Journal of Applied Microbiology ISSN 1364-5072

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Evaluation of waste chicken feathers as peptone source

for bacterial growth
M. Taskin1 and E.B. Kurbanoglu2
1 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Science Faculty, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey
2 Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey

Keywords
bacterial growth, bioprocessing, chicken
feathers, peptone, solid waste.
Correspondence
Mesut Taskin, Department of Molecular
Biology and Genetics, Science Faculty, Ataturk
University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey.
E-mail: mesuttaskin61@hotmail.com

2011 0897: received 30 May 2011, revised 4

July 2011 and accepted 6 July 2011
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2011.05103.x

Abstract
Aims: Peptones are one of the most expensive constituents of microbial media.
This study was undertaken to prepare the peptone from waste chicken feathers
through a new process.
Methods and Results: The chemical analysis of chicken feather peptone (CFP)
was performed. The ability of CFP to support the growth of the three test
bacteria in liquid and agar media was comparable to those of three commercial
peptones [tryptone peptone (TP), fish peptone and protease peptone (PP)].
Conclusions: CFP was found to be rich in ash (421 g 100 g)1), protein
(558 g 100 g)1) and mineral contents. The maximum biomass yield (313 g l)1)
and colony number (83 108 CFU ml)1) for bacterium Bacillus subtilis were
attained with CFP. The maximum biomass yields and colony numbers for
Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus and Escherichia coli were reached in TP
medium. Second high biomass yield (264 g l)1) and colony number (75 108
CFU ml)1) for E. coli were achieved using CFP. Third high biomass yield
(129 g l)1) and colony number (90 107 CFU ml)1) for Lact. delbrueckii ssp.
bulgaricus were obtained in CFP medium.
Significance and Impact of the Study: Usability of waste chicken feathers as
substrate for bacteria was investigated for the first time in the present study.
The peptone may be used in industrial fermentations for production of antibiotics, organic acids, enzymes and biopolymer. It may be also used in clinical
microbiology. A new chemical process was developed for peptone preparation.
This process may be also employed for peptone preparation from other organic
materials, especially fibrose protein-containing materials.

Introduction
Growth substrate costs often make up the major part of
the production costs of microbial cells and bioproducts,
and the nitrogen source tends to be the most expensive
medium constituent. Peptones are one of the most
important organic nitrogen sources added in the culture
medium for cultivation of micro-organisms. They are
defined as protein hydrolysates that are readily soluble in
water and are not precipitable by heat, by alkalis, or by
saturation with ammonium sulfate. Different materials
from animal and plant sources are used for the production
826

of peptones, and most of them are valuable and relatively

expensive (Dufosse et al. 1997; Poernomo and Buckle
2002; Vasileva-Tonkova et al. 2007). Because of the high
cost of peptones, obtaining of the peptones from cheap
organic materials is accepted as an important aspect.
Therefore, investigators have focussed to produce peptones from animal origin waste materials, especially ones
containing fibrose protein (Kurbanoglu and Kurbanoglu
2004; Vasileva-Tonkova et al. 2007).
Chicken feathers are composed of over 90% protein, the
main component being keratin, a fibrous and insoluble
protein highly cross-linked with disulfide and other bonds.

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Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

Feather keratin shows an elevated content of the amino

acids glycine, alanine, serine, cysteine and valine, but lower
amounts of lysine, methionine and tryptophan. The
feathers constitute up to 10% of total chicken weight.
Worldwide, 77 108 kg of feathers are generated annually
as waste by poultry-processing industries. In some countries, feathers are used as animal feed supplement in the
form of feather meal. Feathers may also find important
application in the fermentation industry for the production of microbial keratinases (El-Boushy et al. 1990;
Webster et al. 1996; Kim et al. 2001; Gessesse et al. 2003;
Grazziotin et al. 2006). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no report about the other employment fields
of chicken feathers despite of rich protein content and
amino acid composition. In this context, conversion of
waste chicken feathers to peptone can be one of the
answers to reduce the total price of the microbial culture
media, as well as an environmentally friendly method for
removing these residues.
Therefore, this study was mainly performed to generate
the peptone from waste chicken feathers by acid hydrolysis and to elucidate the usability of the obtained chicken
feather peptone (CFP) as a medium component in the
cultivation of bacteria. To appraise the effectiveness of
CFP on the growth performances of test bacteria, it was
compared with three commercial peptones.

