Iranian Scientists Produce Hydrolyzed Proteins from Waste Fibers

“This product is used in the cosmetics, construction, agriculture, and medical industries. It is used in organic fertilizers in agriculture because it has a very high hydrogen content,” Matin Dalir, the managing director of the company stationed at the incubator center of Islamic Azad University’s Rasht Branch, told ANA.

“Hydrolyzed keratin is used in the cosmetics sector for skin and hair, which we have worked on professionally,” she added.

“In the construction sector, this product, along with other chemicals, increases the strength of concrete, and in medicine, it is used to heal wounds and produce hydrogels and cell tissue,” Dalir said.

In a relevant development last year, researchers of a knowledge-based company in Iran succeeded in replacing soybean protein with the protein gained from insects to be used as animal and livestock feed.

“Replacing soybeans with insects in the diet of livestock, poultry and aquatic animals is one of the measures we have adopted,” said Mahboubeh Sarabi, the managing director of the knowledge-based company.

Referring to the high costs of disposal of the municipal waste in Iran, she said, “Waste disposal can be implemented at a very low cost by using insects, and therefore, a tripartite agreement between the Vice-Presidency for Science, Technology and the Knowledge-Based Economy, the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, and the Ministry of Interior was concluded in this regard.”

“At present, we have replaced 8% of soy with this protein to replace in the diet of animals, but we can increase it to 20% or 30% based on the standards of the EU insect breeding requirements,” Sarabi said.

Insects as feed are insect species used as animal feed, either for livestock, including aquaculture, or as pet food.

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