Waste to Wealth for the Edible Bird Nest Industry

Abstract

Edible bird nest (EBN) is a product obtained from the salivary excretion of different species of swiftlets during the breeding season. It is an expensive health food product. The raw EBN needs intensive cleaning before it can be consumed. Currently, EBN is increasingly used in cosmetic products. The cleaning procedure generally produced about 30 % (w/w) of waste. To date, there is no work conducted to study the composition of the waste recovered from the cleaning process and converting the waste into useful downstream products. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the composition of the EBN wastes and to formulate a value added facial cream product from the EBN waste. EBN waste (residues) was collected from the cleaning water of EBN samples from the swiftlet species Aerodramusfuciphagus using the centrifugation method. The chemical composition of the EBN waste (residues) was analyzed qualitatively using the FTIR technique. Similarly, the different grades of processed EBN samples (2A, 3A, 4A, 5A and biscuit white) from the swiftlet species Aerodramusfuciphagus were quantitatively analyzed using the elemental analyzer. The residual EBN showed high protein content (47.33±3.09 %) and carbohydrate content of 2.4±0.37 %. Interestingly, nitrite, nitrate and lead were not present in the EBN waste. Thus, EBN waste is considered safe to formulate a facial cream. The collagen content in EBN is good as an anti-aging beauty cream. Since the EBN is a very expensive product, the residual EBN waste has good potential to formulate a value added product without any loss in its nutritional health benefits to achieve a similar effect as EBN. The high protein content retained in EBN waste makes the wash off water from EBN washings a suitable nutrient – rich component for the formulation of health and beauty products.

Recovery of value‐added glycopeptides from edible bird's nest (EBN) co‐products: enzymatic hydrolysis, physicochemical characteristics and bioactivity

“…Visually, the FTIR spectrums of all EBN samples displayed similar patterns. Similar patterns of absorption spectrum with the current study was also reported by Guo et al 34 and Hamzah et al, 35 indicating the high purity of all the samples. Table 2 shows the absorption peaks that are present in the EBN samples with the corresponding functional groups as indicated in Fig.…”

“…Furthermore, symmetric bending vibration of carboxylic group (COOH) with wavenumber from 1438.75 to 1439.68 cm −1 was detected, similar to Hamzah et al 35 in EBN samples. Meanwhile, all samples showed a peak close to 1400.0 cm −1 which indicates the presence of polysaccharides, such as the bending vibration of the C H (CH 2 ) group.…”

“…38 Meanwhile, the absorption band around 1624.19 to 1631.64 cm −1 was resulting from the stretching vibration of C O group (amide I) whereas 1531.00 to 1542.19 cm −1 was resulting from the bending vibration of amine, N H bond (amide II). 35,38 Similar functional groups were detected in authentic EBN and EBN grade 2A to 5A by Guo et al 38 and Hamzah et al, 35 respectively. Set 39 reported that peaks between 1640 and 1520 cm −1 are usually detected as major functional groups of proteins.…”

“…The absorption peak around 2924.10 to 2936.21 cm −1 were attributed to the alkyl C H stretching vibration 19 which could be caused by methyl (CH 3 ) stretching vibration 35 or methylene (CH 2 ) asymmetric stretching vibration. 38 Meanwhile, the absorption band around 1624.19 to 1631.64 cm −1 was resulting from the stretching vibration of C O group (amide I) whereas 1531.00 to 1542.19 cm −1 was resulting from the bending vibration of amine, N H bond (amide II).…”

“…38 For all the EBN samples, there is an indication of carbohydrate group present in this respective region. 35,38,41 There was a signal detected in the region of 894.56 to 893.63 cm −1 due to out of plane bending of aromatic C H bonds. 38 All FTIR spectra denoted that proteins and carbohydrates are the main components present in the EBN samples.…”