A new peptone for bacterial growth

and then ground with a blender (Waring Products Corp.,

New York City, NY, USA). This material with 1 mm
diameter was termed as feather flour (FF). For the preparation of CFP from FF, a new process was developed by
modifying the method of Kurbanoglu and Kurbanoglu
(2004), and the production scheme of CFP is shown in
Fig. 1.
Chemical analysis of CFP
Total sugar contents of CFP and commercial peptones
were determined according to the anthrone method using
glucose as a standard (Hodge and Hofreiter 1962). Ash
and dry matter contents of the peptones were determined
according to AOAC methods (AOAC, 1990). Amino acid
(HPLC method), total protein (Kjeldal method) and fat
(Soxhlet extraction method) analyses of the peptones were
performed in Duzen Norwest laboratory (Ankara, Turkey).
The concentrations of macro and micro elements were
determined by using an Inductively Couple Plasma spectrophotometer (Perkin-Elmer, Optima 2100 DV, ICP OES,
Shelton, CT 06484-4794, USA) (Mertens 2005a,b).
Preparation of inocula for test bacteria

The chemicals, culture media and test peptones employed

in the present study were purchased from Oxoid
(Basingstoke, UK), Sigma-Aldrich (St Louis, MO, USA),
Merck (Darmstadt, Germany), Difco (Detroit, MI, USA)
and RIEDEL (Hannover, Germany). All reagents used
were of analytical grades.

Test bacteria were first grown in trypticase soy broth (TSB)

at 30C for 48 h at 200 rev min)1 in a shaking incubator
(ZHWY-200B; Zhicheng Analytical Co., Shanghai, China).
At the end of growth, the optical density (600 nm) of the
cultures was spectrophotometrically adjusted to 20 with
sterile peptone water of 01% (Shimadzu UVmini1240,
Kyoto, Japan). Subsequently, 1 ml of each culture was
inoculated into liquid production medium.
For agar culture studies, the inoculation cultures with
20 optical density of test bacteria were serially diluted
with sterile peptone water of 01%. Afterwards, 01 ml of
each culture was spreaded on the surface of agar medium.

Chicken feathers and test micro-organims

Preparation of liquid production medium

In the present study, feathers with white colour obtained

from BANVIT chicken slaughterhouse (Banvit Bandirma
Vitaminli Yem Sanayi A.S, Balikesir, Turkey) were used.
While the bacteria used in this study were selected, we paid
a lot of attention to the selection of ones that are useful and
attractive for the industrial, biotechnological and medicinal
purposes. Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus
delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus were selected as test bacteria.

For liquid culture studies, 250-ml flasks containing 100 ml

of production medium were inoculated with test bacteria
and then incubated at 30C and 200 rev min)1 in a shaking
incubator. Liquid production medium consisted of CFP
and glucose (20 g l)1). Degree of growth in liquid cultures
for all the test micro-organisms was evaluated in terms of
biomass weight (g l)1). For this, culture broths were centrifuged at 5000 g for 10 min. Following this, cells obtained
were washed with sterile saline water and then dried to constant weight. In liquid cultures, bacterial growths were also
followed by optical density measurements (600 nm).
Agar medium contained agar (15 g l)1) as well as CFP
and glucose (20 g l)1). pH of both media was adjusted

Materials and methods

Chemicals and reagents

Production of CFP
Feathers were washed with deionized water and dried in
oven at 105C. Dried feathers were cut into smaller pieces

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Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

827

A new peptone for bacterial growth

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

Chicken feathers
Ground

Feather flour (FF)

50 g FF + 6 N 75 ml H2SO4

50 g FF + 6 N 75 ml HCl

50 g FF + 6 N 75 ml H3PO4

Hydrolysis-1 (at 70 C for 24 h)

Hydrolysis-1 (at 70 C for 24 h)

