JP2000333618A - Functional silk fiber and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fiber imparted with arbitrary function without necessitating complicate operation. SOLUTION: This functional silk fiber is a cocoon fiber spun by a silkworm fed with an artificial feed containing fine particles of functional inorganic material. The artificial feed containing fine particles of functional inorganic material is supplied in the breeding of a silkworm to form a cocoon and the objective cocoon fiber is reeled from the cocoon.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a silk fiber having various functions and a method for producing the same, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an electret, far-infrared radiation, photochromic, phototropic, The present invention relates to a method for producing silk fibers having functionalities such as thermochromic properties and catalytic activity, and breeding silkworms by using artificial feed containing various functional inorganic fine powders and discharging eyebrows.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Until now, electret particles and far-infrared radiation ceramic particles have been adhered to the surface of natural fibers and synthetic fibers, or electret particles and far-infrared radiation ceramic particles have been mixed with a spinning solution of chemical fibers and spun. Thus, it is known to obtain fibers having functions such as electret properties and far-infrared radiation properties (JP-A-60-126310, JP-A-63-8563).
112, JP-A-63-202663, and JP-A-2-169664).

[0003] However, when the functional particles are adhered to the fiber surface, the functional particles are liable to fall off due to friction between the fibers and contact with other objects, and the function cannot be maintained for a long period of time. Mixing the functional particles with the spinning dope has the disadvantage that complicated operations must be performed for homogenization and spinning.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional functional fibers and to provide a fiber having an arbitrary functionality without requiring complicated operations. It was done.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have conducted intensive studies to develop methods for obtaining fibers having various functions, and as a result, they have added inorganic fine particles capable of imparting functions. When breeding silkworms with artificial feed, surprisingly, the inorganic fine particles are taken in a state of being uniformly dispersed in the cocoon thread formed by the silkworm, and a cocoon thread exhibiting each function is obtained. The present invention has been made based on this finding.

That is, the present invention provides a functional silk fiber comprising a silkworm discharged from a silkworm that has ingested an artificial feed containing functional inorganic fine particles, and a functional silk fiber containing the functional inorganic fine particles when rearing the silkworm. The present invention provides a method for producing a functional silk fiber, which comprises feeding an artificial feed to form a cocoon, and then collecting a cocoon thread from the cocoon.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The functional mineral used in the present invention is an inorganic substance having a useful function per se,
When mixed with a fiber, it means one having the property of imparting its function to the fiber. For example, in recent years, it has become known that negative ions activate living cells and have a favorable effect on living organisms. Research on stabilization and recovery from fatigue has been actively conducted, and natural tourmaline has attracted attention as a substance that releases this negative ion. This tourmaline is a substance that has a permanent spontaneous electric polarization, and does not change the polarization vector under the influence of an external electric field.
In addition to showing the strongest permanent polarization characteristics among minerals,
Far-infrared radiation has also been recognized. Further, a piezoelectric effect in which the ionic crystal causes dielectric polarization in response to an external force, and a pyroelectric effect in which charges appear on the surface when rapidly heated are observed.

However, if the tourmaline is adhered to the surface of silk, which is treated as a luxury product among natural fibers, according to a conventional method, and the function of tourmaline, that is, the so-called electret property, is to be imparted, the natural beauty of silk is considered. It impairs luster and reduces the feel of supple silk, and also causes tourmaline to fall off during use or during washing, thereby reducing the effect of tourmaline.

It is a well-known fact that silk is composed of cocoon thread from which silkworms discharge. However, silkworms are bred by using mulberry leaves as feed for daily consumption except during sleep periods. You. The silkworm larva stage molts four times in about 25 days, synthesizes silk protein from the mulberry in the body in the fifth stage of the final stage and takes about one week, stores it in the silk gland, matures,
It takes 3 days to spit about 1200m of thread and make eyebrows. In the eyebrows, silkworms become pupae, take about two weeks to become adults (moths), escape the eyebrows by loosening the eyebrows layer with alkaline saliva, mate and mate, lay about 600 eggs, and die several days later.

