CN1383764A

CN1383764A - Method of preparing cigarette containing loess, clay other minerals and cigarette product thereof

Info

Publication number: CN1383764A
Application number: CN01116175A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 韩升熙
Original assignee: DAMIN BIOTECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE
Current assignee: DAMIN BIOTECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE
Priority date: 2001-04-27
Filing date: 2001-05-23
Publication date: 2002-12-11
Anticipated expiration: 2021-05-23
Also published as: CN1191025C; KR20020083631A; US20020185142A1; JP2002335934A

Abstract

This invention provides a method for producing a cigarette containing clay minerals of loess includes the steps of: (a) collecting loess powder by mixing a loess with aqueous solvent, filtering off filtered particles, and drying a filtrate; (b) sifting out the loess powder; (c) obtaining a homogenized suspension of loess by adding the sifted loess powder into the aqueous solvent, and shaking the suspension; and (d) applying the suspension into cigarette filter, filler or wrapper during the cigarette making process followed by drying. The cigarette containing the clay minerals of the loess produced in accordance with the method reduces the amount of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide generated when smoked, adsorbs heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, reduces sub-stream giving out from cigarette, and radiates far-infrared ray peculiar to loess due to heat generated when smoked, thus contributing to non-smoker's as well as smoker's health.

Description

Method for preparing cigarette containing loess clay mineral and cigarette product prepared thereby

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a cigarette containing a loess clay mineral, which can remove heavy metals and components harmful to human health existing in the cigarette.

Some components and heavy metals present in cigarettes are generally known to be carcinogenic. In particular, these carcinogens accumulate in the lungs and kidneys of smokers over time.

The cigarette generally contains about 2mg nicotine and about 2.0-3.3 mg tar, both of which can cause hypertension and cause carcinogenesis with age.

Moreover, the smoke contains about 2 to 6% of carbon monoxide (CO) which has 210 times higher affinity for hemoglobin in blood than oxygen. Such high levels of CO in the blood will lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Further, the tobacco leaves contain some heavy metals harmful to the human body. Representative heavy metals present in cigarettes include cadmium, copper, lead and zinc. 1kg of tobacco leaves contains 1-2 mg of cadmium, 10-20 mg of copper, 1-3 mg of lead and 30-50 mg of zinc. Of these metals, cadmium and lead cause serious physiological or mental confusion.

Inhalation of harmful components and heavy metals in cigarette smoke and exhalation of non-inhaled smoke are extremely harmful to the health of non-smokers and smokers, and therefore, many countries limit smoking and tax cigarettes to protect their nations from cigarette harm.

To solve these problems, cigarette production processes using various filters and new fillers have been studied. For filters, a porous adsorbent such as activated carbon or zeolite is used to be embedded between the filter portion and the filler portion of the cigarette. However, these absorbents have difficulty in efficiently absorbing tar, nicotine, and the like, as well as gaseous components such as carbon monoxide. Further, the method requires the additional step of embedding zeolite or activated carbon between the filter portion and the filler portion of the cigarette. Especially when the activated carbon is a chemical product, it is harmful to human body.

The loess is formed by rock weathering, and the mineral composition ratio of the loess is shown in table 1 below.

TABLE 1

Components	Content (w/w)
Components	Content (w/w)	Quartz crystal	40～80％
Feldspar and mica	10～20％	Quartz crystal	40～80％
Feldspar and mica	10～20％	Carbonate mineral	5～35％
Silt	2～5％	Carbonate mineral	5～35％

The silt shown in table 1 is composed of heavy minerals including amphibole, apatite, biotite, chlorite, kyanite, garnet, spodumene, rutile, tourmaline, zirconia, etc., and clay minerals including montmorillonite, illite, kaolinite, etc., and clay minerals.

The chemical composition ratio of loess is shown in table 2 below.

TABLE 2

Compound (I)	Content (w/w)
Compound (I)	Content (w/w)	Silicon dioxide	50～60％
Alumina oxide	8～12％	Silicon dioxide	50～60％
Alumina oxide	8～12％	Iron oxide (III)	2～4％
Iron (II) oxide	0.8～1.1％	Iron oxide (III)	2～4％
Iron (II) oxide	0.8～1.1％	Calcium oxide	4～16％
Magnesium oxide	2～6％	Calcium oxide	4～16％
Magnesium oxide	2～6％	Titanium oxide plus manganese oxide	0.5％
Moisture content	10～15％	Titanium oxide plus manganese oxide	0.5％

The loess has a void content of about 50% to 55%. As moisture increases, voidage decreases.

Particularly, the smectite clay mineral contained in the loess has a complicated chemical composition "M (Al, Mg, Fe, Li)₄(Si，Al)₈O₂₀(OH)₄·nH₂O' wherein M is an exchangeable cation selected from the group consisting of Na, Ca and K.