Hydrolysis-1 (at 70 C for 24 h)

Hydrolysis-2 (at 130 C for 4 h)

Hydrolysis-2 (at 130 C for 4 h)

Hydrolysis-2 (at 130 C for 4 h)

Neutralization (5 N KOH, 5 N
Mg(OH)2, 5 N Ca(OH)2 and 5
N NaOH)

Neutralization (5 N KOH, 5 N
Mg(OH)2, 5 N Ca(OH)2 and 5
N NaOH)

Filtration

Filtration

Neutralization (5 N KOH, 5 N
Mg(OH)2, 5 N Ca(OH)2 and 5
N NaOH)

Filtration

Chicken feather hydrolsate (CFH)

(1200 ml, pH = 70)

Evaporation
Chicken feather peptone (CFP), 228 g
Figure 1 Production scheme of chicken feather peptone.

to 73. The Petri dishes (9 cm diameter) containing agar

media were incubated at 30C. The density of bacterial
growth on agar media was defined as CFU ml)1
(Vecht-Lifshitz et al. (1990).
The preliminary experiments were undertaken to determine the optimal concentrations of CFP. To do this, CFP
concentrations varying from 1 to 7 g l)1 were tested. Subsequently, CFP was compared with three commercial
peptones at the concentration, which was determined as
optimal for CFP.
Statistical analysis
Each experiment was repeated at least three times with
two replicates. Statistical analysis was performed using
828

one-way analysis of variance (anova). P 005 was

considered as significant.
Results
Production and chemical analysis of CFP
As seen from Fig. 1, 150 g of FF was hydrolysed with
three different acids (50 g of FF with 6 N HCl, 50 g of FF
with 6 N H2SO4 and 50 g of FF with 6 N H3PO4), and
the obtained hydrolysates (CFH) were subjected to
neutralization, filtration and evaporation processes,
respectively. NaOH, KOH, Mg(OH)2 and Ca(OH)2 were
used for the neutralization of hydrolysates. At the end of
these processes, 228 g of CFP was produced.

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Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

A new peptone for bacterial growth

Table 1 Chemical composition of CFP and the other test peptones

Table 3 Amino acid composition of CFP and the other test peptones

Peptones
)1

Peptones (100 g)
)1

Components (g 100 g )

CFP

FP

TP

PP

Amino acids (mg 100 g )

CFP

FP

TP

PP

Dry matter
Nitrogen
Total protein
Total sugar
Fat
Ash

973a
893c
558c
156b
047c
421a

965a
1164b
728b
133c
046c
63c

967a
1288a
805a
285a
057b
67c

962a
134a
838a
113c
072a
82b

Proline
Glutamic acid
Valine
Aspartic acid
Glycine
Leucine
Alanine
Serine
Isoleucine
Phenylalanine
Lysine
Threonine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Hidoksil-L-proline
Cystine
Methionine
Tryptophan

3226
5413
5939
2821
4806
4623
3471
3303
2600
2370
1944
2072
0220
1069
1709
0891
ND
ND

2203
7474
6726
5063
7535
7635
4653
5388
2390
2024
8049
2626
1465
1799
ND
1210
2042
0866

3244
19 888
7566
5624
1580
9171
2745
4997
5147
4408
8335
3549
2728
2096
ND
0260
3238
ND

1746
11 708
4748
6933
7000
6084
5717
3740
3322
2666
7177
3223
2041
2360
ND
0967
2085
ND

Alphabet letters with the same letters in the same line are not
significantly (P < 005). All values are the mean of two replicates from
three independent experiments (n = 6).
CFP, chicken feather peptone; FP, fish peptone; TP, tryptone peptone;
PP, protease peptone.

