Sericin removal from silk fibers with eco-friendly alternative methods

Silk fibers,composed of sericin and fibroin,are spun by the silkworm bombyx mori. fibroin and sericin account for about 75 wt% and 25 wt% of the raw silk,respectively. sericin is the natural cement to hold the fibroin fibers together during cocoon production. the conventional method of sericin removal is degumming with marseille soap at alkaline ph,which leads to generation of high strength wastewaters. in this study,extraction of sericin from silk fibers was performed with alternative methods,i.e.,degumming at high temperature-high pressure and enzymatic degumming under different process conditions. the results were compared with conventional method in terms of fiber whiteness,brightness,weight loss,breaking strength and elongation. the conventional process,enzymatic process with 8% savinase and 1100 c in the high temperature process results were comparable,which indicated that alternative methods can be used for degumming of sericin.