GB2201875A - Fibre rich diets of some therapeutic advantage from psyllium ispaghula husk and guar gum - Google Patents

Abstract

Dietary fibre products of therapeutic significance with desired organoleptic properties and taste, prepared from a mixture of Psyllium Ispaghula Husk and Guar Gum, with or without other soluble fibres from fruits, vegetables and cereals, manufactured by cooking in a extruder or by conventional granulation methods.

Description

FIBRE RICH DIETS OF SOME THERAPEUTIC ADVANTAGE FROM PSYLLIUM ISPAGHULA HUSK AhlD GUAR GUM This invention relates to dietary products and more particularly to dietary products derived from psyllium ispaghula and guar gum.

The value of psyllium ispaghula husk and guar gum as soluble fibres has long been appreciated in the treatment of gastro-intestinal conditions, and more recently guar gum has been recommended in diabetes, coronary heart disease and obesity. Oat bran and pea bran are also now recognised to be rich in dietary fibre, some of which is in a soluble form. Oat and pea bran also provide some valuable proteins, minerals and vitamins.

Ispaghula, guar gum and finely milled pea and oat bran conccntrates pose a problem in producing a suitable and palatable consumer product as the fibre rich products tend to form untasty lumps and the resulting paste sticks to utensils.

It is a principal object of this invention to provide products having desired organoleptic properties from psyllium ispaghula and guar gum in formulations with or without other fibres.

It is another object of this invention to provide psyllium ispaghula and guar gum products, with or without other soluble fibres, of good therapeutic value which can be consumed with hot or cold fluids without pasting or lumping. It is another object of this invention to provide therapeutic cereal food products from psyllium ispaghula and guar gum with or without other soluble fibres, which are hydratable with hot fluids such as water, milk, soups etc.

It is another object of this invention to provide methods of producing from psyllium ispaghula and guar gum, with or without other soluble fibres ready to eat cereal foods and snacks.

It is still another object of this invention to produce from psyllium ispaghula and guar gum, with or without other soluble fibres ready to eat cereal and non-cereal food products of therapeutic value, having desirable attributes from the standpoint of structural integrity and maintenance of crispness when served in cold fluids.

In accordance with this invention foods and diets of distinct therapeutic value are produced in particular from mucilagenous natural plant products containing psyllium ispaghula husk and guar gum in conjunction with gum tragacanth and/or pea bran and/or oat bran and/or carrot fibre and/or citrus and apple fibres and/or rice bran and/or figs and/or malt extract and/or barley fines and/or vitamins and/or minerals and/or lecithin.

The oat and pea bran used herein are a fraction derived from whole pea and oat groats, containing 150% more total crude fibre than is normally available in the l.S ole groat, and thus providing higher levels of protein, gum, fat and ash than the whole pea or oat groat.

Psyllium Ispaghula: The epidermis and collapsed adjacent layers removed fron tie dried ripe seeds of Plantago ovata (Plantaginaceae), containing mucilage and hemi-celluloses.

Guar Gum: A gum obtained from the ground endosperms of the seeds of Cyamopsis psoraloides ( = C. tetragonolobus) (Leguminosae). It contains more than 60% of a high molecular weight hydrocolloidal polysaccharide, a galactomannan, composed of galactan and mannan units combined through glycosidic linkages.

The Process: Soluble dietary fibres mentioned in this invention are rich in gum content and are readily hydratable with hot water and exhibit reduced pasting and lump characteristics when processed in accordance with this invention. To prepare a food product in accordance with this invention, the psyllium husk and guar gum, with or without other dietary fibres is subjected to a cooking operation with water. The cooking is conveniently and thus preferably accomplished by passing the fibre mix admixed with water through an extruder-heat exchanger of conventional design, from which it is extruded through a die having an arrangement of closely adjacent orifices disharging a pluarity of strands which are pliable or plastic in nature.

