CA1061096A - Tobacco products containing pectin - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a smoking product comprising tobacco and non-tobacco additives, the additives including as a film-forming or binding agent a pectin having a degree of methylation between 30% and 75% ando on inherent viscosity between 2 and 6.5 decilitres per gram, the proportions of tobacco and additives by weight being 5-60% and 40-95%
respectively.

Description

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This invention concerns a smoking product, e.g. a cigar-ette, hand rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigar or cigarillo contain-ing tobacco and non-tobacco substances.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a smoking product having a higher filling value than a tobacco smoking product, such as flue-cured Virginia tobacco blends, containing no additive.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a smoking product containing tobacco and non-tobacco additives which contains nicotine in a stable form at a level similar to that in conventional tobacco blends.
Small particle size and high sand content tobacco offals have hitherto proved difficult to reconstitute into sheet having ac-ceptable physical properties. It is yet a further object of the inven-tion to overcome this difficulty.
Tobacco, in the context of the invention, includes tobacco lamina, midrib, main stalk or tobacco offals, and tobacco extracts.
Hitherto, increased filling power of tobacco has only been satisfactorily achieved by physical/mechanical methods. It will be shown herein that an increased filling power over that of conventional flue-cured Virginia tobacco blends may be achieved by means of a suit-able composition of matter containing tobacco and other substances in specified quantities, without recourse to physical or mechanical methods.
According to the present invention there is provided a smoking product in sheet form comprising 5-60% by weight tobacco and 40-95% by weight non-tobacco additives, including as a film-forming or binding agent a pectin having a degree of methylation between 30%
and 75% and an inherent viscosity between 2 and 6.5 decilitres per gram, whereby the sheet has a substantially greater relative filling

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power as a measure of firmness when in a cigarette than the relative filling power of cured Virginia Tobacco, said relative filling power, RFP, being defined as:

RFP = means density of control cigarette mean density of experimental cigarette at the same compression.
"Inherent viscosity" is defined by the equation, V. = 1 ln (V ) c (Vs) where Vi is inherent viscosity Vp is the viscosity of the pectin V is the viscosity of the solvent S (usually water) and c is the concentration of pectin in solvent - usually 0.1% w/w.
Inherent viscosity is a measure of the molecular weight of a pectin.
The pectin is preferably a slow set citrus pectin having a degree of methylation between 55% and 70% and an inherent viscosity between 3 and 6 decilitres per gram.
The additives may include a nicotine additive, such as nicotine or a nicotine salt, and a water-insoluble inorganic filler, such as a diatomaceous earth or complex silicate, the combination of the pectin and the filler being such that the pH of an aqueous extract of the smoking product is less than 6.5, thereby ensuring stability of nicotine in the smoking product.
The nicotine salt is preferably nicotine pectinate.
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying Tables 1-3. All concentrations and pro-portions are on a dry-weight basis.

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Table 1 sets forth initial concentrations of tobaceo and additives slurries for use in the invention.
Table 2 sets forth the proportions in whlch the ~lurries of Table 1 are mixed to give additive sheets con-taining different percentages of tobaeco.
Tables 3A and 3B set forth comparative analyses and smoking properties of cigarettes made from (a) the additive ~heets of Table 2, (h) tobaceo extracts ineorporating the eompositions of Table 1, (c) sheet tobaeco containing no additives, and (d) a tobaeco control.
The types of tobacco sheet identified in Tables 2 and 3 are as follows:-Type A Containing 5% tobaeeo, and made from tobacco offalsor dust Type B 1' 10% " " " " tobaeeo offals or dust Type C ~' 20% " ~ tn tobaeco offals - - or dust ~ype 3 " 40% " " " " tobaeeo offals or dust Tgpe E " 60% " " " " tobaeco offals or dust Type F " 5% tobaeeo, and made from tobaeeo extraet Type G " 10% " " " " " "
Type H " 20% " " " " "
Tgpe NTS " lOO~o tobaeco, and containing no additive Type TC in Table 3 is a eontrol eigarette made from eonventional flue-eured Virginia tobacco blends.
Referring to Tables 1 and 2, flue cured high silica tobaeeo dust (offal) was formed into a slurry with water to give a solid eontent o~ 7.8% w/w. This was passed through a B 30 Spout-~aldron refiner and then twiee through a ~anton Gaulin K'3 homogeniser at 3000 psi.

~ Tr~ f ~5 _ _ 4 1~109~; , The adlitive part of the product was prepared ~y dissolving a slow set citrus pectin having a degree of meth-ylation o~ 55-70% and an inherent viscosity Or 3-6 decilitres per gram in water at 50C to give a solution of 3.5% w/w and adding a solutio~ dispersion of c~lcium hydroxide, potassium carbonate, citric acid9 celite (a solid solution of dical-~ cium aluminate in dicalcium silicate) which is a water-; insoluble inorganic filler, and trigol, prepared at the concentration shown in Table 1 and added in the proportions shown in Table 2. The slurry was thoroughly mixed using a Wellmix high shear mixer.
The nicotine fortifying solution was prepared sep-arately according to the concentrations shown in Table 1 and added along with the tobacco slurry to the pecti~inorganic mixture according to the proportions shown in Table 2. The slurry mixes were stirred using a Wellmix high shear mixer and cast on a Sand~ik sheet making machine.
It is essential ~cr the long term stability of nicotine in the ~inal product that the pH of an aqueous extract of the final product does not exceed 6.5 and is pre-ferably less than 6. The combination of binding agent and inorganic filler is chosen such that the pH requirement is attained.
The tobacco extracts of Table 3A (types F, G, H) were prepared by soaking 201b of a commercial tobacco blend - (flue-cured Virginia) in 1751b ~ater for 30 minutes, filter-ing and re-extracting the tobacco with two portions of llOlb water. The combined extracts were concentrated by two passes through a climbing film evaporator to yield a concentrate containing about 50% solids. Th~ concentrated extract was -- 5 ~

