L-Cysteine Isolation of Fleece and The Application in White Bread

Abstract

Nowadays L-Cysteine is widely used in the manufacture of food, drug and cosmetic products. In food industry, L-Cysteine usually used as a food additive in instant noodle which serves as a flavor enhancer for meat, in wheat flour and/or bakery products, it is functions as an improving agent and bread improver. On industrial scales, L-Cysteine is made from the hydrolysis of protein from feathers and/or animal hair such as pig, sheep, or the other poultry feathers and even human hair. Halal status can be doubted (syubhat) and could be also haram. Therefore, the aims of this study were: (1) to isolate L-Cysteine from sheep hair that was sheared while the sheep were still alive (2) to compare the physicochemical properties of L-Cysteine from the sheep with the commercial L-Cysteine, and to compare the quality of white bread with L-Cysteine isolated from fleece, white bread with commercial L-Cysteine and white bread without L-Cysteine added. The results of this study showed that L-Cysteine could be isolated from fleece with a yield of 0.20%; the physicochemical properties of fleece L-Cysteine which comprises shape, isoelectric point, ninhydrin test and Rf value are the same as the physicochemical properties of commercial L-Cysteine, such as form of white crystals: Isoelectric point of 5.07; positive ninhydrin test with the formation of a purple colored complex solution; and the value of Rf is 0.34. The application of the result in the addition of L-Cysteine from fleece in the manufacture of white bread improve the quality of white bread and increasing the panelists preference for the white bread, and the expired date is longer than the expiride date white bread without the addition of L-Cysteine . In other words, L-Cysteine from fleece could be potential as a substitute for non-halal L-Cysteine.