Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02B—PREPARING GRAIN FOR MILLING; REFINING GRANULAR FRUIT TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS BY WORKING THE SURFACE
  • B02B3/00—Hulling; Husking; Decorticating; Polishing; Removing the awns; Degerming

Definitions

• the invention relates to a process to achieve an industrial separation of the cortical part from the inner part of rhizomes of irises, or of rhizomes or roots of officinal plants having similar physical characteristics, when the said rhizomes or roots are to be used for perfumery, pharmaceutical and alimentary industries, and when the said separation of the cortical part from the inner part is done in order to eliminate odours, tastes and other properties that degrade the materials extracted from said rhizomes or roots.
• the process W e are proposing achieves the separation of the cortical part from the inner part of rhizomes of irises , or of rhizomes or roots of officinal plants having similar physical characteristics, in an industrially uncomplicated and economic way, and almost completely eliminates all manual work.
• a grinding phase takes place before that of decortication and the separation of the two components, cortical and internal, is based on the fact that their specific gravities are different and that when the said two components are mixed with a liquid or solution with a specific gravity halfway between those of the two components one goes to the bottom and the other rises to the surface.
• the separation is based on the fact that the above mentioned specific gravities tend to decrease as the seasoning of the rhizomes, or roots, goes on, reaching values, that are lower than those of water, or of a proper solution, which before the seasoning time. had specific gravity lower than those of the two components, and on the fact that the said specific gravities, when the rhizomes, or the roots, are ground and mixed with water, or with a solution, return to their original values at different rates.
• the separation of the ground mix can be achieved by mixing the ground rhizomes, or the ground roots, with water, or with a proper solution, which need only have a slightly higher specific gravity than the two components.
• the first of the two components to reach a higher specific gravity will be the inner part of the rhizomes, or of the roots, and the moment its specific gravity becomes higher than that of the water, or of the proper solution, it will begin to sink, while the other component, the cortical, will remain on the surface of the liquid.
• the values of the specific gravities of the two components, the cortical and the internal ones, although different from each other, are both higher than that of water.
• the separation is obtained by increasing the specific gravity of the water with the addition of sodium chloride, or other salts, up to a value halfway between the values of the specific gravities mentioned above, and mixing the ground rhizomes into this solution.
• the inner parts of the iris rhizomes sink and the cortical parts thicken on the surface. With the irises this represents a prime method of obtaining the separation of the two components.
• the inner parts of the rhizomes which we are. interested in 2 can be rinsed several times in pure water after they have been taken out of the liquid in which they have settled. In a ratio of ground parts and water, whose value is I to 4, which is quite realistic., the quantity of sodium chloride in the water diminishes 6000+7000 times after the second rinsing.
• the plant might be made up of a cement tank, with a volume great enough to contain an economically suitable quantity of the product.
• This tank will contain the water, or the solution with the higher specific gravity.
• the tank will also contain two types of large container, whose cross section will be the same as that of the tank, and these containers will be removed from the tank itself by winches set over the tank.
• Such containers will be equipped to strain the water, or the liquid used, from the ground parts they contain. Therefore their bottoms and sides will be made of net fine enough to hold the ground parts as the water draims off.
• This upper container will have an opening bottom, which can be realized by hinging two half bottoms to a fixed central axis of the container. It should be possible to open or shut these two half bottom from the outside, with tierods fixed to the container itself.
• the steps involved in extracting the two components, the cortical and the inner ones, in chronological order could be the following : in the tank one container is kept on the bottom, the other one, with its mobile bottoms open, is kept halfway up; the ground parts are mixed into the liquid in-the tank; when the heavier component settles, that is, accumulates in the container on the bottom, the mobile bottoms of the upper container are shut; the upper container is raised to the surface, thereby gathering the lighter of the two components, that is 2 the cortical parts; said upper container will be strained and put aside in the tank itself; the lower container, with the heavier component, the one in which we are interested, can then be taken out of the tank;the contents can be rinsed several times if the liquid was a solution of salts in water, or they can simply be recovered if pure water was used.
• This process industrializes one of the transformation phases of some agricultural materials that are used by industry. This phase requires a lot of manual work at the present moment and certainly impedes industrialization from the beginning. This process can be the basis of an industrialization which will involve the initial selection of the most productive plants of the highest quality, rational cultivation techniques and commercial standards which will protect the quality and the price.

Landscapes

• Medicines Containing Plant Substances (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=11128587

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 1980
  • 1980-02-01 IT IT09334/80A patent/IT1136081B/it active
• 1981
  • 1981-02-02 EP EP81830019A patent/EP0035002A3/de not_active Ceased

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events