction, and sulfitolysis. Keratin has properties like biocompatibility and biodegradability that make it useful for applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food science, and green chemistry. Research on keratin extraction and its uses continues to expand due to growing demand for this cost-effective material.

1. Keratin
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2. What is Keratin?
Keratin is a natural fibrous protein found in healthy hairs. In order to penetrate and repair hair, Keratin protein must
be broken down into shorter pieces called polypeptides. Our hair and nails are composed of Keratin, so this protein
is most like that of the hair we want to repair.

5. Various sources of keratin biomass

10. Reaction mechanisms of keratin extraction: (a) oxidation, (b) reduction,
(c) sulfitolysis, and (d) oxidative sulfitolysis

13. Keratin protein is a versatile biopolymer having exceptional properties such as
remarkable biocompatibility and biodegradability for various applications.
Keratin possesses many distinct advantages over conventional
biomolecules, due to its intrinsic cellular recognition, high sulfur content and
propensity for self-assembly. Typically, kertain has been extracted from various
biowaste sources including hair, fingernails, shells, horn, hooves, toenails,
beaks, feathers and claws. So far, several methods for the extraction of keratin
protein have been developed.
• The keratin proteins can be improved and modified in many forms such as
gels, films, beads, nanoparticles, and microparticles. After modification, its
uses in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetic, food science
and green chemistry is exceptional. Particularly, in recent years, research on
the production of keratin has greatly increased due to the abundance of
potential applications.
• The research and development of keratin protein are still continues to
expand. The most important driving forces for this development are the
increasing demand of this cost-effective keratin material. Hence, in this
review, we mainly focus on the applications of keratin nanocomposites. In
addition, part of this review focuses on the preparation methodologies and
characterization techniques of the extracted keratin and keratin-based
nanocomposites.