Iranian Researchers Produce Blood Absorbent Sponge from Chicken Feathers to Contain Bleeding

“Keratin-Based Porous Biological Sponge from Recycled Protein Fibers of Chicken Features for Medical Uses” was the title of a research project completed by researchers at the Tehran-based Amirkabir University of Technology(AUT).

“The main purpose of this research was to use chicken feather waste as a rich source of keratin in [producing] blood clots for medical uses,” said Gholamreza Goodarzi, one of the researchers of this project.

keratin was extracted from waste chicken feathers using sodium sulfide as a reducing agent under optimized conditions.

“Each year, millions of tons of chicken feathers are created in the world, and its disposal by burying or burning causes environmental pollution and releases greenhouse gases,” the AUT researcher said.

"Furthermore, there is a lot of interest in new sustainable natural sources in biomedicine, and keratin is one of these sources," Goodarzi added.

He further emphasized that the produced structure has the capability to be industrialized. "The product (sponge from chicken feathers) is competitive with commercial samples made from other materials and has displayed better performance."

"As there is a lot of chicken feather waste in the country, it is easy to produce this product," he added.

"This research would outline a new structure of keratin extracted from waste chicken feathers with high efficiency for use in blood clotting," continued the AUT researcher.

"In this project, by using waste chicken feathers from chicken slaughterhouses, an efficient sponge was obtained for blood clotting," he continued.

He said that this sponge has been tested on animals. 

"Another advantage of this design is the better efficiency of this sample compared to similar products. Also, due to the abundance of the raw material (chicken), its production is absolutely economical," he concluded.

4155/i