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added to the prepared slurry of pectin and inorganic mater-ials in the proportions listed in Table 2, mixed with a high shear mixer, and cast on a Sandvik sheet forming machine.
The types of sheet obtained by the above methods were cut at 37 cuts per inch on a 8" Legg tobacco cutting machine and made into ~ilter tipped cigarettes on a Molins Yark 8 cigarette makin~ machine. These cigarettes were 70 mm in length and 25.3 mm in circumference and had a 10 mm myri~/6 mm acetate dual ~ilter.
The cigarettes were mechanically smoked on a ~iltrona 101 smoking machine to a butt length of 3mm longer than the ~ilter overwrap material using a 35 ml puff o~ 2 seconds duration once per minute. The smoke condensate collected on a Cambridge glass fibre filter pad was analysed for particu-late matter and nicotine by weighing the wet ~eposit on each filter, analysing the deposit for nicotine content by auto-mated colorimetric analysis tcyanogen br~ide method) and analysing the deposit ~or water content by gas chromatography.
The particulate matter (PM) level is thus water and nicotine free.
The cigarettes were also tested ~or firmness, an important parameter which influences manufacturing economics and consumer acceptability. Cigarette ~irmness can be described as the degree of flattening under constant com-pression. The firmness results are given in terms of theRelative Filling Power (~FP) Or the ~iller material and is obtained by dividing the mean density of an experimental cigarette into the density Or a control cigarette at the same rlattening, and expressing it as a percentage. In this case the control cigarette was a cigarette incorporating a 10~j commercially available tobacco blend. Analytical results are shown in Tables 3A and 3B.

TABLE 1.

1. Pectin solution Slow set citrus pectin 3.5% w/w.
2. Inorganic dispersion/solution.
Calcium hydroxide 0.6% w/w.
Potassium carbonate 0.6% w/w.
Celite 14.7% w/w.
Citric acid 1.7% w/w.
Triethylene glycol 2.3% w/w.

3. Nicotine fortifying solution.
Low methoxyl pectin 5.0% w/w.
Nicotine 1.25% w/w.

4. Tobacco slurry.
Flue cured high silica tobacco dust 7.8% w/w.
The calcium hydroxide is a pectin cross-linking agent, the potassium carbonate + citric acid is a burn/smoulder control agent, and the trigol is a humectant.

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TABLE ~

Sheet Type C D E NT~ TC
. ................ ,.. _.. ........... ,.. ,.,.. ,.. ,.. _.. ,.. ,.. ,.. ",.,.,.,.,.. ,.. ,.. ,.. ,.. ",.,.. ".,.. ,.~
~ Nicotine at sheetmaking 2.03 2.03 1.98 1.95 ......................................................................................... ,,.. .,,.,,...... ,.. ,.. ,........... ........~
. % Nicotine after 12 weeks storage at 61% relative 1.93 1.95 1.90 1.77 1.90 humidity and 21C in open containers.
.
... ~........... _... ... .............. ,~,.. ~.,.. _. _....... . .. _. _ _.__. _ _ Alternatively to citrus pectins, having a degree of methylation between 55% and 70% and an inherent viscocity between 3 and 6 decilitres per gram, other pectins may be used, typically beet pectins having a degree of methylation between 30% and 75% and an inherent viscosity between 2 and 6.5 decilitres per gram.
- Nicotine salts other than nicotine pectinate may be used, such as nicotine alginate or nicotine citrate.
Instead of celite, the inorganic filler may be a i0 complex silicate such as fullers earth, china clay or bentonite provided the aqueous extract pH of the smoking product incorporating it is less than 6.5 so as to ensure ~the stability of the nicotine in the product.
It is seen from Table 3 that a smoking product according to the invention has a filling power substantially higher than that of a conventional flue-cured ~irginia tobacco blend containing no additive. It follows that less additive sheet filler than tobacco is requirad to produce cigarettes of equivalent firmness to that of the control.
Furthermore, the nicotine in samples of the smoking product of the invention was found to be at least as stable over a period of 3 months as the nicotine in a 100% tobacco sheet or a cigarette made from flue-cured Virginia tobacco blends.

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The smoking product was found to be a practicable utilization of tobacco offals containing a high silica content, giving satisfactory smoking properties.
Furthermore, the additive sheets of the invention yield less particulate (i.e. tar-containing) matter than the con~entional tobacco control.

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Claims (7)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A smoking product in sheet form comprising 5-60% by weight tobacco and 40-95% by weight non-tobacco additives, including as a film-forming or binding agent a pectin having a degree of methylation between 30% and 75% and an inherent viscosity between 2 and 6.5 decilitres per gram, whereby the sheet has a substantially greater relative filling power as a measure of firmness when in a cigarette than the relative filling power of cured Virginia tobacco, said relative filling power, RFP, being defined as:

at the same compression.

2. A smoking product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pectin is a slow set citrus pectin having a degree of methylation between 55% and 70%
and an inherent viscosity between 3 and 6 decilitres per gram.

3. A smoking product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the additives include a nicotine additive and a water-insoluble inorganic filler, the combination of the pectin and the filler being such that the pH of an aqueous extract of the smoking product is less than 6.5, thereby ensuring stability of nicotine in the smoking product.

4. A smoking product as claimed in claim 3 wherein the filler is a complex silicate.

5. A smoking product as claimed in claim 3 wherein the nicotine ad-ditive is nicotine or a nicotine salt.

6. A smoking product as claimed in claim 5 wherein the nicotine salt is nicotine pectinate.

7. A smoking product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the proportions of tobacco and additives by weight lie between 10-20% and 80-90% respectively.