Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C11—ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE OILS, FATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES OR WAXES; FATTY ACIDS THEREFROM; DETERGENTS; CANDLES
  • C11B—PRODUCING, e.g. BY PRESSING RAW MATERIALS OR BY EXTRACTION FROM WASTE MATERIALS, REFINING OR PRESERVING FATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES, e.g. LANOLIN, FATTY OILS OR WAXES; ESSENTIAL OILS; PERFUMES
  • C11B9/00—Essential oils; Perfumes
  • C11B9/02—Recovery or refining of essential oils from raw materials
  • C11B9/022—Refining

Definitions

• the present invention relates to essential oils extracted from botanical matter which are treated with a peroxide-acid reagent to remove harsh flavor notes therefrom.
• Essential oils which are freshly distilled from botanical matter usually have, when freshly made, what are known as harsh tasting flavor notes. These harsh flavor off-notes are also known as green, burnt, still off-notes. This is particularly true in the case of peppermint oil or spearmint oil which is freshly made by means of steam distillation of the parent botanical matter from which the oil is extracted.
• the customary procedure employed for removing those harsh flavor notes which are present in the freshly obtained oil is to allow the oil to age or mellow for periods of about 6 to 24 months, in full containers in the presence of oxygen and in the absence of actinic radiation. This aging-mellowing process is economically unattractive since it requires the use of carefully monitored storage facilities, for long periods of time and supervised by technically trained personnel. All of these storage requirements are economically burdensome.
• the peroxide-acid reagent which is used to treat the essential oils in accordance with the present invention is a combination of one or more water soluble inorganic peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide and/or ozone and one or more water soluble inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid.
• the peroxide is the active agent in the reagent system of the present invention.
• the acid is merely used to acidify the peroxide.
• the peroxides and the acids are preferably employed as aqueous solutions having a peroxide or acid concentration of about 30 to 40 weight percent.
• Aqueous solutions of the peroxides and/or acids having higher or lower concentrations may also be used.
• the peroxide and acid components of the reagent are added together to the oil to be treated therewith, as disclosed below.
• the essential oils which are to be treated with the peroxide-acid reagent in accordance with the present invention are the freshly extracted essential oils of botanical matter. These oils are used as flavorants in the food, confectionary, perfume and cosmetic industries. These oils would include those obtained from the following botanical materials: anise, basil, dill weed, chamomile, eucalyptus, fennel, geranium, hop, laurel leaf, lemongrass, bois de rose, caraway, amber, camphor, amyris, galbanum, davana, mentha (spearmint and peppermint).
• the essential oils which are to be treated with the peroxide-acid reagent in accordance with the present invention may be extracted from their parent botanical matter, i.e., leaves, fruit, bark, root, grass, wood, heartwood, gum, balsam, berries, seed, flowers, twigs and buds, by the commonly employed technique for doing so, i.e., steam distillation.
• U.S. 4,478,864 discloses the treatment of freshly prepared peppermint oil with maleic anhydride for the purposes of preventing the formation of certain off flavor notes during the aging process. This process removes most of the menthofuran from the fresh peppermint oil, in the form of a menthofuran-maleic anhydride complex. Thus, very little menthofuran is present, during the aging process, to oxidize to produce undesirable flavor notes. This process, however, does not cure all the off-flavor note problems inherent in fresh peppermint oil. An essential oil treated by the process of U.S. 4,478,864 may still have to undergo an aging process to remove off-flavor notes that are present in the freshly prepared oil.
• the present invention relates to an essential oil of botanical material treated with an acidified peroxide and/or ozone to remove harsh flavor off-notes therefrom.
• the present invention also relates to a process for removing harsh flavor off-notes from the essential oil of a botanical material which comprises treating said oil with an acidified peroxide and/or ozone.
• the fresh oil may be rectified (redistilled) prior to or after treatment with the peroxide-acid reagent to improve a particular property characteristic.
• peppermint oil may be rectified to remove dimethyl sulfide therefrom which provides a green weedy note.
