diff --git a/python/obitools3/parsers/embl_genbank_features.pyx b/python/obitools3/parsers/embl_genbank_features.pyx
index a9da744..640740c 100755
--- a/python/obitools3/parsers/embl_genbank_features.pyx
+++ b/python/obitools3/parsers/embl_genbank_features.pyx
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Created on June 12th 2018
 import logging
 import re
 from itertools import chain
+from obitools3.utils cimport str2bytes
 
         
 _featureMatcher = re.compile(b'^(FT|  )   [^ ].+\n((FT|  )    .+\n)+',re.M)
@@ -65,6 +66,8 @@ def qualifierIterator(qualifiers):
                 value = t[1].replace(b'\n',b' ')
             try:
                 value = eval(value)
+                if type(value) == str:
+                    value = str2bytes(value)
             except:
                 pass
             t = (t[0],value)