Montmorillonite is known to be an effective adsorbent. The microporous structure of montmorillonite has a surface large enough to absorb and remove harmful components and heavy metals in tobacco leaves.

Montmorillonite has very high cation exchange capacity (CEC, 80-150 meg/100g), AlO (OH)₂A part of Al in the layer³⁺Will react with Mg²⁺Exchange, and in Si₂O₅Si in (1)⁴⁺Will react with Al³⁺Exchanged to make the three-layer structure electrically neutral. Thus, montmorillonite has a 2: 1 type lattice structure consisting of two tetrahedral layers and one octahedral layer.

It has recently been found that other minerals contained in loess emit far infrared rays beneficial to the human body. Also, since iron (III) oxide, iron (II) oxide, calcium oxide and magnesium oxide contained in loess have a certain amount of free oxygen, which will react with carbon monoxide generated upon smoking, to be oxidized into carbon dioxide by the following chemical reaction formula:

the applicant found that a cigarette capable of overcoming the disadvantage of insufficient adsorption of conventional cigarettes can be obtained by applying a loess clay mineral having high Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and porosity to a cigarette filter, filler and wrapper. The cigarette containing the loess clay mineral can sufficiently remove harmful components and heavy metals.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for preparing a cigarette containing a loess clay mineral, which can sufficiently adsorb and remove harmful components and heavy metals in the cigarette.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a cigarette containing loess clay mineral prepared according to the method of the present invention.

The cigarette containing the loess clay mineral of the present invention is characterized in that the loess suspension is applied to a general cigarette filter, filler and envelope. The total amount of clay minerals in the cigarette of the invention is from about 0.1% to about 10% by dry weight of the cigarette.

When the content exceeds 10% by dry weight, the flavor and taste of the cigarette are deteriorated. When the content is less than 0.1%, the adsorption degree of the harmful components and heavy metals is insufficient.

The method for preparing a cigarette containing a loess clay mineral according to the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) collecting loess powder by mixing loess with an aqueous solvent, filtering off filterable particles, and drying the filtrate; (b) sieving to obtain loess powder; (c) preparing a homogeneous suspension of loess by adding the sieved loess powder to an aqueous solvent, and shaking the suspension; and (d) applying the suspension to a cigarette filter, filler or wrapper during cigarette production, followed by drying.

In the step (a), natural loess having a particle size of 3 to 50 μm is added to an aqueous solvent, for example, methanol, ethanol and water, in an amount of about 1% to about 50% by weight of the solvent, filtered and the filtrate is dried by a general dryer, for example, a hot air dryer, so that the moisture content is about 0.01% to about 1.0%. The loess powder contains clay minerals such as montmorillonite, kaolinite, and illite.

In the step (b), the size of the sieved loess powder particles is 1.0 to 1.5 μm.

In the step (c), the loess powder added with an aqueous solvent such as methanol, ethanol and water is added in a ratio of 1: 5 to 1: 50. The oscillation process is carried out for 0.5-2 hours within the temperature range from room temperature to 60 ℃.

Hereafter, the general cigarette filler production process is briefly described as follows:

the tobacco leaves are first weighed and soaked with water vapour to moisten the leaves. After cooling to room temperature, the cladodes were removed from the tobacco leaves. Tobacco leaves are mixed with lamellar ranunculus asiaticus alkali parviflora and soaking water vapor is cyclically applied to the mixture to maintain the moisture content of the mixture. Glycerin and propylene glycol humectant were applied to the mixture and cut into pieces. After cooling to room temperature, a fragrance is added to the mixture, if necessary, to prepare a filler. The step of applying the loess suspension includes spraying, dipping or soaking the cigarette filter, filler and envelope.

The loess suspension prepared in the step (c) is sprayed on the raw cigarette filler prepared in the above-mentioned general filler producing process. The spraying may be performed during, after or before cutting into chips.

Spraying methods using conventional spray heads are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. After spraying, the sprayed cigarette filler is thoroughly dried, and the desired cigarette containing the loess clay mineral is prepared in a conventional cigarette manufacturing process.

The method for applying the cigarette filter is spraying.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and that various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Example 1

1kg of natural loess produced from korea was added to 10 l of water, stirred at room temperature for 1 hour, and placed in the shade. Subsequently, the solution was filtered, and the filtrate was collected and dried by a hot air dryer at a temperature of 120 to 130 ℃ for 3 hours to obtain 350g of loess powder. The powder obtained had a particle size of 1.5 μm by sieving. 4 liters of water was further added to the powder and shaken to form a loess suspension. The loess suspension is sprayed on the raw cigarette filler and completely dried to obtain a cigarette filler containing loess clay minerals.

