GB2598660A

GB2598660A - Processing method for tea plant blossom and product of tea plant blossom

Info

Publication number: GB2598660A
Application number: GB2109741.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Lu Shufeng
Original assignee: Shenzhen Qianhai Jinwanhong Ind Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Qianhai Jinwanhong Ind Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-12-11
Filing date: 2019-06-28
Publication date: 2022-03-09
Anticipated expiration: 2039-06-28
Also published as: GB202109741D0; CN109393484A; WO2020119079A1; GB2598660B

Abstract

A processing method for a tea plant blossom and a product of a tea plant blossom manufactured by using the processing method. The processing method comprises the steps of collection, extraction, concentration and drying to acquire solid extracts of tea plant blossoms.

Description

PROCESSING METHOD FOR TEA PLANT BLOSSOM AND PRODUCT OF TEA PLANT BLOSSOM

FIELD

c [0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of tea products, specifically to a processing method for tea plant blossom and a tea plant blossom product.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Tea plant blossoms are flowers of the tea tree, which generally blooms from October to January of the following year, and come in various colors such as white, yellow, and pink. Tea plant blossoms are monoecious flowers. For thousands of years, tea plant blossoms have been removed and discarded by tea farmers before blooming because they compete with tea leaves for nutrients, affecting the quality and yield of tea. Now people have discovered that due to their long-term growth, tea plant blossoms play a great role in strengthening physical fitness, alleviating fatigue, and improving immunity, so they have gradually been paid attention to. However, because of the inconvenience of picking, transportation and storage of tea plant blossoms, their promotion has been greatly restricted [0003] The processing method of tea plant blossoms involved in the prior art is usually limited to simple processes such as drying and crushing the picked tea plant blossoms, for example, the processing method disclosed in the invention patent "Processing method of tea plant blossom" with the patent application No. CNO1123633.7. This patent involves the following processing process: the picking procedure is to pick tea plant blossoms from 2-3 days before pollination to 2-3 days after pollination, using bamboo or plastic hollow flower basket to hold, and the picked tea plant blossoms are required to be spread out immediately after being graded; for dehydration procedure: the flowers are required to be spread on a bamboo mat or concrete floor, with a thickness of 2-5 cm, gently turned over every 1 hour, and the dehydration time of the flowers shall not exceed 10 hours and the best spreading time is 6 hours; after dehydration, performing the steaming process by directly using a tea steaming machine to set the heating temperature of the flower between 80100 degrees; drying process: drying is divided into multiple times, with the best divided into 3-4

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times of drying, the temperature of 60-180 degrees during drying, and 2-3 cm thickness of the flowers on the drying plate of the dryer, and after each drying, the flowers need to be removed from the machine and spread out for cooling down with the spreading time gradually extended each time; quick freezing procedure: performing quick freezing for 20 minutes at a temperature of minus 20- 40 degrees: and crushing procedure: the flowers are put into a crusher immediately after being taken out. This process obtains only tea plant blossom powder, which does not dissolve in water and affects the display of the nutritional value of the tea plant blossom. In addition, since the existing process does not thoroughly dry the tea plant blossoms, the finished product still contains moisture, which is of no beneficial to long-term storage. The above deficiencies are not conducive to the promotion of tea plant blossom products, and thus to the use as people's daily drinking or food additives.

SUMMARY

[0004] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a processing method of tea plant blossom to improve the nutritional value of tea plant blossom products.

[0005] The present invention provides a processing method of tea plant blossom, comprising [0006] Picking step: picking to obtain a raw material of tea plant blossom; [0007] Extraction step: extracting an effective ingredient in the raw material of tea plant blossom to obtain an extract containing the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; [0008] Concentration step: concentrating the extract to obtain a concentrate of the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; [0009] Drying step: drying the concentrate to obtain a tea plant blossom extract in solid form.