Table 2 Elemental composition of chicken feather peptone (CFP)

Elements

CFP (g 100 g)1)

K
Mg
Ca
Na
P
S
Fe
Mn
Zn
Cu

1252
421
608
696
206
307
083
051
067
022

Dry matter, nitrogen, protein, ash, fat and sugar

contents of CFP and the other commercial peptones were
analysed, and the obtained results are shown in Table 1.
The mineral analysis of CFP is shown in Table 2. On the
other hand, the results involved the amino acid anaylsis
of CFP and the other commercial peptones were given in
Table 3.
From the results summarized in tables, it can be
concluded that CFP contained organic and inorganic
substances required for microbial activities. It was determined that CFP had high protein (558 g 100 g)1) and
ash (421 g 100 g)1) contents. However, the protein
content of CFP was found to be lower than those of the
other peptones. Highest ash content was assayed for
CFP. As seen from Table 2, the ash was rich in
especially S, P, Na, K, Mg and Ca elements. The lowest
fat content (046 g 100 g)1) was detected for fish peptone
(FP), and following this (047 g 100 g)1), for CFP. This
finding is very important, because it has been suggested
that protein sources used in microbial cultivations have
low fat content (Bridson 1995). The highest total sugar
contents were assayed as 285 and 156 g 100 g)1 for
tryptone peptone (TP) and CFP, respectively.

CFP, chicken feather peptone; FP, fish peptone; TP, tryptone peptone;
PP, protease peptone; ND, not determined.

Generally, the amino acid contents of the other test peptones are higher than that of CFP (Table 3). However, it
was seen that CFP has essential amino acids required for
micro-organisms in growth media. Valine was the most
abundant amino acid in CFP with a content of
5939 mg 100 g)1, followed by glutamic acid, glycine and
leucine with values of 5413, 4806 and 4623 mg 100 g)1,
respectively. It was also noted that although CFP had high
cystine content, it did not contain methionine and tryptophan amino acids. On the other hand, proline content of
CFP was found to be higher than those of the other peptones, and hidoksil-l-proline was detected in only CFP.
Determination of optimal CFP concentration
As seen from Table 4, a further increase in CFP from 1
to 7 g l)1 significantly affected both biomass yields and
colony numbers of all the test bacteria. Best growth
performances for all the bacteria on agar and liquid
media were observed at the CFP concentration of
5 g l)1. Above the optimal concentrations of CFP, higher
applications significantly reduced the biomass yields and
colony numbers of all the test bacteria.
Effects of CFP and the other commercial peptones on
growth performances of test bacteria
The concentrations of CFP and the other commercial
peptones were adjusted to 5 g l)1 for the test bacteria.

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829

A new peptone for bacterial growth

CFP
concentration
(g l)1)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

Bacillus subtilis

Escherichia
coli

Biomass
(g l)1)

Colony
(CFU ml)1)

Biomass
(g l)1)

Colony
(CFU ml)1)

168e
214d
264c
295ab
313a
287b
196d

42
49
59
74
83
72
58

134d
194c
238b
243b
264a
255ab
205c

37
44
60
68
75
61
48

108e
108d
108c
108b
108a
108b
108c

Table 4 Effect of various concentrations

of CFP on colony numbers and biomass yields
of test bacteria

Lactobacillus
delbrueckii ssp.
bulgaricus

108f
108e
108c
108b
108a
108c
108d

Biomass
(g l)1)

Colony
(CFU ml)1)

NG
NG
098c
124b
151a
084c
NG

31
61
78
82
90
74
16

107e
107d
107bc
107b
107a
107c
107f

Culture conditions for liquid culture: initial pH = 73, shaking speed = 200 rev min)1, temperature = 30C, incubation time = 72 h. Liquid production medium contained 20 g l)1 glucose and
CFP. Culture conditions for agar culture: initial pH = 73, temperature = 30C, incubation
time = 72 h. Agar production medium contained 20 g l)1 glucose, CFP and agar (15 g l)1).
Alphabet letters with the same letters in the same column are not significantly (P < 005). All
values are the mean of two replicates from three independent experiments (n = 6).
NG, no growth; CFP, chicken feather peptone.

