JP2008067631A - Method for extracting tea extract - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for easily extracting tea extract suppressed in astringent taste particular to green tea while imparting delicious taste inherent in the tea leaves to a green tea beverage. <P>SOLUTION: The method for extracting tea extract comprises extracting green tea leaves in the presence of protease, and further making the protease act on the obtained extract liquid. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for extracting tea extract. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for extracting a tea extract obtained by extracting tea leaves with water in the presence of protease and treating the obtained extract with protease again.

  Tea drinks are the most popular taste drinks in Japan, and in recent years, a large number of products filled in PET bottles have been provided. In particular, recently, not only green tea drinks but also various types of flavors have been provided, and concentrated drinks containing more specific tea components such as catechins than usual have been provided.

  As a method of imparting various flavors and umami to a tea beverage, a method of adding an extract other than tea or an additive such as an amino acid is simple. Other than that, studies were made on methods for obtaining extracts from tea, and tea extracts with enhanced aroma, those with enhanced bitterness and astringent taste, methods for obtaining extracts with richness and umami, etc. were disclosed. ing.

  For example, when and / or after treating tea leaves with tannase, a method for obtaining a tea extract with enhanced aroma by acting a glycoside-degrading enzyme on tea leaves (Patent Document 1), cellulase, hemicellulase, A method of enzymatically extracting and extracting tea leaves using an enzyme group having at least pectinase and protopectinase (Patent Document 2), and extracting tea ingredients other than green tea in the presence of protease and tannase Tea leaf is treated with cellulase, pectinase and phospholipase in water at 25 to 60 ° C. to prevent the deterioration of the flavor of the extract (Patent Document 3) and the flavor of the extract with a strong and less astringent taste A tea leaf treatment method (Patent Document 4), an amino acid component comprising theanine and arginine and tannin A container-packed green tea beverage with strong umami and richness, astringency reduced, and a balance between umami and astringency (Patent Document 5), characterized by adding protease and tannase to green tea ingredients and extracting And a high-flavored tea leaf extract having a tannin / Brix value of 200 mg% / Bx or less and a high-temperature extracted tea leaf extract obtained by the high-temperature extraction method, and a tannin concentration of 35 Examples include a method for producing a green tea beverage (Patent Document 7), which is characterized by being adjusted within a range of ˜50 mg%.

JP 2006-75112 A JP 2003-210110 A JP 2004-337181 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-300848 JP 2006-61125 A Japanese Patent No. 3787718 JP2003-210111A

  However, each of these methods is complicated to process, or an extract having the taste of tea is obtained, but it becomes an extract that strongly feels the astringency unique to tea. It was enough.

  The applicant of the present application has earnestly studied in order to solve the above problems, and has come to obtain a method for solving the above problems. That is, the present invention relates to a tea extract extraction method in which tea leaves are extracted in the presence of protease, and protease is further acted on the obtained extract.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily obtain a tea extract that imparts the original umami of tea leaves to a beverage while suppressing the unique astringency of tea.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.

Examples of the tea leaves that can be used in the present invention include all green tea leaves that are generally distributed. Specifically, the genus Camellia , such as C.I. sinensis var. sinensis , C.I. sinensis var. Examples include tea leaves made from assamica or tea leaves obtained from hybrids thereof. Moreover, although the kind of tea is classified into sencha, kabusecha, bancha, gyokuro, tama green tea, and strawberry tea according to the cultivation method and the processing method of tea leaves, any kind may be used.

  The extraction method of the tea extract according to the present invention is characterized by an extraction process in which an extraction process from tea leaves is performed in the presence of a protease, and the resulting extract is subjected to a protease process.

  Extraction from tea leaves in the presence of protease may be performed by immersing the tea leaves in water, adding an appropriate amount of an enzyme having protease ability or a bacterial species producing the enzyme, and reacting appropriately. Particularly preferred is a protease having peptidase activity or a bacterial species producing the enzyme. Examples of the available enzyme include Amano Enzyme Protease M “Amano” G, Protease A “Amano” G, and Ummamizyme G, but are not limited thereto.

  As an example of the extraction method, 100 to 10,000 times the amount of water with respect to 100 parts by mass of tea leaves and 0.1 to 10 parts by mass, preferably 0.5 to 3 parts by mass of protease with respect to 100 parts by mass of tea leaves. What is necessary is just to add. The conditions for performing the enzyme treatment are not particularly limited, and the reaction may be performed at a liquid temperature of 30 to 70 ° C. for 30 minutes to 24 hours. Since these differ depending on the protease and bacterial species used, they can be appropriately adjusted.

  In this extraction process, the tea leaves may be heated after being poured into water, and the tea leaves may be pulverized in order to increase the extraction efficiency. The extraction equipment can be used without limitation as long as it can hold tea leaves and water in contact with each other. For example, a commonly used extraction equipment is a kneader, a column type extractor, a countercurrent flow, or the like. An extractor etc. are mentioned. The extraction treatment can also be performed in an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen gas or carbon dioxide gas.