[0010] Preferably, the extraction step adopts a water extraction method by adding the raw material of tea plant blossom into water and heating to 90°C-I 00°C for 1.5-2.5 hours to obtain the extract of the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; [0011] The concentration step adopts a reduced-pressure concentration method; 100121 The drying step adopts a freeze-drying method to plot a freeze-drying curve to obtain the temperature value of the eutectic point of the concentrate; the freeze-drying method comprises a pre-freezing process and a drying process; the pre-freezing process comprises a cooling process and a maintenance process, and the cooling process is to cool the concentrate to the freezing point within 3 hours; the duration of the maintenance process time is 2-3 hours after the concentrate is cooled to below the freezing point to obtain a frozen product of the concentrate of the extract of tea plant blossom; during the pre-freezing process and maintenance process, monitoring the center temperature of the concentrate; during the drying process, vacuum izing the frozen product obtained in the pre-freezing process, and then diving them by heating, which comprises low-temperature heating and high-temperature heating, and the low-temperature heating is to maintain the temperature below the eutectic temperature of the frozen product, allowing the water in the frozen product to sublimate to obtain an anhydrous frozen product, and the high-temperature heating is to quickly raise the temperature of the anhydrous frozen product to room temperature and maintain it until dry crystals of the tea plant blossom extract are obtained.

[0013] Preferably, in the water extraction method, the mass ratio of the dry matter of tea plant blossom to water is 1:5-7, and the extraction is carried out 2-3 cycles with each extraction of 1.5- 2.5 hours, and then the extract from 2-3 cycles of extraction is mixed for subsequent processing steps.

[0014] Preferably, in the pre-freezing process, maltodextrin is added before the cooling process of the concentrate, and the weight ratio of the maltodextrin to the concentrate is 1-2: I 0.

[0015] Preferably, the high-temperature heating in the drying step is maintained for 1.5-2.5 hours.

100161 Preferably, the vacuum degree in the drying step is 0.1-1 mmHg.

[0017] Preferably, the concentration temperature of the reduced-pressure concentration is 65-75 degrees and the vacuum degree is 0.075-0.085 MPa; and the density of the concentrate is 1.1-1.15 g/cm3.

[0018] Preferably, the raw material of tea plant blossom picked in the picking step is the alabastrum of a wild-type ancient tree or a large-leaf ancient tea tree, and the alabastrum is a tea plant blossom that is in the state of budding or of whose petals have just left the core.

[0019] Preferably, the extraction step adopts countercurrent leaching.

[0020] Preferably, the concentration step adopts a reverse osmosis concentration method. [0021] Preferably, the drying step adopts a spray drying method.

[0022] Preferably, between the picking step and the extraction step, there is also a natural air-curing step and a baking step of the raw material of tea plant blossom, in which the natural air-curing step is to sun-dry the raw material of tea plant blossom for Ito 2 days, avoiding the tea plant blossom turning over during the natural air-curing process; and the baking step is to bake the air-cured tea plant blossom at a baking temperature of 80-120 degrees, and the tea plant blossom are naturally cooled after baking, and then preserved after cooling.

[0023] Preferably, there is a quality inspection step between the picking step and the extraction step.

100241 Preferably, before the concentration step, there is an extract filtration step, in which the extract is filtered through a 70-90 mesh sieve or separated by a disc separator; [0025] Preferably, after the concentration step, there is a concentrate filtration step, in which the concentrate is filtered through a 300-mesh vibrating sieve or filtered by a ceramic membrane.

[0026] Preferably, after the drying step, there is a grinding step and a packaging step, in which the tea plant blossom extract in solid form obtained in the drying step is ground to 10-80 mesh crystal particles, and then encapsulated.

[0027] The present invention also provides a tea plant blossom product, comprising the tea plant blossom extract obtained by the processing method for tea plant blossom of the present invention.

[0028] Preferably, the tea plant blossom product is a solid food or a liquid beverage.

100291 The beneficial effects of the present invention: the processing method of tea plant blossom of the present invention adopts extraction and concentration steps to fully separate the effective substances in the tea plant blossom to obtain tea plant blossom crystal particles that are easy to dissolve in water, with rich nutrients and extremely low water content, so it can be stored for a long time without deterioration, and is available for transportation, preservation or further processing.

