JP2007314574A - Slightly digestible agent - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new adiposity-inhibiting/constipation-releasing agent. <P>SOLUTION: This slightly digestible agent contains sericin or it's hydrolyzed product as an active ingredient. The slightly digestible agent, wherein the sericin is natural sericin extracted from cocoon or silk. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an indigestible agent, and more particularly to a fat accumulation inhibitor / constipation relieving agent.

  Dietary fiber, an ingredient that is not digested by human digestive enzymes, is decreasing year by year with the westernization of diet. However, on the other hand, its effects such as low calorieity, improvement of blood sugar level and elimination of constipation have been reviewed. Furthermore, with the recent increase in interest in beauty and health, foods and beverages containing various dietary fibers have been proposed and marketed.

For example, Patent Document 1 proposes a beverage containing dietary fiber made of konjac mannan having a low molecular weight.
In addition, Patent Document 2 proposes a large number of dietary fibers such as those obtained from mushrooms, Patent Document 3 with low molecular weight pectin, and Patent Document 4 with alginic acids.

Many currently used for food and drink are water-soluble dietary fibers. This type of dietary fiber has a property of being easily gelled and has a high viscosity, so that it must be reduced in viscosity to be added to food and drink, and the manufacturing method becomes complicated. Moreover, when ingested, there is a problem that a large amount of gas is generated in the abdomen.
JP 7-313120 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-199849 JP-A-6-169724 JP-A-2-303468

  An object of the present invention is to provide a novel indigestible agent having an action of suppressing fat accumulation (diet) and relieving constipation.

The present invention is an indigestible agent containing sericin and / or a hydrolyzate thereof as an active ingredient.

  As sericin used in the present invention, usually sericin derived from silkworms or raw silk is preferably used. Sericin as a non-hydrolyzate can be obtained by an extraction method generally performed from straw or raw silk. For example, it can be extracted in the state of a highly purified single protein having a purity of 90% or more as follows.

That is, sericin contained in cocoons or raw silk is extracted with water and recovered by, for example, any one of the following methods (1) and (2).
(1) A water-soluble organic solvent such as methanol, ethanol, dioxane or the like is mixed to precipitate sericin, which is then filtered and dried to obtain sericin powder.
(2) As proposed in JP-A-4-202435, a sericin powder is obtained by applying an ultrafiltration membrane or a reverse osmosis membrane, followed by drying.

Moreover, the hydrolyzate of sericin can be obtained by an extraction method generally performed from straw or raw silk.
That is, sericin contained in silkworms or raw silk is extracted by partial hydrolysis with electrolyzed water, acid, alkali or enzyme, and then, for example, either of the above (1) and (2) Collect by method.

  The high quality protein of salmon has attracted attention, and it has been proposed to add it to food as a nutrient source by crushing it. However, sericin, one of the salmon proteins, is digestible to digestive enzymes in the body. It is not known at all to be low and effective in reducing diet and constipation.

Sericin, which is indigestible, activates activities in the intestines and shortens the transit time of the stool to the large intestine, and quickly releases harmful and toxic substances out of the body. It also acts like dietary fiber, making it difficult to absorb excess sugar and lipids.
In addition to such a direct effect, there are also effects such as smooth defecation due to absorbed moisture.

  Since this sericin is derived from a natural product, it is highly safe for the human body, and is suitable for general foods, general drinks, foods for special uses such as health foods, foods for specified insurance, etc. Can be added and used without difficulty in daily eating habits. Furthermore, since it is soluble in water, it can be easily added to foods and drinks and can have various shapes.

Examples of preferable shapes as the indigestible agent include powder, solution, gel, stick, granule, capsule, and tablet.
The intake is not particularly limited because it is non-toxic, and the daily intake is usually about 1 to 30 g.

The following examples illustrate the invention.
[Production Example 1] Production of sericin powder 1 kg of koji was treated in 50 L (liter) of water at 95 ° C for 2 hours to extract sericin. The obtained extract was filtered through a filter having an average pore size of 0.2 μm to remove aggregates, and the filtrate was desalted with a reverse osmosis membrane to obtain a colorless and transparent sericin aqueous solution having a concentration of 0.2%. This aqueous solution was concentrated to a sericin concentration of about 2% using an evaporator and then freeze-dried to obtain 100 g of sericin powder (hereinafter referred to as sericin H) having a purity of 95% or more and an average molecular weight of 100,000.