Example 2

The cigarette filters were prepared in the same manner as in example 1, except that the spray was applied to the original cigarette filters instead of to the cigarette filler.

Example 3

The cigarette envelope was prepared in the same manner as in example 1, except that the original cigarette envelope was soaked in the loess suspension instead of spraying the cigarette filler.

Example 4

A cigarette containing the loess clay mineral was prepared by using the filler prepared in example 1, the filter prepared in example 2, and the envelope prepared in example 3 according to a conventional cigarette manufacturing process.

The smoke components were passed through the filters of the corresponding cigarettes prepared in example 4, and the smoke of 7 commercial cigarettes was collected by a gas collector, respectively, and their nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide contents were measured by a gas analyzer. The results are shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3

Examples	Nicotine (mg)	Tar oil (mg)	Content (mg) Based on smoke (%)
Examples	Nicotine (mg)	Tar oil (mg)	Content (mg) Based on smoke (%)	Control^*	2.0	2.5	5.0
Example 4	1.0	1.5	4.0	Control^*	2.0	2.5	5.0

The symbol "+" in table 3 represents the average of 7 cigarettes. As shown in table 3 above, nicotine, tar and CO were removed by about 20% to 50%.

The test cigarettes were lit, ash was collected and measured using ICP (induced-coupled plasma) spectrometry. The results are shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4

Examples	Cadmium (Cd) (mg/kg)	Lead (II) (mg/kg)	Copper (Cu) (mg/kg)
Examples	Cadmium (Cd) (mg/kg)	Lead (II) (mg/kg)	Copper (Cu) (mg/kg)	Control^*	1.5	2.0	15.5
Example 4	0.8	1.3	11.0	Control^*	1.5	2.0	15.5

The symbol "+" in table 4 represents the average of 7 cigarettes. As shown in table 3 above, over 30% of the cadmium, lead and copper were removed.

The emissivity of the cigarette containing loess of the present invention is measured. At room temperature, the cigarette containing loess has a peak value at a wavelength of 5-25 μm.

Radiation corresponding to this wavelength range is beneficial to the human body. In addition, the secondary flow generated by the test cigarette was observed by the naked eye. The results show that the cigarette of the invention has a sub-stream reduction of more than 50% compared to other cigarettes.

As described above, the cigarette containing the loess clay mineral prepared according to the method of the present invention has better adsorption and removal ability of nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals such as cadmium and lead than other commercially available cigarettes.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. A cigarette containing loess clay mineral is prepared by applying loess onto cigarette filter, filler or wrapper.

2. A cigarette as in claim 1, wherein the loess clay mineral is contained in an amount of at least about 0.1 to about 10% by dry weight of the cigarette.

3. A method for preparing a cigarette containing a loess clay mineral by applying loess to a cigarette filter, filler or wrapper, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) collecting loess powder by mixing loess with an aqueous solvent, filtering filterable particles and drying the filtrate;

(b) sieving to obtain loess powder;

(c) preparing a homogeneous suspension by adding the sieved loess to an aqueous solvent, and shaking the suspension; and

(d) during cigarette production, the suspension is applied to cigarette filters, plugs or envelopes and subsequently dried.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the loess powder includes clay minerals.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the particle size of the sieved loess powder is 1.0-1.5 μm.

6. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the aqueous solvent is added in a loess powder ratio of 1: 5 to 1: 50.

7. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the step (d) comprises the step of spraying the loess suspension on the raw cigarette filler produced by the filler producing process.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the step (d) comprises the steps of spraying the loess suspension on the cigarette filter or impregnating the cigarette filter with the loess suspension, and completely drying.

9. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the step (d) comprises the steps of spraying the loess suspension on the cigarette wrapper or impregnating the cigarette wrapper with the loess suspension and completely drying.

10. A method for preparing a cigarette containing loess clay mineral by applying loess to a cigarette filter, filler or wrapper, wherein the content of the loess clay mineral is about 0.1 to about 10% by dry weight of the cigarette, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) collecting loess powder by mixing loess with an aqueous solvent, filtering off filterable particles, and drying the filtrate;

(b) sieving to obtain loess powder;

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the loess powder includes clay minerals.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the particle size of the sieved loess powder is 1.0-1.5 μm.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the aqueous solvent is added in a loess powder ratio of 1: 5 to 1: 50.

14. A method according to claim 10, wherein the step (d) comprises the step of spraying the loess suspension on the raw cigarette filler produced by the filler producing process.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the step (d) comprises the steps of spraying the loess suspension on the cigarette filter or impregnating the cigarette filter with the loess suspension, and completely drying.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the step (d) comprises the steps of spraying the loess suspension on the cigarette wrapper or impregnating the cigarette wrapper with the loess suspension, and completely drying.