Moreover, it is convenient for people to directly brew and drink in daily life, and it can also be made into tea plant blossom solid decoction pieces, tea plant blossom oral liquid and other product forms, and can also be used as food additives to be added into tea powder, flour, yam, honey, etc. to make various health foods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

100301 To illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art more clearly, the drawings to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art are described briefly hereinafter. Apparently, the drawings described hereinafter are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings may be obtained by those skilled in the art based on those drawings without creative effort.

100311 FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the processing method of tea plant blossom in the examples.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] In order to make the objective, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure clear, the technical solutions of the present disclosure are described in detail below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all of other embodiments, made by those skilled in the art without any creative efforts, fall into the scope of the present disclosure.

Examples

100331 As shown in FIG. 1, this example provides a processing method of tea plant blossom, which comprises the following steps: [0034] (1) Picking step: picking to obtain the raw material of tea plant blossom; in this example, the raw material of tea plant blossom selected for picking is the alabastrum of pure natural and nonpolluting wild-type ancient trees or large-leaf ancient tea trees, and the alabastrum is a tea plant blossom that is in the state of budding or of whose petals have just left the core, around October to November each year. During picking, the tea plant blossoms are required to be intact and undamaged, and shall be handled with care, with bamboo woven utensils to hold them.

[0035] (2) Quality inspection step: visually eliminating damaged and spoiled alabastra, and at the same time inspecting the pesticide residues. Excluding the raw materials with excessive -5 -pesticide residues to ensure the quality of the final product.

[0036] (3) Natural air-curing steps: Placing the picked fresh alabastra of the tea plant blossoms on the bamboo woven drying mat, and sun-drying them naturally for Ito 2 days; when taking back every night, the air-cured tea plant blossoms should be taken back together with the whole bamboo woven drying mat without turning the tea plant blossoms, and the same is true when air-curing the next day. During the whole drying process, avoiding using force to turn the tea plant blossoms to prevent the petals from being damaged and blackened, which will affect the nutritional content of the tea plant blossoms.

[0037] (4) Baking step: After the natural air-curing is over, the tea plant blossoms need to be put into the dryer for drying once again to ensure the dryness of the tea plant blossoms. 5 layers of tea plant blossoms at a time are put into and dried in cycles, with the baking time for each layer of about 10 minutes at a time, and the temperature of 80-120 degrees. The baked tea plant blossoms are placed flat on a bamboo drying mat and allowed to cool naturally with the cooling time of about 2 hours.

100381 Because fresh tea plant blossoms cannot enter the extraction plant directly from farmers, they need to be collected and transported uniformly The entire collection time may last 1-2 months, and the collection range is all over the entire area. During this period, if tea plant blossoms are fresh flowers, they will soon rot. Therefore, the natural air-curing and baking steps are to make the picked tea plant blossoms more convenient to store and transport, and to prevent the picked tea plant blossoms from decayed due to improper storage before extraction.

100391 (5) Extraction step: In this example, the water extraction method is used. After placing the dried tea plant blossom materials in a clean stainless steel container for cleaning, adding sixfold purified water, heating to 100 degrees, and discharging the liquid after 2 hours, and then adding sixfold purified water, heating to 100 degrees and discharging the liquid after 1.5-2.5 hours, a total of two extractions to obtain the extract.

100401 (6) Extract filtration step: filtering the extract through a 70-90 mesh sieve. In this example, an 80-mesh sieve is selected for filtration into the storage tank, and the supernatant is collected after standing for precipitation.

[0041] (7) Concentration step: concentrating the extract to obtain a concentrate of the effective -6 -ingredients of tea plant blossoms; the concentration step in this example adopts a reduced-pressure concentration method; the conditions of the concentration process are set as the temperature being 65°C-75°C and the vacuum degree being 0.075-0.085 MPa, until the relative density determined by the thermal test is 1.1-1.15 Wein' to obtain a concentrate.

[0042] (8) Concentrate filtration step: filtering the concentrate through a 300-mesh vibrating sieve [0043] (9) Drying step: drying the concentrate to obtain a tea plant blossom extract in solid form; in this example, the drying step adopts a freeze-drying method, which includes a freezing process and a drying process.