[Production Example 2] Production of sericin hydrolyzate powder 1 kg of koji was treated in 50 L of 0.2% aqueous sodium carbonate (pH 11-12) at 95 ° C for 2 hours to extract sericin hydrolyzate. The obtained extract was filtered with a filter having an average pore size of 0.2 μm to remove aggregates, and then the filtrate was desalted with a reverse osmosis membrane to give a colorless transparent sericin hydrolyzate extract with a concentration of 0.2%. Obtained. This extract was concentrated to a sericin concentration of about 2% using an evaporator and then lyophilized to obtain 100 g of a sericin hydrolyzate powder (hereinafter referred to as sericin L) having a purity of 90% or more and an average molecular weight of 20,000. It was.

[Test Example 1] Digestibility test Using sericin L or casein as a sample for the digestion test, each sample concentration was adjusted to 0.5% (pH 2.0) solution using hydrochloric acid and made up to 100 ml with distilled water. Combined. The sample was added to a 5 mg sample solution of pepsin (Sigma), which is a digestive enzyme of the stomach, incubated at 37 ° C. for 24 hours, and sampled at an appropriate time. After completion of the incubation, 100 ml of the sample solution was prepared using sodium hydrogen carbonate so as to be 0.1% (pH 8.5). Thereafter, 2 mg of pancreatin (Sigma), a digestive enzyme of the duodenum, was added and incubated at 37 ° C. for 24 hours.

The peptide concentration was measured using the TNBS (2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid) method. For sampling, 0.5 ml was collected, 0.1 ml of 30% TCA (trichloroacetic acid) was added, and after centrifugation, 3 ml of 7% sodium bicarbonate and 2 ml of 0.1% TNBS were added to 100 μl of the supernatant. The mixture was heated at 0 ° C. for 2 hours, and the absorbance at 420 nm was measured.
The results are shown in FIGS. In this test, the effects on pepsin and pancreatin, which are digestive enzymes in the body, were confirmed in vitro. The TNBS method reacts with the amino terminus of a protein, and the more easily it is degraded by a digestive enzyme, the more the peptide is present, the more reactive with the TNBS reagent. In other words, the higher the value, the easier it is to decompose with digestive enzymes. Compared with casein, sericin was confirmed to be indigestible with both pepsin and pancreatin digestive enzymes.

[Test Example 2] Gastrointestinal transport ability test As a test animal, a 5-week-old male ICR mouse was used. 10 animals per group, keeping the room temperature at 24 ± 1 ° C., and rearing in an environment of light / dark alternation every 12 hours (8: 00 to 20: 00 is light, 20: 00 to the next 8:00 is dark) It was. A commercially available solid sample (MF, Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) was given for 1 week as a preliminary breeding. The animals were fasted overnight on the day before the test day and then fed for 1 hour to select animals with a substantially constant food intake, and 8 animals per group were used in the experiment. BTB (dose: 0.35 ml of 0.3% solution per mouse) was orally administered as a marker of gastrointestinal transport ability, and sericin L (dose: 2 g / kg body weight) or control (casein, dose: 2 g / kg body weight) was administered orally. Feces were collected over time until 25 hours after administration. During this time, the animals were fed for 1 hour each after 6 hours and 23 hours. After measuring the fecal BTB excretion, the feces were dried under reduced pressure for 24 hours, and the fecal dry weight was measured. Student's t-test was used to determine the significant difference.

As a result, the sericin group significantly increased the fecal weight compared to the control group (FIG. 3). Feces were slightly larger and softer than the control rule group, but no diarrhea such as watery or mucous stool was observed.
In addition, BTB began to be found in feces 2 to 4 hours after feeding in the control group, 33.5% of the total dose of BTB by 6 hours, 53.5% by 8 hours, and 88 by 25 hours 3% was excreted. On the other hand, in the sericin group, the BTB excretion rate 4 to 8 hours after feeding was significantly higher than that in the control rule group, and sericin confirmed the effect of increasing the gastrointestinal transport rate (FIG. 4).