  In addition, it is possible to add water and protease again to the tea leaves from which the tea extract has been extracted once, re-extract the mixture, mix the resulting extract with the previously obtained extract, and apply to the next treatment. is there. By repeating the re-extraction process 2 to 3 times, the umami component contained in the tea leaf can be extracted without leaving, and the resource can be effectively utilized.

  The extract from tea leaves obtained by the extraction treatment is again subjected to protease treatment. The protease used here can use an enzyme having protease ability and a bacterial species producing the enzyme, and the processing conditions may be the same as described above. Through the treatment, the tea extract according to the present invention can be obtained.

  In addition, you may perform the filtration process by filter paper etc., and the process which reduces a tannin with respect to the extraction liquid from the tea leaf obtained in presence of protease, and the process liquid which performed the protease process again. As an example of the treatment for reducing tannin, one or more of treatment with an adsorbent resin, enzyme treatment with tannase, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone treatment and activated carbon treatment can be used in combination. Furthermore, the enzyme may be deactivated by heating the treatment liquid to 90 ° C.

  Thus, the tea extract according to the present invention can be obtained. The tea extract obtained through the above-described steps is used as it is or concentrated to obtain a liquid (extract) preparation, and known excipients such as dextrin, lactose and gum arabic are added as appropriate, for example, spray drying. The powder may be pulverized by a method such as freeze-drying. Furthermore, it is also possible to prepare food using the obtained tea extract.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular in the foodstuff which can use the tea extract which concerns on this invention, It can use for foodstuffs in general. Specific examples include soft drinks such as green tea drinks, carbonated drinks, jelly sweets, Japanese sweets, and candy. The method of adding to these foods can be appropriately changed depending on the food to be produced, the tea extract according to the present invention as one of the raw materials of each food, but only 0.01 to 10% by weight may be added. Since no special equipment or manufacturing conditions are required, it is industrially advantageous.

  Hereinafter, the content of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the following examples and comparative examples, but the present invention is not limited to these. Unless otherwise specified, “parts” means “parts by mass”.

Extraction method To 600 kg of fresh tea leaves, 6 kg of enzyme (Protease M “Amano” G manufactured by Amano Enzyme) and 1500 kg of water (50 ° C.) were added, and extraction was performed under an enzyme reaction for 1 hour to obtain an extract 1. .

  Next, 1500 kg of 50 ° C. water was further added to the tea leaves after discharging the extract, followed by extraction for 20 minutes to obtain Extract 2. This process was repeated again to obtain the extract 3 and the extracts 1 to 3 were mixed to obtain 2800 kg of the extract process.

  The obtained extraction treatment liquid was concentrated to Brix 14 °, and further, 7.42 kg of enzyme (protease M “Amano” G) was added to the extraction treatment liquid, followed by stirring at 50 ° C. for 1 hour. Subsequently, the liquid was heated to 90 ° C. to deactivate the enzyme to obtain 840 kg of tea extract according to the present invention.

  On the other hand, as a comparative example, a tea extract was obtained by carrying out the same treatment steps except that the enzyme treatment after the extraction treatment was not carried out.

Evaluation of Tea Extract The tea extract according to the present invention obtained above had analytical values of Brix 15 ° and an amino acid content of 1.2%, and no impurities such as turbidity were generated even in appearance.

  In contrast, in the tea extract obtained in the comparative example, an analytical value of Brix 14 ° and an amino acid content of 0.9% was obtained.

Example of beverage using green tea extract In order to compare the tea extract according to the present invention and the tea extract obtained in the comparative example, tea beverages using both tea extracts were prepared and evaluated.
<Prescription>
A tea beverage was prepared according to the formulation shown in Table 1 below.

  * Green tea beverage stock solution is prepared by adjusting the liquid extracted from green tea leaves at 85 ° C to Brix 0.14 °.

<Production method>
Each component was mixed based on each prescription of Table 1, and it sterilized at 135 degreeC for 5 second, and was set as the green tea drink.

<Evaluation of green tea beverage>
Each green tea drink obtained above was evaluated by 7 panelists. The results are shown in Table 2. Evaluation was made on a 10-point scale with the green tea beverage with no tea extract added, and the average taste ± standard deviation was evaluated with respect to the umami, astringency, and overall taste of the green tea beverage. ( ^* : P <0 .05)

  From the above results, by adding the tea extract according to the present invention, a green tea beverage in which the umami of green tea and the overall taste are improved compared to the tea extract of the comparative example (one enzyme treatment) is obtained. It was. Normally, the addition of tea extract tends to strongly feel the unique astringency of tea as well as umami. However, in the above evaluation, the astringency is improved, but the astringency is lower than that of green tea beverages without added tea extract The result was obtained. From this, it was clarified in the present invention that a tea extract with improved astringency while effectively improving the umami of green tea was obtained.

Claims (1)

A method for extracting tea extract, comprising extracting tea leaves with water in the presence of protease, and further treating the resulting extract with protease.