• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2002

Silk sericin powder was prepared by mechanical treatment from culled-cocoon extract of Bombyx mori silkworm. The physical and structural characteristics of sericin powder were investigated by instrumental analysis. The solubility of sericin powder was decreased nearly half of sericin lyophilized. Amino acid analysis showed that arginine content was decreased from 3.72% to 0.03∼0.07%. XRD showed that molecules of sericin were somewhat regularly arranged by mechanical treatment. On the other hand, FT-IR showed the molecular vibration of silk sericin was not induced by mechanical treatment. Thermal properties also did not changed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.392-396
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• 2001

Natural silk is formed by two proteins ; the crystalline fibroin (inside the silk thread) and amorphous sericin (as a tube outside the thread). The degumming process is used th eliminate the external sericin prior to dyeing ： generally it makes use of soaps at pH 10. (omitted)

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.298-302
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of sericin on synthesis of the silica was investigated. Using the mixture of sericin solution and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), it was confirmed that silica could be synthesized in the presence of sericin, which was verified by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transformed infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (NMR) analysis. The TGA and FT-IR data revealed that silica-sericin complex was formed as a final product. Based on the TGA result, the content of silica and sericin in the complex would be 87 and 13%, respectively. The degree of silica condensation was higher than the natural biosilica. It could be concluded that sericin can induce the synthesis of silica directly from TEOS, which is similar to silicatein from marine sponges.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.16-25
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• 1984

The sericin fixation of silk fabrics by epoxy resins was studied in the presence of aqueous salt solution in different solvents at the indicated temperature for the desired time. Heavy weight gains were obtained in the reaction with glycerol diglycidyl ether (EX-313) and ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EX-810) catalyzed by potassium thiocyanate in such solvents as carbon tetrachloride and p-chloroethylene. The obtained results were summarized as follows; 1) The tested resins were found similar in reaction behavior to silk fabric. The effect of fixation and weight gains was higher in EX-810 than EX-313. 2) The weight gains were increased with reaction time and temperature, and degumming ratio reached a constant value in 90 min at 70$^{\circ}C$. 3) The weight gains and the degumming ratio reached an equilibrium at 3-5% of epoxy concentration. 4) The weight gains were remarkably influenced and increased by the concentration of salt solution. The degumming ratio reached an equilibrium over 0.5N concentration of salt. 5) The weight gains were increased with the dipping time in gently-sloping. The degumming ratio reached an equilibrium over 15 min dipping. 6) The effect of sericin fixation of hydrophobic solvents, such as Carbon Tetrachloride, p-Chloroeth-ylene, Cyclohexane, Xylene and Toluene, was found suitable. 7) The effect of drying temperature was not remarkable on the weight gains and the degumming ratio. 8) There was a slight decrease in the moisture regain of sericin-fixed silk and it may be possible to maintain the moisture regain in the sericin-fixed silk by the epoxy resins. 9) The results on testing physical properties of sericin-fixed silk fabric were as follows; The crease recovery was almost not different from undegummed fabric, but inferior to degummed fabric. The tensile strength was improving in accordance with the effect of sericin fixation, either the elongation did.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2022

To assess the feasibility of silk sericin for non-textile application, the storage stability and biological safety of sericin were examined. It was extracted at 37℃, 70℃, 100℃, and 121℃ for 1, 3, and 5 h to elucidate the effect of extraction condition on the stability and safety of silk sericin. The solubility was increased till approximately 26% with extraction temperature of 121℃ for 1 h. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the molecular weight distribution depended on the extraction conditions. Extracted sericin displayed typical UV absorption bands upon spectrometric analysis. To examine the reproducibility of its obtained conformation, sericin was extracted thrice and its circular dichroism (CD) spectra was measured each time. Most CD spectra showed reproducibility regardless of temperature and time except under 100℃ extraction condition. The diversity of CD spectrum showed gradual reduction and was finally coincident with extraction time from 1 to 5 h. Notably, sericin has a negative peak of approximately 200 nm attributed to random coil conformation, regardless of extraction condition. However, at the 100℃ extraction condition, sericin showed both bands to be negative bands of approximately 200 and 220 nm, respectively. Sericin was centrifuged to determine the stability of storage conditions. The sericin extracted at 100℃ and 121℃ for 1 h was found to form gel rapidly within 1 h, but at 121℃ condition, the gel fraction was approximately 20% within 1 h which retained its phase regardless of storage time. The gel fraction of sericin extracted at 100℃ for 5 h increased with time, however at the 121℃ for 5 h condition, the gel fraction was measured to be less than 10% regardless of increase in storage time. Petriflim^TM AC plates test showed that sericin was safe from aerobic bacteria activity by extraction under high temperature.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.203-208
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• 2013