The fibre mix can be expanded or non-expanded as desired by controlling the temperature of the cooking-extruding operation and the moisture of the fibre undergoing extrusion. For substantial expansion, it is generally preferred that the moisture content of the material being cooked and extruded to be in the range of 15% to 25% and the temperature at the exit of the cooker/extruder to be about 120 to 150 C. To limit or reduce expansion a lower moisture content or reduces cooking/expansion temperatures can be used. Cooking is accomplished by heating the moistened mixture of psyllium ispaghula and guar gum with or without other dietary fibres to a temperature sufficient to gelatinize the mixture in the presence of sufficient water to produce a plastic mass or dough which can be shaped.

After being cooked, the mixture is in a plastic condition and capable of being shaped as desired to foro shreds, flakes, pellets, expanded hollow tubes, solid rods etc. As it is known in the Art, shaping can be obtained principally from the extruder having a plurity of die orifices of such configuration so as to discharge particularly shaped strands or rods which can be cut into pieces of a desired size. The extrudate strands or rods leaving the extruder can be cut near the die orifice or fed to cutting and shaping rolls.Alternatively, the mixture of psylliutn ispaghula and guar gum, with or without other soluble fibres can be cooked by means other than an extruder-cooker and the cooked psyllium ispaghula and guar gum mixture, 7ith or without other soluble fibres can be formed into a plastic sheet and cut and shaped as desired, using conventional equipment and techniques known in the cereal food industry. Yet another alternative of cooking is passing the wet mix through a sieve and drying in either a conventional tray drier or a fluidised bed drier to produce a granular product.It is known that cereal type breakfast foods and snacks can be extruded/cooked under conditions that a plastic shapable mass or dough is formed, but for a very brief time, and the extrusion temperature and pressure conditions being such that the water in the extrudate is quickly flashed off, yielding an extrudate which is hard and frangible and not considered generally a plastic shapable mass. The cooked shaped dietary fibre in accordance with this invention is eminently suitable for use as an "instant" dietary/therapeutic food as part of a meal or meal replacement low calorie product. The processed mix is readily hydratable with hot milk or soups. Currently available instant cereal fibres generally require cooking with water at a temperature of at least about 80 0C for at least one minute or more.

When used as a precooked instant fibre supplement or cereal, the mixture of psyllium ispaghula and guar gum with or without other dietary fibres can be mixed with cold milk to form a cold cereal which is organoleptically similar to a cooked cereal but which is not pasty or lumpy and does not adhere or stick excessively to utensils. If the consummer prefers, the product can be used as a hot instant fibre cereal by mere addition of hot milk or soup thereto without the necessity of actual furthur cooking the material. The hydration characteristics of the psyllium ispaghula and guar gum with or without other soluble fibres are such that a smooth, non-lumpy, non-pasty instant dietary fibre food is obtained by simple mixing. The product may also be consumed by sprinkling on various foods, salads, yoghurt, ice creams etc.

The mixture of psyllium ispaghula and guar gum kith or without other soluble fibres in accordance with this Invention are likewise eminently suitable for use as the principal ingredient in ready-to-eat fibre rich diets. Thus the cooked shaped fibre product can be employed in formulations with either other desired materials such as flavors, to produce a readyto-eat fibre rich food to which milk or yoghurt can be added. According to this embodiment, the psyllium ispaghula and guar gum maybe with some or all of the soluble fibres mentioned in this invention and other ingredients including water to form a dough which is then cooked.

Various ingredients can be employed with the psyllium ispaghula and guar gum to form the dough. Such ingredients include brans like that from peas, oats, rye, rice, barley, fibres from carrots, apples, citrus fruits, figs, malt, lecithin, vitamins and minerals, providing a total fibre content of not less than 20% and as much as 90%. The cooked shaped fibre product is subjected to a drying operation to reduce the final moisture content not exceeding 10% and preferably not in excess of about 5% by weight. The lower limit for moisture content is 2%. The temperature of the drying bed varies between 80 0C and 160 0C, with a time range from 30 seconds to 20 minutes.

The cereal foods disclosed herein are distributed in packaged (sachet) form as is customary with diets of therapeutic value.