[0010] According to the method of the present invention, by feeding an artificial feed containing tourmaline fine particles from the first sweep during the growing period of the silkworm to the 5th instar silkworm, the silk incorporating the tourmaline can be easily obtained. Therefore, it is possible to produce electret silk that does not impair the original luster and feel of silk and that does not cause any deterioration in function over a long period of time. In addition, artificial feed containing fine particles of tourmaline may be fed at the time of the first sweeping of the silkworm during the growing period and at the time of the 4th instar silkworm, or at the 4th and the 5th instar silkworm. Significantly reduced.

The functional inorganics in the present invention include, in addition to the above-mentioned tourmaline, borosilicate glass, Mg, C
a titanium oxide containing a, Bi, Sr, Zn, Pb, etc.,
Electret substances such as stearsite, alumina, cordierite mainly composed of silicic acid, far-infrared radiation substances such as β-spodumene, zirconia, barium titanate, aluminum titanate, and facsite, Ni ultrafine particles, Zn-Cu alloy ultrafine particles, Pd ultra fine metal catalyst such as particulates, Sm magnets, Nd magnet material, such as magnets, photochromic glass, thermochromic materials such as PbCrO _3, and the like photoluminescent material. These functional minerals may be used alone or in combination of two or more. These functional minerals have a particle size of 0.1 to 10 μm, preferably 0.5 to 10 μm.
Used as 5 μm fine particles. Functional silk fiber of the present invention, such functional inorganic fine particles, 0.002 to
It is contained at a ratio of 5% by weight.

In order to obtain functional silk fibers by the method of the present invention, it is necessary to breed silkworms using a sterile artificial feed. And it is important that this aseptic artificial feed contains the five major nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and inorganic salts in a well-balanced manner, and since silkworms do not drink water in addition to nutrition, Moisture content is also important.

The artificial feed has a composition mainly composed of dried okara powder, dried mulberry leaf powder, defatted soybean powder, and starch. It is preferable to use a composition having a large proportion of dried okara powder for the silkworms (4th and 5th ages).

A typical artificial feed is defatted soybean powder 15 to
An appropriate amount of dried mulberry leaf powder is mixed with a mixture consisting of 50% by weight, 10 to 55% by weight of dried okara powder, 5 to 15% by weight of starch, 2 to 5% by weight of an inorganic salt mixture and 3 to 10% by weight of a bioactive substance. In addition, the total amount was adjusted to 100% by weight.

[0015] The artificial feed is prepared by mulberry leaf powder, defatted soybean powder, okara powder, starch, a vitamin mixture,
For mixtures of inorganic salts and other bioactive substances,
After adding the water in which the required functional inorganic fine particles are dispersed,
The mixture is kneaded by a kneading machine and is formed into a flat plate or corrugated while being transferred to a forming machine.

Using this artificial feed, once every 25 days or 2
Unmanned breeding, such as twice or three times a day, becomes possible. That is, feeding may be performed at the time of the first slaughter and the fourth-stage silkworms, or at the fourth and the fifth-stage silkworms. After that, if it is mounted all at once, the eyebrows containing functional inorganic matter will be produced.

As described above, the method of the present invention is preferably carried out in an aseptic condition. The artificial feed is placed in a breeding tray on which a washed and disinfected electret fiber cloth or electret paper is spread, and sterilized by steaming. Done. In the case of silkworms, it is possible to easily produce sterile silkworms by disinfecting the egg surface. Silkworm egg disinfection depends on the type of drug used,
Since the hatching rate and the disinfecting effect vary depending on the concentration and the action time, for example, for the production of year-round eyebrows, aseptic silkworms are produced using formalin or highly bleached flour. Further, as a rearing machine, the rearing environment such as a rearing tray, an electret fiber cloth or an electret paper, a net, a rearing room, a mounting room, etc. is washed and disinfected to maintain an aseptic condition.