The growth performances of test bacteria in liquid

cultures were spectrophotometrically monitored by
measuring the optical density of the cultures, and the
results are shown in Fig. 2. Cell growth of two test bacteria (B. subtilis and E. coli) on all the peptones was the
fastest between the 12 and 24th hours of incubation and
lasted up to 36th hour of incubation. At the end of 36th
hour, the highest optical densities for B. subtilis (269)
and E. coli (239) were detected in CFP and TP media,
respectively. On the other hand, second high optical
densities for E. coli were attained with CFP (especially at
the 12 and 24th hours of incubation). For example, at the
12th hour of incubation, the optical densities in CFP and
TP media of E. coli were considerably near to each other
(respectively, 076 and 079). Contrast to B. subtilis and
E. coli, Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus showed the best
cell growth performance between the 24 and 36th hours
of incubation, and the cell growth in this bacterium
continued to the 48th hour of incubation (Fig. 2).
The results demonstrated that the maximum biomass
yields for the bacterium B. subtilis (313 g l)1) were
attained with CFP, while the maximum biomass yields for
the Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus (203 g l)1) and E. coli
were reached in TP medium (Table 5). On the other hand,
second high biomass yield for E. coli was achieved with
CFP. Even, no significant difference was observed between
the biomass yields in CFP (264 g l)1) and TP (272 g l)1)
media of E. coli. CFP resulted in third high biomass yield
(129 g l)1) for Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus.
As seen from Table 6, the colony numbers of the test
bacteria on agar media reached to maximum values at
the end of 72-h incubation period. The test bacteria
except for Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus developed more
830

colonies within the first 24 h of incubation. At the end of

72-h incubation period, the maximum colony number
(83 108 CFU ml)1) for the test bacterium B. subtilis was
reached on agar medium containing CFP. At the end of
the same incubation period, the maximum colony numbers for the test bacterium E. coli (81 108 CFU ml)1)
and Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus (110 107 CFU ml)1)
were observed on TP agar medium. In the case of
biomass yields, second high colony number (75 108
CFU ml)1) for E. coli and third high colony number
(90 107 CFU ml)1) for Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus
were reached on CFP agar medium at all the incubation
periods. Even, at the end of 24-h incubation, no statistical
difference was observed between the colony numbers of
E. coli on CFP (38 108 CFU ml)1) and TP (40 108
CFU ml)1) agar media (Table 6).
Discussion
Peptones are produced by acid hydrolysis or enzymatic
digestion from organic materials containing protein
(Dufosse et al. 1997; Poernomo and Buckle 2002;
Kurbanoglu and Kurbanoglu 2004; Vasileva-Tonkova
et al. 2007). Similary, in the present study, the hydrolysis
of waste chicken feathers for peptone production was
carried out with acids. However, different strategies were
employed for peptone production. While chemicals were
selected for hydrolysis and neutralization steps, much
attention was paid to the selection of ones that contain
oligo-elements required by micro-organisms. In the present study, the usage of H2SO4 and H3PO4 for hydrolysis
process made CFP richer in terms of S and P contents.
Similarly, it was achieved that CFP became more rich in

2011 The Authors

Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

A new peptone for bacterial growth

Table 5 Effect of CFP and the other test peptones on biomass yields
of test bacteria

Optical density (600 nm)

3
25

B. subtilis
Test bacteria
Bacillus
subtilis

15
1

Escherichia
coli

05

25
Optical density (600 nm)

Biomass
(g l)1)

Optical density
(600 nm)

CFP
FP
TP
PP
CFP
FP
TP
PP
CFP
FP
TP
PP

313a
302b
275c
237d
264a
228b
272a
209c
151c
171b
203a
129d

269
261
237
205
228
197
239
181
131
148
175
118

Lactobacillus
delbrueckii ssp.
bulgaricus

0
3
E. coli

Liquid culture conditions: initial pH = 73, shaking speed = 200 rev

min)1, temperature = 30C and cultivation time = 60 h. Production
medium contained 20 g l)1 glucose and 5 g l)1 peptone. Alphabet
letters with the same letters in the same column are not significantly
(P < 005). All values are the mean of two replicates from three
independent experiments (n = 6).
CFP, chicken feather peptone; FP, fish peptone; TP, tryptone peptone;
PP, protease peptone.

