JP2004115503A - Gramineous plant green leaf-treated product having enhanced antihypertensive effect - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a gramineous plant green leaf-treated product having an enhanced antihypertensive effect. <P>SOLUTION: This gramineous plant green leaf-treated product having the enhanced antihypertensive effect is obtained by thermally treating the gramineous plant green leaves at 90 to 180°C. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

The present invention relates to a processed green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an anti-hypertensive agent comprising a processed green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced anti-hypertensive effect.

Green leaves of grasses are rich in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, and have effects such as improving the intestinal environment, suppressing cholesterol absorption, adsorbing harmful substances, preventing a sharp rise in postprandial blood glucose, and antihypertensive. Is known, and has attracted attention as a material for health foods. Among them, green leaves of wheat are known to have further effects such as activating superoxide dismutase (SOD).

Conventionally, when green leaves of a grass plant are used as a food material, green leaf powder or green leaf squeezed powder obtained by crushing and drying green leaves is mainly used (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Although it is known that green leaves of grasses have an antihypertensive effect, it is not possible to obtain a sufficient antihypertensive effect only by ingesting green leaf powder or juice powder. In order to solve this problem, a method is known in which a water-soluble portion is obtained from squeezed grass and is treated with a polar solvent or heat to remove insoluble solids, thereby obtaining a component having an antihypertensive effect. (See, for example, Patent Documents 2 and 3).

抗 Also, an antihypertensive agent containing an antihypertensive component extracted from wheat leaves with water and aqueous ethanol is known (for example, see Patent Document 4).

However, the above method merely extracts and concentrates the antihypertensive component inherent in the grass family, and is not efficient in terms of productivity.
Japanese Patent No. 2544302 JP-B-59-36888 JP-B-59-39410 Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-66287

Therefore, green leaves of grasses having an enhanced antihypertensive effect are desired.

The present inventors have conducted intensive studies on the antihypertensive effect of green leaves of grasses, and by heat-treating green leaves of natural grasses under predetermined conditions, the antihypertensive effect that green leaves originally have is further improved. The present invention has been found to be enhanced.

The present invention relates to a treated green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect, which is obtained by heat treatment at 90 ° C. to 180 ° C.

(4) In a preferred embodiment, a drying treatment is performed at a temperature of 80 ° C. or lower before performing the heating treatment.

に お い て In a preferred embodiment, the heat treatment is performed at 110 ° C to 180 ° C.

In a further preferred embodiment, the heat treatment is performed on green leaves of grasses having a water content of 25% by weight or less.

In another preferred embodiment, the grass is wheat.

The present invention also relates to an antihypertensive agent comprising a green leaf processed product of a grass plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect according to any of the above.

The processed green leaf of the grass of the present invention obtained by heating the green leaf of the grass at 90 ° C. to 180 ° C. has a higher antihypertensive effect than the antihypertensive effect that the green leaf of the grass originally has. Has an effect.

In the present invention, the green leaf of a gramineous plant is a green leaf of a harvested gramineous plant; a cut product obtained by cutting the green leaf at an appropriate length; a fragmented product (slurry) obtained by fragmenting the green leaf. Or squeezed material obtained by squeezing or filtering the fragmented product. Further, the processed green leaf of a gramineous plant includes the above-described green leaf itself, a cut product, a fragmented product (including a slurry), a squeezed juice, or a processed product obtained by heat-treating a dried product thereof.

イ Gramineae plants used in the present invention include wheat; rice; bubble; bamboo grass; fin; cane; corn; sorghum; Preferably, it is wheat.

緑 As green leaves of barley, for example, young leaves of barley (including stems) such as barley, wheat, oats, rye, and Italian ryegrass are used. Preferably, it is a young barley leaf.

The green leaves of the gramineous plants are preferably harvested before the start of heading, and after harvesting, the green color of the young leaves of barley is faded over time, so that they are processed as quickly as possible.

緑 After harvesting, the green leaves of the gramineous plants are washed with water and the like, drained, and then cut to an appropriate length (for example, 10 cm) as necessary. Further, if necessary, a blanching treatment such as a heating treatment with hot water at 90 to 95 ° C. for an appropriate time (for example, several minutes) may be performed.

Furthermore, the green leaves may be fragmented. The shredding can be performed by a method commonly used by those skilled in the art, such as slicing or shredding, to shred a plant. Shredding also includes slurrying. The slurry is formed by a mixer, a juicer, a blender, a mascoloider, or the like, and the green leaves of the gramineous plant turn into a thick porridge suspension (hereinafter, referred to as green leaf slurry).