When feeding the first hatched larvae with steamed and sterilized feed, the larvae are slaughtered on a feed in a breeding tray in a sterile breeding room or a clean booth by a dropping method.
Thereafter, a sterilized net is covered from above. The breeding trays are sequentially stacked on the breeding trolley from the one after completion of the scavenging, and the top is covered with a lid and allowed to stand still. In order to maintain the sterility of the breeding room, it is important to reduce the breeding work as much as possible, thereby reducing labor for breeding labor and reducing the chance of infection with silkworm disease.

The mixing amount of the functional inorganic fine particles in the artificial feed is 0.002 to 5% by weight based on the total weight of the artificial feed.
Is selected in the range. If the content is less than 0.002% by weight, the function becomes insufficient, and if the content is more than 5% by weight, silkworms do not ingest.

[0020]

EXAMPLES Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

Example 1 Tourmaline fine powder (particle diameter 2 μm or less, average particle diameter 0.8 μm)
Using m), artificial feeds having the two compositions shown in Table 1 were prepared, and feeds for juvenile silkworms were given for the first to third ages, and those for the silkworms were given for the fourth and fifth ages. That is, 300 g of artificial feed powder for silkworm
Was weighed, kneaded well by adding 2.4 times water and sterilized with steam at 96 ° C. for 1 hour.
Next, the breeding tray (64 × 38 × 9 cm) is disinfected in advance with a Klite solution, and the artificial feed is placed on this tray by laying a sun sheet, a net is laid thereon, and the silkworm larva is placed on the tray. 100 were raised. At the time of the scavenging, the artificial feed for juvenile silkworms was given once for 1-3 times, and the artificial feed for silkworms was given once for 4 times and once for 5 times, and the artificial feed was fed three times in total. 5th 7
Around the day, the silkworms in each breeding tray almost became mature silkworms. Under such conditions, the animals were bred with great care and aseptic conditions until the eyebrows were formed.

[0022]

[Table 1]

Next, 63 eyebrows were selected from 100 silkworms, and the amount of tourmaline contained in eyebrows, pupae and feces was measured. That is, Mayu 63 pieces 28.62
g, pupae 62 g, and feces 111 g were respectively taken out and burned until completely incinerated, and the amount of boron in the ash was measured by an atomic absorption analysis test. As a result, dung
0.12% by weight, eyebrows 0.012% by weight, pupa 0.
012% by weight. The chemical composition of tourmaline used here is Na (Fe, Mn) ₃ Al ₆ B ₃ Si ₆ O ₂₇ (O
H, F) ₄ . As a result of converting the measured amount of boron into the amount of tourmaline, the respective tourmaline content (% by weight) was 0.00328% by weight of eyebrows and 0.000% of pupa.
It turned out that it was 4% by weight and 0.0578% by weight of feces. This indicates that although the amount of tourmaline in feces is certainly high, the eyebrows also contain a considerable amount of tourmaline.