Sericin is usually abandoned after the degumming process. However, it could be a valuable bioresource if an economically efficient recovery process could be set up. In this study, sericin was recovered directly from the degummed waste solution by adding calcium chloride, which induced the precipitation of the surfactant, sodium oleate, by charge interaction. The recovery yield was maximum when 10% of calcium chloride was added. Further increase in the calcium chloride concentration induced the precipitation of sericin. The recovered sericin had a molecular weight distribution similar to that of the hot-water-extracted sericin; but some highmolecular- weight sericin could not be recovered. The secondary structure and amino acid composition of the recovered sericin were similar to those of conventional hot-water-extracted sericin. We expect that sericin recovered from the degummed waste solution could be an alternative to the hot-water-extracted sericin, which is widely used in various applications.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2022

Over the past decades, silk sericin (SS) received increasing attention in the academic and industrial fields. In nature, SS acts as a glue that holds the two strands of silk fibrils together. However, recent works suggest that SS might have a more diverse role during the silk spinning process, such as stabilizing the SF in the silk gland. On the other hand, the sericulture industry has been trying to find novel applications for SS discarded from the silk fabric manufacturing process. Recovery and refining of SS would be the first step of the recycling of SS. Using a proper solvent SS could be shaped into various forms, such as spherical beads, microparticles, fibers, and films. Moreover, the applicability of these SS materials has been investigated in various fields such as cosmetics, templates for nanomaterials, drug delivery, heavy metal adsorption, and enzyme immobilization.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2023

Recently, a silkworm strain (tentatively named Sericinjam) producing 100% sericin cocoons has been studied in South Korea. In this preliminary study, the crystallinity, mechanical properties, and dissolution conditions of sericin from Sericinjam cocoons were examined. The Sericinjam cocoon could be dissolved in water at high temperature (120℃) and high pressure (HTHP method) in an autoclave and in a CaCl₂/H₂O/EtOH mixture (ternary solvent method), resulting in 82% and 97% dissolution after 30 min, respectively. The solution viscosity of the silk sericin formic acid (SSFA) solution obtained from sericin extracted using the ternary solvent method was higher than that obtained using the HTHP method; however, SSFA solutions obtained from sericin extracted from conventional Baekokjam cocoons yielded a higher solution viscosity. The crystallinity and breaking strength of the sericin film from Sericinjam cocoons were slightly lower, respectively, than those from Baekokjam cocoons. In contrast, the elongation at break of the Sericinjam sericin film obtained using the HTHP method was higher than that of the Baekokjam sericin film.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.40-44
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• 1978

Cerium (IV) ion-initiated graft copolymerizations of acrylonitrile to raw silk were investigated in an effort to carry out sericine-fixation. The change in ceric ammonium nitrate concentration exhibited a maximum in percentage of grafting at 0.003M. Also observed was that the change in nitric acid content in reaction media gave a maximum in percentage of grafting at 0.1M. Percentage of grafting was increased generally with increase in acrylonitrile concentration, reaction time and reaction temperature. Raw silk sericin grafted with acrylonitrile was not de gummed by boiling off test and optimum graft percentage was considered at 20%.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.326-328
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• 2013

Sericin undergoes gelation by the structural transition from random coil to b-sheet transition. In the present study, the gelation time of sericin solution was investigated in the presence of NaCl, KCl and $CaCl_2$. The addition of salts delayed the gelation time, and $CaCl_2$ had the most pronounced effect, which delayed about 8 h at maximum. The gelation time increased with the concentration of salt. The transition of secondary structure of sericin was retarded in the presence of salt. The effect of salts on the gelation time of sericin might be due to the solvation effect of relevant cation.