The green leaf of the gramineous plant may be heat-treated as it is without drying, but it is preferable to heat-treat the dried product after reducing the water content in advance. Preferably, the dried product has a water content of 25% by weight or less, more preferably 20% by weight or less, further preferably 10% by weight or less, and most preferably 5% by weight or less. The drying method is not particularly limited, but freeze-drying or low-temperature drying at 80 ° C. or lower is preferably used. By performing the drying treatment before the heating treatment, it is possible to obtain the same effect of maintaining the green color as the blanching treatment without performing the blanching treatment, and to obtain the active ingredient in the processed green leaf of the gramineous plant (for example, Γ-aminobutyric acid in wheat young leaves) is also retained. From the viewpoint of uniformity of the heat treatment, these dried products may be roughly pulverized.

Next, the green leaves of the grasses, preferably dried products, are heat-treated at 90 to 180 ° C. From the viewpoint of maintaining the color and flavor of the processed green leaf, the temperature is preferably from 110 ° C to 180 ° C, more preferably from 110 ° C to 150 ° C. By this heat treatment, a processed green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect is obtained.

方法 The method of the heat treatment is not particularly limited, and may be appropriately selected depending on the properties of the object. Dry heat treatment with a hot air heater, an electromagnetic wave heater, a direct fired heater, a dry burner, and the like; and wet heat treatment with a boiler, a steam heater, and the like. The dry heat treatment is preferable because the degree of the heat treatment is easily grasped and the processing after the treatment is easy.

In the dry heat treatment, after charging the green leaves or the dried product of the grass plant to the heating device, the temperature may be raised to a predetermined temperature, and after heating the heating device to the predetermined temperature in advance, the dried product is added. May be processed. In addition, when using the green leaves of the grass plant without drying, the drying is directly performed at a low temperature of 80 ° C. or less with a heater used for the heat treatment to obtain a dried product having a predetermined moisture content or less. By raising the temperature to such a value, drying and heat treatment can be performed continuously. In this case, the heat treatment time may be adjusted in consideration of the amount of heat required to raise the temperature from 90 ° C. to a predetermined temperature. The green leaf or dried product of the grass plant is preferably subjected to a treatment such as stirring and dispersion so that the heat treatment is performed uniformly after the introduction.

The heat treatment time is not particularly limited because it varies depending on the type of green leaf used and the heating temperature. For example, a change in the color of the green leaf may be monitored by a color difference meter, and used as a measure of the heat treatment time. That is, the treatment is performed for a time when the chromaticity difference between the green leaves before and after heating is about 1 to 20%, preferably 1 to 10%, more preferably about 2 to 5% on a chromaticity meter. Generally, in the case of dry heat treatment using green leaves having a water content of 25% by weight or less, the heat treatment time is 1 minute to 60 minutes. However, when the heat treatment temperature is as high as 110 ° C. or more, there is a possibility that the green leaves are scorched, so that the heat treatment time may be 1 minute or less.

Therefore, for example, after harvesting, the green leaves of the grasses having a water content of 25% by weight or less by a low-temperature dryer at 80 ° C. are put into a direct-fired heater previously heated to 110 ° C., and heated for 10 minutes. As a result, the processed green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect of the present invention can be obtained.

In moist heat treatment, the green leaves of grasses are used without drying. When the predetermined temperature of the heat treatment is 90 ° C to 100 ° C, the heat treatment time in the wet heat treatment is preferably 30 minutes or more, more preferably 60 minutes or more, and most preferably 120 minutes. When the predetermined temperature of the heat treatment is 110 ° C. or higher, the heat treatment is performed under a pressurized condition, and it is preferable that the heat treatment be performed at a temperature as high as possible for a short time in order to prevent the green leaves of the grass plant from discoloring by heating. For example, 1 minute to 60 minutes is preferable. When using a boiler, water-soluble components are eluted in hot water, so collect the hot water and concentrate or dry to collect all the components contained in the green leaves. Can be.

緑 The processed green leaf of a grass plant obtained by the above heat treatment has an effect higher than the antihypertensive effect originally possessed by green leaves.

The treated green leaf of a grass plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect of the present invention can be used as such or after further drying, and then finely pulverized using a hammer mill or the like to obtain a powder. When the green leaf slurry is subjected to a heat treatment, the slurry can be made into the powder as it is or by a method commonly used by those skilled in the art such as freeze-drying.

The treated green leaf of a grass plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect of the present invention can be used alone as an antihypertensive agent, and can also be a composition containing other components such as specific components and additives. These antihypertensive agents and compositions can be used as foods, pharmaceuticals and the like.