Reference Example 1 The tourmaline-containing cocoon yarn (A) obtained in Example 1 using the measuring apparatus shown in FIG. 1 and, for comparison, the cocoon yarn (B) obtained from a silkworm grown on artificial feed without tourmaline (B). ) Active electrons were generated from each 20 g, and the change in electric conductivity of water was measured. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a measuring device, in which each sample is mounted on a sample mounting section 3 provided inside a sample activating device 2 in the sample activating device. From the blower pump 1, clean air subjected to treatment such as carbon dioxide removal is introduced into the sample activator 2 at a rate of 100 ml / min. At this time, the sample in the sample mounting section 3 is kept at 36 ° C. by the heating element 4 such as ceramics provided in the sample activator 2. For this temperature control, the sample activator 2 is equipped with a thermometer 5 and a temperature sensor 6. The air that has passed through the sample mounting section 3 is kept at 21 ° C. by a distilled water 10 (a constant temperature bath 8) contained in a beaker 9, and has an electric conductivity of 1.degree.
7 μS / cm). Distilled water 10
, A platinum rod 11 was inserted, and the change in the electric conductivity was measured by an electric conductivity meter 12 (Precision LCR meter 4285A, manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Company). In addition, 7 is a power supply. FIG. 2 shows the results of a test on the electric conductivity of water for the artificial feed cocoon containing tourmaline (A) and the artificial feed cocoon without tourmaline (B).
The vertical axis represents electric conductivity (μS / cm), and the horizontal axis represents elapsed time (time) from the start of measurement. According to FIG. 2, the cocoon of the artificial feed containing tourmaline (A) shows a much higher value than the cocoon of the artificial feed not containing tourmaline (B), and a large amount of negative ions are generated. It is shown that.

REFERENCE EXAMPLE 2 In thermography, skin temperature is captured by an ultra-high-sensitivity infrared camera, and the temperature distribution (thermogram) is displayed in 10 colors. In a constant-temperature shielded room, a sheet (X) of silk fabric woven with eyebrows obtained from the eyebrows obtained from the eyebrows bred with the tourmaline-containing artificial feed obtained in the example and the tourmaline-free artificial feed were bred. A healthy adult subject was placed in a supine position on a silk woven sheet (Y) woven from the cocoon thread obtained from the cocoon thread, and the thermogram (skin temperature distribution) was measured. As a result, it can be seen that in the silk sheet (X), the skin temperature of both feet increased by 2.0 ° C. during and after supine, and the subcutaneous blood circulation became active. Next, in the silk sheet (Y), the skin temperature of both feet increased only by 0.5 ° C. Based on this finding, the silk fabric sheet (X) woven with the eyebrows from the eyebrows bred on the artificial feed containing tourmaline was replaced with the cocoons from the eyebrows bred on the artificial feed without tourmaline. It has been found that the skin temperature is higher than that of the woven silk fabric sheet (Y), and the subcutaneous blood circulation is active.

[0026]

Industrial Applicability According to the present invention, natural silkworms are fed with a functional inorganic substance that emits negative ions or emits far-infrared rays to give an activating effect to living cells, thereby producing a cocoon containing the functional inorganic substance. The natural silk has an elegant luster and abundant dyeing properties, moderate elasticity and toughness, heat retention, water absorption properties, etc. Can be granted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an experimental device for examining the generation state of negative ions.

Fig. 2. Eyebrows of artificial feed containing tourmaline (A)
The graph which shows the time-dependent change of the electric conductivity of the water of the eyebrows (B) of the artificial feed which does not contain the tourmaline.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 blower pump 2 sample activator 3 sample mounting part 4 heating element 8 constant temperature bath 9 beaker 10 distilled water 12 electric conductivity meter

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Fujiyoshi Matsubara 2-1 Nabeshima, Momoyama-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture 507 Momoyama Plaza 507 (72) Inventor Takashi Yamazaki 151-30 Ninomaru-cho, Mukojima, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 3A-506 (72) Inventor Toshio Sugihara 2-20-23 Hyakunincho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Life Energy Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kazuo Sekoguchi 2-20-23 Hyakunincho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Life Energy Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Mitsuo Suzuki 2-20-23 Hyakunincho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Life Energy Industry Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2B005 FA07 2B150 AA09 AB20 DH20

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A functional silk fiber comprising a silkworm discharged from a silkworm ingesting an artificial feed containing functional inorganic fine particles. 2. A method for producing a functional silk fiber, comprising feeding an artificial feed containing functional inorganic fine particles to breed silkworms to form eyebrows, and then collecting the eyebrows from the eyebrows. 3. The method for producing a functional silk fiber according to claim 2, wherein the silkworm is reared under aseptic conditions.