[Test Example 3] Constipation-improving effect test Three-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (Japan LSC Co., Ltd.) were used as experimental animals, and each group consisted of 13 animals. Each animal was placed in a metal cage, kept at a room temperature of 24 ± 1 ° C., and bred in an environment of light / dark alternation every 12 hours. As a preliminary breeding, a commercially available solid sample (MF, Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) was given for 2 weeks, and then divided into two groups, a sericin group and a control group, and fed on an experimental diet (Table 1) for 7 days. One group consisted of 14 animals, and all meal times were limited to 14: 00-17: 00. At 17:00 on the seventh day from the start of the experimental diet, each group was divided into two groups so that the average body weights were equal, and atropine hydrochloride (0.5 mg / kg body weight) or physiological saline was injected intraperitoneally, respectively. Administered. Feces 6 hours after the injection (17: 00 to 23:00) were collected, dried under reduced pressure, and taken as the dry weight. Duncan's multiple comparison test was used to determine the significant difference.
Most human constipation is functional constipation. This is constipation resulting from the suppression of gastrointestinal motility and anal function by reducing the release of acetylcholine from the intestinal smooth muscle of the intestinal smooth muscle. The atropine used in the experiment is derived from an alkaloid obtained from the belladonna of the solanaceae family and is used as a parasympathetic nerve blocker, and therefore induces functional constipation as a reversible antagonist of acetylcholine and acetylcholine-like drugs.
From the results in Table 2, since sericin was found to improve the gastrointestinal function decreased by atropine administration, the effect of sericin on improving constipation was confirmed.

[Test Example 4] Fat accumulation inhibitory effect test As a laboratory animal, a 5-week-old male ICR mouse (Japan LSC Co., Ltd.) was used. Each group consisted of 12 animals, and was allowed to freely ingest the feed and water shown in Table 3, kept at room temperature of 24 ± 1 ° C., and reared for 8 weeks in an environment of alternating light and darkness every 12 hours. After the test was completed, the mice were sacrificed and dissected, and the body weight and kidney attached fat weight were measured. For fat, the weight ratio of kidney-attached fat per body weight was calculated, and this was defined as the kidney-attached fat ratio. Further, serum was obtained from blood by a conventional method, and the triglyceride concentration in the serum was measured using a triglyceride measurement kit (Triglyceride G-Test Wako, Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.). Duncan's multiple comparison test was used to determine the significant difference.
The results are shown in Table 4. Although no significant difference was observed in the dietary intake of each group, suppression of body weight was confirmed in the sericin group with the amount of sericin added compared to the control group. Furthermore, in the sericin group, the rate of fat adhering to the kidneys was also reduced, and the triglyceride concentration in the serum was also reduced, confirming that sericin inhibited fat accumulation.

  Sericin is indigestible, activates the function of the stomach and intestines, makes it difficult to absorb excess water, cholesterol, toxic substances, neutral fat, etc. in the stomach and intestines, suppresses fat accumulation (diet) and constipation There is a great effect on the cancellation effect. In addition, sericin has properties as a protein derived from natural products and has high safety in vivo, so it is harmless even if ingested in large quantities. Therefore, it can be taken without difficulty in daily eating habits, and the effect can be even more remarkable.

  Furthermore, since sericin, which is an active ingredient of the present invention, can be easily extracted from a cocoon or raw silk solvent extract with high purity as a single protein, it can be obtained at low cost, and the color of the aqueous solution is colorless and transparent. Therefore, there is a great advantage that there is no need to decolorize and no complicated processing steps are required.

The graph which shows the result of a digestion test (vs pepsin). The graph which shows the result of a digestion test (vs. pancreatin). The graph which shows the result of having measured the digestive tract transport ability with the amount of feces. The graph which shows the result of having measured the gastrointestinal transport ability with the BTB excretion rate.

Claims (3)

  An indigestible agent comprising sericin or / and a hydrolyzate thereof as an active ingredient.   The indigestible agent according to claim 1, wherein the sericin is natural sericin extracted from silkworms or raw silk.   The indigestible agent according to claim 1 or 2, which is a fat accumulation inhibitor / constipation relieving agent.

Images