Specific ingredients include, for example, food materials for further enhancing the antihypertensive effect of the treated green leaf of the present invention; liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, allergy, osteoporosis, constipation, fatigue, skin aging, anemia, Examples include food materials commonly used by those skilled in the art, which are known to prevent decreased energy, cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular disease and the like and to alleviate their symptoms.

(4) Examples of additives include excipients, extenders, binders, thickeners, emulsifiers, coloring agents, flavors, food additives, seasonings, and the like. For example, royal jelly, vitamins, protein, chitosan, lecithin, and the like are blended as a nutritional supplement, and a sugar solution and a seasoning can be added to adjust the taste. These can be formed, if necessary, as capsules such as hard capsules and soft capsules, tablets, or pills, or in the form of powder, granules, candy and the like. These may be eaten as they are, or may be dissolved in water, hot water, milk, or the like, or may be put in a tea bag or the like, and then infused with hot water or the like, depending on their shape or taste.

(Preparation of raw barley young leaves)
As a raw material, young leaves of Nijo barley harvested with a height of about 30 cm were used. This was washed with water to remove adhering mud and the like, cut into a size of about 10 cm, and used in the following experiments (hereinafter referred to as raw barley young leaves).

１００ After 100 kg of the raw barley young leaves were immersed in hot water (1000 L) at 90 to 95 ° C. for 3 minutes to perform blanching treatment, they were immediately immersed in cooling water at about 20 ° C. for 5 minutes and cooled. Next, the cooled young barley leaves were centrifuged for 30 seconds and dehydrated to some extent, and then dried at 70 ° C. using a dryer until the water content became about 20% by weight. The obtained dried barley leaf was roughly pulverized (cut) into a size of about 5 mm using a cutter to obtain a dried coarsely pulverized barley leaf.

(Example 1)
15 kg of dried and coarsely crushed barley leaf was charged into a direct-fired heating machine (Yokoyama-type automatic temperature-discharge exhaust drying and burning machine, Yokoyama Seisakusho Co., Ltd.) preheated to 90 ° C. Thereafter, heat treatment was performed at 90 ° C. for 60 minutes to obtain barley young leaf powder A after the heat treatment.

(Example 2)
15 kg of dried and coarsely crushed barley leaf was charged into a direct-fired heating machine preheated to 110 ° C., and heat-treated at 110 ° C. for 15 minutes, to obtain barley young leaf powder B after the heat treatment.

(Example 3)
15 kg of dried and coarsely crushed barley leaf was put into a direct-fired heating machine preheated to 140 ° C., and heat-treated at 140 ° C. for 15 minutes to obtain barley young leaf powder C after the heat treatment.

(Comparative Example 1)
The dried coarsely crushed barley leaf was used as a non-heat-treated barley leaf.

(Example 4: anti-hypertensive effect 1)
The anti-hypertensive effect test was carried out using the barley young leaves A to C of Examples 1 to 3 and the non-heat-treated barley young leaves of Comparative Example 1. First, 1 part by weight of each young barley leaf powder and 99 parts by weight of a rat basic feed (MF, Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) were mixed to prepare feeds 1 to 4. These feeds 1 to 4 were allowed to freely ingest 5-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR, Charles River Japan Co., Ltd.) each consisting of 6 rats. As a control, a group was prepared in which only the basal feed of rats was taken instead of the above feed. The blood pressure (mmHg) of each rat was measured using a non-invasive blood pressure measuring device (Softron Co., Ltd.) every week from the start of feed intake for a total of 4 weeks. Table 1 shows the blood pressure of rats (mean value of 6 rats) after the start of the feed intake and after 4 weeks of intake, and the difference in the blood pressure. No significant difference in body weight was observed between the groups before and after the start of the test.

From the results in Table 1, the group that ingested the young barley leaves that had been subjected to the heat treatment of 90 ° C. or higher in the example received only the group that received the non-heat treated wheat young leaves in the comparative example and the control basic feed. The increase in blood pressure is clearly suppressed as compared with the group, and it is understood that the heat-treated barley young leaf powder has an excellent antihypertensive effect. It is also clear that the higher the temperature of the heat treatment, the higher the antihypertensive effect.

(Example 5: Antihypertensive effect 2)
Using the barley young leaves A to C of Examples 1 to 3 and the unheated barley young leaves of Comparative Example 1, the antihypertensive effect of these extracts was tested. First, 10 mg of each young barley powder was added to 100 mL of hot water at 95 ° C., stirred for 3 minutes, and then filtered to prepare Extracts 1 to 4. Similar to Example 1, these extracts 1 to 4 were allowed to freely ingest 5-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) consisting of 6 animals per group. As a control, a group was prepared in which only water was taken instead of the extract. The blood pressure was measured on the day when the extract was taken and after taking it for 4 weeks, and the difference between these blood pressures was calculated. Table 2 shows the measured values of these blood pressures (mean values of 6 animals) and the differences between the blood pressures. No significant difference in body weight was observed between the groups before and after the start of the test.