The following examples illustrate the invention and the advantages thereof: Example 1 Example 2 Guar Gum 68% Guar Gum 60% Ispaghula Husk 25% . Ispaghula Husk 13% Malt Extract 7% Oat Bran 20% The mixture is extruded Malt Extract 7% The mixture is extruded Example 3 Example 4 Guar Gum 50% Guar Gum 50% Ispaghula Husk 14% Ispaghula Husk 15% Gum Tragacanth 10% Oat Bran 15% Oat Bran 20 Pea Bran 13% Malt Extract 6% Malt Extract 7% The mixture is extruded The mixture is extruded Example 5 Example G Guar Gum 35.7% Guar Gum 24.1 iv Ispaghula Husk 17.85% Ispaghula Husk 24.1% Barley Fines 8.95% Oat Bran 24.1% Oat Bran 26.8% Pectin 5.8% Malt Extract 10.7tie Rice Bran 4.8% Carrot Fire 4.8% The mixture is extruded Carrot Fibre 4. 8% Barley Fines 2. 97é Vitamin Mix 0.8% Malt Extract 8.6% The mixture is extruded Example 7 Guar Gum 25% Ispaghula Husk 10 Oat Bran 157 Pectin 5% Rice Bran 15% Carrot Fibre 5% Barley Fines 3Z Pea Fibre 10 Lecithin 2% Malt Extract 10tlç The mixture is extruded Dietary products comprised of a substantial proportion of soluble fibres as disclosed herein may have physiological properties of therapeutic slgrificance viti respect to obesity, serum cholesterol reduction, and its beneficial effect on Irritable Bowel Syndrome ( I.B.S. ), Diverticulitis, cancer of the bowel, diabetes, ischaenic heart disease, gall stones and other conditions that are associate2 with serum cholesterol levels. There are indications that daily consumption of soluble fibres as part of a high carbohydrate diet reduces the serum cholesterol in adults with hypercholesterolemia. Such a diet also may contribute to a beneficial shift in the ratio of high density lipoprotein cholesterol to low density lipoprotein cholesterol. Examples 1 to 4 are of particular importance for use in diabetes melitus.

Those modifications and equivalents which fall within the spirit of the invention are considered a part thereof.

Claims (12)

1. A product made by mixing the psyllium ispaghula husk with guar gum by a method to produce a product with desired organoleptic properties not possessed by individual ingredients.

2. The desired organoleptic properties are a) crunchy when mixed with cold liquids and cold semisolids, b) Hydrates rapidly in hot liquids to produce sof-t and smooth hydrated spheres which could be drunk as a liquid.

3. The product according to claim 1, in which could be added one or more of the following ingredients: tragacanth gum, pea bran, lecithin, oat bran, rice bran, barley fines, malt extract, carrot fibre, apple fibre, fibre from citrus fruits and figs, vitamins and rinerals.

4. A process wherein cooking of the ingredients claimed in claims 1 and 3 is carried out to effect expansion of the mixture of suitable consistency to make pellets, shreds, rods or flakes of various shapes and sizes.

5. A process wherein cooking of the ingredients in claims 1 and 3 is carried out under non-expanding conditions to produce a granular product.

6. A process involving the product's ingredients of claims 1 and 3 in which the mixture is subjected to an extrusion process.

7. A process in accordance with claim 4 wherein the cooked ingredients are shaped by grinding to form finely to coarsely divided particles.

8. The cooked fibre product according to claims 4 and 5 of desired shape has a final moisture content with a lower limit of 2% and a top limit of 10%.

9. The cooked fibre product according to claims 4 and 5 of desired shape has a final fibre content with a lower limit of 20% and a top limit of 90%.

10. A process wherein the ingredients of claims 1 and 3 are moisturised, the mixture is passed through a sieve and resulting in granules or finely divided particles which are tray dried in a tray drier or fluid bed drier.

11. The product may be used for weight control and obesity.

12. The product so obtained may be used as a therapeutic food in the treatment of diabetes melitus, hypercholesterolemia, diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome and gallstones.