Our Science.

Keratin is a natural wonder.

Keratin proteins are the building blocks of life and are vital to the biology and physiology of every animal on our planet.

Keratin is the key structural material making up hair, wool, feathers, nails, horns and the outer layer of skin. It protects the surfaces of internal organs from damage or stress, and it is one of the toughest biological materials in the world.
Keratins play a physical role in maintaining cell structure as well as a biological role helping cells make a range of essential proteins for healthy skin structure.

Chinese herbalists have known about the beneficial properties of keratin for over 500 years, using a substance made from the ground ash of human hair to heal wounds and clot blood. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that scientists demonstrated that there are actually many different types of keratin, with different molecular weights and different properties.

At Keraplast, we unlock the power of keratin proteins from regeneratively grown wool so that these can be redeployed as beneficial bioactive ingredients. Our proprietary Functional Keratin® technology platform has evolved from decades of scientific research, including over 20 years of fundamental and applied keratin science. We have the technological capability to accurately and skillfully recover a range of specific keratin proteins, with specific molecular weights, that have specific beneficial properties.

We are world experts in bioactive keratin recovery and formulation.
Keratin is often ‘extracted’ using extreme chemical and thermal forces to break down the normally insoluble keratin. This creates short fragments of undifferentiated and inactive keratins that lack any real bioactivity.

That’s not how we do things.
At Keraplast, we gently recover specific keratin proteins using tightly controlled and targeted processes. Our Functional Keratin® technology platform enables us to recover differentiated, soluble, bioactive keratin proteins with well defined molecular weights, and with their bioactivity intact.

Most keratin proteins are “dual-helix” in structure. These helices are held together by strong covalent (and other) bonds. Keraplast isolates individual keratin proteins (all at industrial levels of production) and cleaves those chemical bonds creating individual protein strands which are then stabilised. This has the impact of both solubilising the protein and releasing the amazing bioactivity available in this incredible protein.

The core differentiator of keratin is the amino acid cystine. Most common methods of keratin production aggressively hydrolyse complete keratin proteins often destroying the cystine as part of the process. These production methods ensure the complete bioactivity remains unavailable to consumers.

To sum it up: Our patent protected technology enables us to recover soluble, bioactive keratin proteins from wool fibres while still controlling the protein molecular weight and cystine availability. Our proteins are then blended together to create ingredients that are 91% homologous (or similar) to human keratin.
We understand and respect the different roles that keratins play in the body, and we isolate each of these types of keratins separately.

This is what sets us apart.

For example, some Functional Keratin® formulations incorporate keratin intermediate filament proteins. When applied to skin, hair follicles or taken internally these proteins encourage skin cells to make more of the essential proteins needed for healthy skin structure and repair, in particular the collagen IV and collagen VII responsible for the strong dermal-epidermal junction that becomes weakened during the aging process.

In hair, these proteins repair hair strength by rebuilding damaged keratin intermediate filaments within the fibre. These different keratin types and functions are not differentiated within traditional production methods which treat all keratins the same. Damaged hair can require repair inside the cuticle so Keraplast has developed a small peptide that can get into the hair cortex and bind covalently to broken di-sulfide bonds inside the hair.

This unique process of solublising whole keratin proteins and then stabilising them enables Keraplast’s formulations to remain bioactive within the human body, capable of bonding to human hair or skin to provide a natural protective film and stimulating collagen production.

We create life changing ingredients, for life changing products.