[0044] For a mixed solution, there are two or more substances at the same time, which cannot completely condense into a solid at a single fixed temperature, but crystals begin to precipitate at a certain temperature. As the temperature drops, the amount of crystals continues to increase, until the final solution is completely condensed; During the cooling process, the temperature at which crystals begin to precipitate is called the ice point of the solution, and the temperature at which the solution completely condenses is called the freezing point; in the relative heating process, the freezing point is the starting point of melting (melting point). For the solution, the freezing point is the common melting point of different components of the mixed solution, so it is called the eutectic point.

[0045] The freezing process includes a cooling process and a maintenance process. The cooling process is to cool the concentrate to the freezing point (i.e., the solution is completely condensed), and the cooling process time is controlled within 3 hours; the duration of the maintenance process time is 2-3 hours after the concentrate is cooled to the freezing point, and after the maintenance process, the frozen product of tea plant blossoms is obtained; during the cooling process and the maintenance process, monitoring the center temperature of the concentrate and plotting a freeze-drying curve to obtain the temperature value of the eutectic point (freezing point) of the concentrate.

100461 During the drying process, first vacuumizing the frozen product obtained in the freezing step to a vacuum degree of 0.1-1 mmHg, and then drying them by heating, which comprises low-temperature heating and high-temperature heating, and the low-temperature heating is to maintain the temperature below the eutectic temperature of the frozen product, allowirug the water in the frozen product to sublimate to obtain an anhydrous frozen product, and the high-temperature heating is to quickly raise the temperature of the anhydrous frozen product to room temperature or slightly higher than room temperature, and maintain it until dry crystals of the tea plant blossom extract are obtained.

[0047] In this example, first adding maltodextrin to the concentrate with the added amount accounting for 10-20% of the concentrate's mass, stiffing and heating to 50-60°C to dissolve evenly, and then spreading the materials on the tray in the freezer with the spreading amount of 5.00.1 kg/tray; the addition of maltodextrin can play a role in supporting the effective ingredients during the freeze-drying process, which is conducive to more thorough drying, and at the same time lo facilitates the post-processing of the dried product such as grinding; then starting the cooling process, in which from the beginning of the materials entering the freezer, the time for the center temperature to decrease to -30°C to -40°C (freezing point) is controlled within 3 hours, and after the center temperature of the materials are <-30°C to -40°C, maintaining for 1-3 hours to make the materials freeze thoroughly [0048] (10) Grinding step: grinding the tea plant blossom extract in solid form obtained in the drying step to 10-80 mesh tea plant blossom extract powder.

100491 (11) Packaging steps: in order to avoid being damp, the tea plant blossom extract powder should be packaged in a 5 kg food-grade pure aluminum foil bag in a dry environment, then sealed in a cardboard drum, and marked with product name, batch number, quantity, and production date, and finally stored. It can also be directly packed into small bags with aluminum foil bags, and packed into the carton 100501 In this example, the water-based extraction technology is used to separate the contents of the tea plant blossom to obtain a concentrate, and then the concentrate is dehydrated by freeze-drying technology to obtain crystalline particles. The obtained tea plant blossom extract powder can preserve a variety of nutrients in the tea plant blossom, especially for heat-sensitive substances, various aromatic substances, easily oxidized substances, vitamins, etc.; and the product has good rehydration and is easily dissolved in water. The blossom extract powder can be stored for a long time due to its extremely low water content, which greatly facilitates people's direct brewing and eating, as well as transportation and storage.

[0051] Table 1 shows the test results of the nutrient ingredients of the tea plant blossom extract powder in this example. The test results are provided by SGS (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.. From the test results, it can be seen that the tea plant blossom extract powder obtained in the present invention is rich in vitamin B6 (calculated as pyridoxine), vitamin B2, niacin, nicotinamide, vitamin PP, folic acid, proanthocyanidin (calculated as proanthocyanidin B1); and contain at least 15 amino acids, such as L-aspartic acid, L-threonine, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, L-alanine, L-valine, L-proline, L-isoleucine, L-leucine, L-tyrosine, L-histidine, L-arginine, the total content as high as I.1 7%; in addition, it is also rich in iron, magnesium, zinc, etc., with very high nutritional value.