2
15
1
05
0
3

Optical density (600 nm)

Test peptone
(5 g l)1)

25

L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus

2
15
1
05
0

12

24

36

48

60

Incubation time (h)

Figure 2 Effects of different incubation times and test peptones on
growth performances of test bacteria. Culture conditions: initial
pH = 73, shaking speed = 200 rev min)1 and temperature = 30C.
Production medium contained 20 g l)1 glucose and 5 g l)1 peptone.
(
) CFP, chicken feather peptone; (
) FP, fish peptone; (
) TP,
) PP, protease peptone.
tryptone peptone and (

terms of Na, K, Mg and Ca elements by using NaOH,

KOH, Mg(OH)2 and Ca(OH)2 for neutralization.
Among four peptones tested, the highest ash content
was measured for CFP. This is not suprising, because the
fact that although acid hydrolysis allows high yields, it
leads to high ash content in the final products as the

neutralization step cannot be avoided (Kurbanoglu and

Kurbanoglu 2004; Klompong et al. 2009). On the other
hand, high ash content of CFP can be an advantage for
micro-organisms. Because ash is a reflection of the
amount of mineral elements in the samples and therefore
serves as the main source of mineral elements needed for
microbial activities. CFP was determined to have rich
mineral composition. This situation must arise from
chemicals selected for hydrolysis and neutralization
processes. Second low fat content was recorded for CFP.
This finding is also very important, because it has been
suggested that protein sources used in microbial cultivations have low fat content (Bridson 1995). Second high
total sugar content was assayed for CFP. However, sugar
contents of all test peptones were found to be low. Therefore, in the present study, the production media were also
enriched with glucose as additional carbon source.
The results obtained for amino acid composition of
CFP were similar to those reported in the previous
studies. Several investigators have reported that although
animal feeds from chicken feathers are rich in glutamic
acid, glycine, alanine, valine, serine and cysteine, they had
poor methionine content (El-Boushy et al. 1990; Webster
et al. 1996; Lin et al. 1999; Kim et al. 2001; Gessesse et al.
2003; Grazziotin et al. 2006).
At the concentrations above 5 g l)1, CFP significantly
reduced the biomass yields and colony numbers of all the
test bacteria. The reason of this inhibitory effect may be
explained in two ways. The first may be the presence of

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Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

831

A new peptone for bacterial growth

Test
bacteria

Incubation
time (h)

Bacillus subtilis

24
48
72
24
48
72
24
48
72

Escherichia coli

Lactobacillus
delbrueckii ssp.
bulgaricus

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

Table 6 Effect of CFP and the other

test peptones on colony numbers of test
bacteria

Test peptone per colony number (CFU ml)1)

CFP
44
71
83
38
66
75
24
78
90

FP
108a
108a
108a
108a
108ab
108b
107b
107b
107c

37
69
80
34
62
67
25
91
98

TP

108b
108a
108a
108b
108b
108c
107b
107a
107b

36
60
66
40
72
81
36
94
110

PP

108b
108b
108b
108a
108a
108a
107a
107a
107a

34
51
58
21
37
44
15
46
54

108b
108c
108c
108c
108c
108d
107c
107c
107d

Agar culture conditions: initial pH = 73 and temperature = 30C. Production medium contained
20 g l)1 glucose and 5 g l)1 peptone.
Alphabet letters with the same letters in the same line are not significantly (P < 005). All values
are the mean of two replicates from three independent experiments (n = 6).
CFP, chicken feather peptone; FP, fish peptone; TP, tryptone peptone; PP, protease peptone.

high salt concentration and some toxic materials in CFP.

