Abstract—The present study focus on sericin extraction process from
Bombyx mori cocoons using water in absence of chemical additives under different physical conditions aiming to obtain high molecular weight sericin. Separation and fractionation of sericin proteins to obtain high molecular weight material was also carried out using ultrafiltration process at different operating modes: batch, diafiltration and batch with back flushing water pulse. The molecular weight of extracted sericin protein using pure water showed in general a size distribution varying from 20 up to 400 kDa, with major peaks between 200 kDa and 100 kDa and peaks with fraction of sericin lower than 100 kDa, depending on conditions used in the extraction and concentration. The results demonstrated viability to separate sericin fractions having molecular size higher than 50 kDa, using the ultrafiltration process with 50 kDa cut-off membrane, however, a flux decline above 90 % was detected independent of operating mode. Increasing the concentration factor from 2 to 4 promotes the permeation of sericin molecules of high molecular weight, reducing the rejection coefficient of 71.1 % to 60.4 %.
Index Terms—Sericin, extraction, ultrafiltration, fouling.
M. L. Gimenes is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, State University of Maringá, Colombo Av. 5970, Maringá, Brazil (e-mail: marcelino.gimenes@gmail.com).
V. R. Silva and A. P. Scheer are with the Graduate Program of Food Engineering, Federal University of Paraná, Francisco H. Santos St. s/n, Curitiba, Brazil (e-mail: vrenan@ufpr.br, agnesps@gmail.com).
M. G. A. Vieira and M. G. C. Silva are with the Department of Products and Processes Design, University of Campinas, Albert Einstein Av. 500, Campinas, Brazil (e-mail: melissagav@feq.unicamp.br, meuris@feq.unicamp.br).
[PDF]
Cite:Marcelino L. Gimenes, Vitor R. Silva, Melissa G. A. Vieira, Meuris G. C. Silva, and Agnes P. Scheer, "High Molecular Sericin from Bombyx mori Cocoons: Extraction and Recovering by Ultrafiltration," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 5, no. 3 pp. 266-271, 2014.