Table 1 Test results of nutrient ingredients of the tea plant blossom extract powder [0052] The present invention also provides a tea plant blossom product, comprising the tea plant blossom extract obtained by the processing method of tea plant blossom of the present invention. The tea plant blossom product can be solid food or liquid beverage. For example, it can be made into tea plant blossom solid decoction pieces, tea plant blossom extract powder oral liquid, or other foods and beverages added with the tea plant blossom extract, such as cakes, snacks, etc. reSt itawee.

vita:Wm 01-Niatin Nimsitzaniidv Vitutnkt VP I Ispai acid L-tinvottior tint Gluzatnie acid (Aram> -A fillw 1-Prang DWOCint -teudoo L-tv3719iIie IniaRygMaititist Test result Att TOSt d 11..-arpunk:grow (Fe) MASIOittAl CM,g) 'Zine (7.a) *Tota ciiSry o Iodated al: ptaantNott [0053] The above are only specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the extraction step can also adopt countercurrent leaching. Countercurrent leaching means that there is a screw conveyor in the extractor. The inlet of the screw conveyor is at the lower part of the extractor, the outlet of the screw conveyor is at the upper part of the extractor, and there is a pressure cover on the outlet. The rotary continuous countercurrent leaching unit is a linkage unit mainly composed of three components: a rotary continuous leaching chamber, a head thickener, and a tail thickener. The rotary continuous leaching chamber is composed of cylindrical and conical cylinders with different or identical diameters. The two ends of the head are equipped with hollow shafts and are supported by rolling bearings. The hollow shaft at one end of the leaching chamber is equipped with a gear or sprocket to connect with the transmission system, and drives the leaching chamber to rotate at a set speed.

In the leaching chamber, there are multiple compartment plates, which are circular or with gaps, and the positions of the gaps of the multiple compartment plates are staggered by 1800 in the radial direction or in other ways. The filtration step can adopt the steps of disc separation-fine filtration-ceramic membrane-reverse osmosis. Disc separation is the use of a disc separator to separate materials that are difficult to separate, such as a suspension composed of a viscous liquid and fine solid particles, or an emulsion composed of a liquid with similar density. Ceramic membrane is a kind of inorganic membrane, and belongs to the solid membrane material in membrane separation technology. It mainly uses inorganic ceramic materials of different specifications such as alumina, zirconia, titania, and silica as the support, and is formed by surface coating and high temperature firing. Commercial ceramic membranes usually have a three-layer structure (porous support layer, transition layer and separation layer), which are distributed asymmetrically, and the pore size ranges from 0.8 nm to I (tm. The filtration accuracy covers microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration levels. According to the different supports, the configuration of the ceramic membrane can be divided into three types: flat, tubular, and multi-channel types. Ceramic membranes can successfully achieve molecular-level filtration due to acid and alkali resistance, high temperature resistance, and chemical stability in extreme environments, as well as the small pore size of commercial ceramic membranes (usually less than 0.2 gm). The concentration step can also adopt the reverse osmosis concentration method. Reverse osmosis is a membrane separation operation that uses the pressure difference as the driving force to separate the solvent from the solution. Because it is in the opposite direction of natural osmosis, it is called reverse osmosis.