The second may be C N rate of culture medium. Because
it is well known that C N rate of culture medium can
affect not only growth performances of micro-organisms
but also the yields of substances produced by microorganisms (Kim et al. 2002; Lin and Lay 2004; Park et al.
2005).
The results demonstrated that growth performance of
each test micro-organism could vary from one peptone to
another. The similar results were also obtained in the
previous studies. Aspmo et al. (2005a) reported that
growth performance of E. coli was very well in maritex
and FP media, moderate in TP medium and poor in malt
extract medium. In the same study, growth performances
in FP medium of B. subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
Aspergillus niger were better than those in TP medium.
Dufosse et al. (1997) reported that TP was better than
casein peptone for E. coli, and FP was better than casein
peptone for A. niger. Kurbanoglu and Kurbanoglu (2002)
informed that A. niger and Penicillium chrysogenum
showed better growth performances in FP medium
compared with TP medium.
On all the peptone media, Lact. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus gave the lowest biomass yield compared with the
other test bacteria. Considering the fact that the medium
composed of only peptone and glucose, this result should
not be so suprising. This is why lactic acid bacteria are
known as fastidious micro-organisms that need rich
growth media. For example, the standard laboratory
medium for lactobacilli (MRS) contains 22 g l)1 of a mixture consisting of extracts from meat and yeast as well as
peptone (Aspmo et al. 2005b).
The present experiments showed that the other test
peptones had higher protein and amino acid contents
than CFP. However, CFP gave favourable biomass yields
832

and colony numbers for test bacteria. Biomass yield and

colony number of B. subtilis especially on CFP medium
were found to be higher than those on the other test
peptones. This situation could be attributed to chemical
composition of CFP. Rich mineral content of CFP
especially could be one of the most important factors.
The results suggested that CFP was a good nutritional
substrate for test bacteria. This finding is very important,
because these bacteria are very attractive for the clinical,
industrial and biotechnological purposes. Bacillus subtilis is
used in the production of hyalunoric acid, antifungal compounds and biosurfactant as wells as enzymes such as
alpha amylase and protease (Chitarra et al. 2003; Soares
et al. 2005; Chien and Lee 2007; Barros et al. 2008; Rajagopalan and Krishnan 2009). Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp.
bulgaricus is a lactic acid bacterium that is commonly used
in fermented milk technology. Besides its primary function
to produce lactic acid during the fermentation process,
L. bulgaricus also contributes to the development of
flavour (production of aroma compounds) and texture
(gel formation and exopolysaccharides synthesis) of the
products (Rivals et al. 2007). As the primary model organism for bacteria, E. coli is used to define the genetic code
and elucidate mechanisms such as transcription, translation, restriction and replication in bacteria. Escherichia coli
is also used in productions of human insulin, enyzmes and
antibiotics with the assistance of recombinant DNA technology (Jones and Fayerman 1987; Kolisnychenko et al.
2002). On the other hand, E. coli is very important in clinical microbiology, because it causes various infections in
human (Huang et al. 2002). The present experiments also
showed that E. coli rapidly grew in medium containing
CFP. Therefore, it is possible to say that CFP can be also
used as a substrate in clinical microbiological media where
fast growth is required for efficient diagnoses. In a similar

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Journal of Applied Microbiology 111, 826834 2011 The Society for Applied Microbiology

M. Taskin and E.B. Kurbanoglu

study, Vecht-Lifshitz et al. (1990) demonstrated that FP

resulted in fast growth in some pathogen bacteria and
therefore suggested the usage of FP as substrate in clinical
microbiological media.
Chicken feathers are very rich in protein; however,
several million tons of feathers are generated annually as
waste by poultry-processing industries. At present, feathers are usually converted to feather meal used as dietary
protein source for animals using physical and chemical
treatments. In some studies, they have been also utilized
as substrate for the production of microbial keratinases
(Lin et al. 1999; Gessesse et al. 2003; Grazziotin et al.
2006). However, there is not enough information about
the other employment fields of feathers in the world. In
Turkey especially, feathers are not utilized for any purpose except for feather meal production and currently
discarded. On the other hand, the utilization of organic
wastes as substrate in production media is known as
ecologically sound and economically advantageous
(Taskin and Erdal 2011). Therefore, it can be said that
the conversion of waste chicken feathers to the peptone
will not only provide a new cheap substrate to microbial
studies but also help the solution of environmental problems by reducing the amount of wastes. The peptone
could be effectively used as substrate in the cultivations of
bacteria possessing industrial, clinical and biotechnological importance. Even, we suggest that the chemical
process may be also used for the preparation of protein
hydrolysates from other organic materials, especially
fibrose protein-containing materials.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Professor Okkes Atici for critical
reading of manuscript.
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