• the harsh flavor off-notes in the fresh essential oils, which are to be removed by treatment with the peroxide-acid reagent may be characterized, as such, organoleptically. Organoleptically these harsh off-flavor notes may be characterized as: harsh, green, raw, weedy, skunky and burnt.
• volatile components those components of the oil which are volatile enough as to be capable of being detected by gas chromatography analysis using a Carbowax-20M column operated at a maximum temperature of 230°C and with an injector temperature of a maximum of 250°C.
• the oil may be extracted in a liquid/liquid extraction with the peroxide-acid reagent, or it may be contacted with the peroxide-acid reagent immobilized on a solid support.
• each of the peroxide and the acid components of the reagent of the present invention is used in treating the oil therewith, when using the peroxides and acids as 30 to 40% by weight aqueous solutions.
• the peroxide and acid components are added to the oil, for the purposes of conducting the treatment therewith of the present invention, by adding such components together.
• the acid is used to form an acidified peroxide.
• the treatment with the peroxide-acid reagent may be conducted at room temperature, of about 20-25°C, although at higher temperatures a more rapid/efficient extraction may be effected.
• the liquid/liquid extraction may be done by vigorously shaking a mixture of the oil and the peroxide-acid reagent in commonly employed shaking devices designed to effect efficient liquid/liquid extraction systems.
• the extraction time required may be about one to ten minutes.
• aqueous peroxide-acid reagent is used to treat the essential oil in the liquid/liquid extraction process, it is readily moved therefrom by the use of oil/water separating devices such as a separatory funnel, with or without prior centrifuging. Residual traces of the peroxide-acid reagent can be further readily extracted from the oil by treatment with a solution of Na 2 C0 3 (to neutralize the acid) followed by washing with distilled water. The oil is then dried by high speed centrifugation.
• the treatment of the fresh essential oil with the peroxide-acid reagent can be accomplished before or after any treatment of the oil according to the process of U . S . 4,478,864.
• the various types of products into which the essential oils of the present invention may be added as flavors or fragrances would include food, confectionary, including chewing gum and pressed mints, perfumes, cosmetic and body hygiene products and medicinals.
• a 100 ml sample of freshly distilled peppermint oil is shaken, in a 250 ml separatory funnel, with 0.02 grams each of 30% by weight aqueous H 2 0 2 and 12 N HC1 for 1 to 2 minutes.
• the aqueous (bottom) layer is discarded after complete separation of the layers.
• the peppermint oil layer is washed by extraction with 2 x 50 ml 5% sodium carbonate solution and 2 x 50 ml distilled water, and the completely separated aqueous layer is then discarded.
• the oil is dried with 4 g anhydrous sodium sulfate and by centrifugation at 2000 to 3000 rpm.
• the resulting oil is crystal clear and possesses a clean characteristic mellow aroma of a good quality aged peppermint oil.
• the harsh objectionable aroma of the starting oil is eliminated.
• the taste of the treated oil, when evaluated in a sugar fondant at 0.2 weight percent level and in a chewing gum at about a 0.5 to 1.5 weight percent level, is similarly improved from that of the starting oil.
• a sample of freshly distilled spearmint oil is also treated according to the procedure of Example 1. A similar improvement of the treated oil is noted.
• the magnitude of improvement in a treated oil depends on the quality of the starting oil; the more objectionable and the harsher the starting oil is, the more dramatic is the improvement obtained by the treatment thereof according to the present invention.

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Citations (5)

• 1986
  • 1986-04-23 ES ES554260A patent/ES8802367A1/es not_active Expired
  • 1986-04-24 ZA ZA863080A patent/ZA863080B/xx unknown
  • 1986-04-24 CA CA000507493A patent/CA1285175C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1986-04-24 DE DE8686105661T patent/DE3664478D1/de not_active Expired
  • 1986-04-24 NZ NZ215941A patent/NZ215941A/xx unknown
  • 1986-04-24 EP EP86105661A patent/EP0199354B1/de not_active Expired
  • 1986-04-25 JP JP61097813A patent/JPS61258899A/ja active Pending
  • 1986-04-26 CN CN86102952A patent/CN1006553B/zh not_active Expired
  • 1986-04-28 AU AU56811/86A patent/AU583915B2/en not_active Ceased

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Non-Patent Citations (2)

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