According to the different osmotic pressure of various materials, the reverse osmosis pressure greater than the osmotic pressure can be used, that is called the reverse osmosis method, to achieve -10 -the purpose of separation, extraction, purification and concentration. The drying step can also adopt spray drying method, which is a processing method in which materials are dispersed into very fine mist-like particles through mechanical action (increasing the evaporation area of water to accelerate the drying process), and then contacted with hot air, and most of the water is removed in an instant, so that the solid materials in the materials are dried into powder. Changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention can easily be conceived of by those skilled in the art, and they should be encompassed by the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A processing method of tea plant blossom, comprising picking step: picking to obtain a raw material of tea plant blossom; extraction step: extracting an effective ingredient in the raw material of tea plant blossom to obtain an extract containing the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; concentration step: concentrating the extract to obtain a concentrate of the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; and drying step: drying the concentrate to obtain a tea plant blossom extract in solid form.
2. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 1, wherein the extraction step adopts a water extraction method by adding the raw material of tea plant blossom into water and heating to 90°C-100°C for 1.5-2.5 hours to obtain the extract of the effective ingredient of tea plant blossom; the concentration step adopts a reduced-pressure concentration method; and the drying step adopts a freeze-drying method, and the freeze-drying method comprises a pre-freezing process and a drying process, and the pre-freezing process comprises a cooling process and a maintenance process, and the cooling process is to cool the concentrate to the freezing point within 3 hours; the duration of the maintenance process time is 2-3 hours after the concentrate is cooled to below the freezing point to obtain a frozen product of the concentrate of the extract of tea plant blossom; during the pre-freezing process, monitoring the center temperature of the concentrate to obtain the temperature value of the eutectic point of the concentrate; during the drying process, vacuumizing the frozen product obtained in the pre-freezing process, and then drying them by heating, which comprises low-temperature heating and high-temperature heating, and the low-temperature heating is to maintain the temperature below the eutectic temperature of the frozen product, allowing the water in the frozen product to sublimate to obtain an anhydrous frozen product, and the high-temperature heating is to quickly raise the temperature of the anhydrous frozen product to room temperature and maintain it until dry crystals of the tea plant -12 -blossom extract are obtained.
3. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 2, wherein in the water extraction method, the mass ratio of the dry matter of tea plant blossom to water is 1:5-7, and the extraction is carried out 2-3 cycles with each extraction of 1.5-2.5 hours, and then the extract from 2-3 cycles of extraction is mixed for subsequent processing steps.
4. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 2, wherein in the pre-freezing process, maltodextrin is added before the cooling process of the concentrate, and the weight ratio of the maltodextrin to the concentrate is 1-2:10; and/or, the high-temperature heating in the drying step is maintained for 1.5-2.5 hours; and/or, the vacuum degree in the diving step is 0.1-1 mmHg; and/or, the concentration temperature of the reduced-pressure concentration is 65-75 degrees and the vacuum degree is 0.075-0.085 MPa; and the density of the concentrate is 1.1-1.15 glcml.
5. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 1, wherein the raw material of tea plant blossom picked in the picking step is the alabastrum of a wild-type ancient tree or a large-leaf ancient tea tree, and the alabastrum is a tea plant blossom that is in the state of budding or of whose petals have just left the core; and/or, the extraction step adopts countercurrent leaching; and/or, the concentration step adopts a reverse osmosis concentration method; and/or, the drying step adopts a spray drying method.
6. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 1, wherein between the picking step and the extraction step, there is also a natural air-curing step and a baking step of the raw material of tea plant blossom, in which the natural air-curing step is to sun-dry the raw material -13 -of tea plant blossom for 1 to 2 days, avoiding the tea plant blossom turning over during the natural air-curing process; and the baking step is to bake the air-cured tea plant blossom at a baking temperature of 80-120 degrees, and the tea plant blossom are naturally cooled after baking, and then preserved after cooling; and/or, there is a quality inspection step between the picking step and the extraction step.
7. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 1, wherein before the concentration step, there is an extract filtration step, in which the extract is filtered through a 7090 mesh sieve or separated by a disc separator; and/or, after the concentration step, there is a concentrate filtration step, in which the concentrate is filtered through a 300-mesh vibrating sieve or filtered by a ceramic membrane.
8. The processing method of tea plant blossom according to claim 1, wherein after the drying step, there is a grinding step and a packaging step, in which the tea plant blossom extract in solid IS form obtained in the drying step is ground to 10-80 mesh crystal particles, and then encapsulated.
9. A tea plant blossom product, comprising the tea plant blossom extract obtained by the processing method of tea plant blossom according to any one of claims 1-7.
10. The tea plant blossom product according to claim 9, wherein the tea plant blossom product is a solid food or a liquid beverage.-14 -