From the results in Table 2, the effect of suppressing an increase in blood pressure was observed, similarly to the result of Example 4, when the extract of barley young leaf powder that had been subjected to the heat treatment at 90 ° C. or higher in the example was ingested. .

(Example 6)
30kg of raw barley young leaves are put into a direct-fired heating machine (Yokoyama-type automatic temperature-discharge exhaust drying and burning machine, Yokoyama Seisakusho Co., Ltd.) without blanching, and heated to 80 ° C. While maintaining, the drying was performed until the water content of the young leaves became 5% by weight. After drying, the temperature was increased to 110 ° C. and heating was performed for 60 minutes to obtain barley young leaf powder D after the heat treatment.

(Example 7)
The same operation as in Example 6 was performed, except that the heat treatment temperature at 110 ° C was 160 ° C, to obtain barley young leaf powder E.

(Example 8: stability of active ingredient and color)
Barley young leaves D and E heat-treated after drying without blanching in Examples 6 and 7, barley young leaves B dried and heat-treated after blanching (obtained in Example 2), and Stability tests were performed on these active ingredients and colors using non-heat-treated barley young leaf powder obtained by subjecting only raw barley young leaves to drying treatment (freeze drying). In the stability test, each barley young leaf powder was first sealed in an aluminum pack, and then the sealed material was allowed to stand in an incubator at a temperature of 40 ° C. and a humidity of 70 to 75%. Four weeks later, the measurement was performed by measuring the amount of the active ingredient and the color difference of each young barley powder. As for the active ingredient, γ-aminobutyric acid (hereinafter referred to as GABA) contained in young barley powder was measured by HPLC using a commercially available sample of GABA (Wako Pure Chemical Industries) as an index. For the color difference, the chromaticity (L * ab) of each young barley leaf was measured using a color difference meter (CM-3500d: manufactured by Minolta), and this measured value was stored in a cool dark place (10 ° C.) in advance. The difference (ΔL * ab) from the measured value of the chromaticity of the corresponding young barley leaf powder (control) was determined. It was determined that the smaller the value of ΔL * ab, the smaller the change in color and the better the stability. Table 3 shows the results.

From the results in Table 3, it can be seen that the barley young leaves D and E heat-treated after the drying treatment without blanching retain more GABA content than the barley young leaves B subjected to the blanching treatment. I understand. The color difference was similar to that of barley young leaf powder B, indicating that the color stability was excellent.

(Example 9: anti-hypertensive effect 3)
The antihypertensive effect was evaluated using young barley leaves B, D, and E. First, an extract was prepared in the same manner as in Example 5 except that 4 mg of each barley young leaf powder was used instead of 10 mg of barley young leaf powder (extracts 5 to 7). Similar to Example 1, these extracts 5 to 7 were allowed to freely ingest 5-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) consisting of 6 animals per group. As a control, a group was prepared in which only water was taken instead of the extract. The blood pressure was measured on the day when the extract was taken and after taking it for 4 weeks, and the difference between these blood pressures was calculated. Table 4 shows the measured values of blood pressure (mean value of 6 animals) and the difference in blood pressure. No significant difference in body weight was observed between the groups before and after the start of the test.

From the results in Table 4, it can be seen that the young barley leaves D and E heat-treated after the drying treatment without the blanching treatment have a more excellent antihypertensive effect than the barley young leaf powder B subjected to the blanching treatment. .

The treated green leaf of a grass plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect of the present invention can be used alone as an antihypertensive agent, and can also be used as an antihypertensive composition containing other components such as specific components and additives. . These antihypertensive agents and compositions can be used as foods, pharmaceuticals and the like.

Claims (6)

処理 A treated green leaf of a gramineous plant having an enhanced antihypertensive effect obtained by heat treatment at 90 ° C to 180 ° C. The processed green leaf according to claim 1, wherein a drying treatment is performed at 80 ° C or lower before the heating treatment. 緑 The processed green leaf according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the heat treatment is performed at 110 ° C to 180 ° C. 処理 The processed green leaf according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heat treatment is performed on green leaves of grasses having a water content of 25% by weight or less. 緑 The processed green leaf according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the gramineous plant is a barley. 抗 An anti-hypertensive agent comprising the processed green leaf product according to claim 1.