JP2010094096A - Cereal grain increased in content of functional component, and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To widely increase the amounts of functional components such as γ-amino butyric acid which cereal grains contain in comparison with those (the amounts of functional components) of generally circulating cereal grains by restricting the amount of water to be added to cereal grains as the minimum necessary amount. <P>SOLUTION: The method includes: (1) a process of preparing cereal grains with hulls, dry processed to have at least ≤15% water content; (2) a water content-adjusting process of adjusting the water content to be 16.0% by spray watering or agitation watering the cereal grains with hulls; (3) a high temperature humidification process of humidifying the cereal grains after the water content-adjusting process at high temperature to have 16.0-18.5% water content by blowing high temperature humidified air having ≥50°C temperature and ≥90% relative humidity (RH); and (4) a drying process of drying the cereal grains after the high temperature humidification process at 40-50°C temperature and 15-35% RH. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a grain having an increased content of functional components and a method for producing the same.

Recently, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has been attracting attention as an effective substance for health maintenance or disease prevention such as suppressing the increase in blood pressure of the human body, and the content of γ-aminobutyric acid contained in grains such as brown rice There are technologies to increase. For example, it is known that when brown rice is germinated, γ-aminobutyric acid is synthesized from glutamic acid in the germ by the action of an enzyme, and γ-aminobutyric acid contained in the brown rice is greatly increased. However, germinating brown rice obtained by germinating brown rice is inferior to ordinary white rice when referring to taste (for example, Patent Document 1). For this reason, it is desired to increase the amount of γ-aminobutyric acid contained in brown rice as compared with normal brown rice in a short time without germinating brown rice or without enlarging the germ part of brown rice as much as possible.

JP 2005-168444 A

In view of the above problems, the present invention minimizes the amount of water added to cereals, and greatly increases the amount of functional components such as γ-aminobutyric acid in cereals as compared to cereals in general circulation. It is a technical problem to provide the technology to be performed.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is a method for producing a grain having an increased content of functional ingredients, and includes the following steps: 1) subjecting at least 15% of moisture to a drying treatment. 2) a moisture adjustment step for adjusting moisture to 16.0% by spray or stirring water; 3) a temperature of 50 ° C. or higher and a relative humidity of 90% or higher. A high-temperature humidification step of humidifying the grain after the moisture adjustment step at a high temperature so as to be in the range of 16.0 to 18.5% moisture by ventilation of humidified air; 4) the temperature of the grain after the high-temperature humidification step is 40 to 50 A drying step of drying with air at 15 ° C. and a relative humidity of 15 to 35%.

The invention according to claim 2 comprises the following steps between the step 2) and the step 3): 5) a tempering step of tempering the moisture-adjusted grain at room temperature. To do.

  The invention according to claim 3 comprises the following step between the step 3) and the step 4): 6) a tempering step of tempering the grain whose moisture has been adjusted at room temperature. To do.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the step 3) gradually increases the air temperature after the start of the high-temperature humidification, and finally controls it to 50 ° C. or higher.

  The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the cereal is plant seeds such as rice, barley, wheat, corn, beans, buckwheat, sesame, straw, straw and straw.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, with respect to the grain with a shell which has been subjected to a drying treatment to at least 15% moisture, the moisture is first adjusted to 16.0% moisture by spray or stirring. is there. This is because the shell (for example, rice husk) has a siliceous surface and is difficult to absorb water, and even if it is in the inner skin or seed coat layer (for example, rice bran layer for brown rice), the layer thickness Is thin, but relatively difficult to pass water and has high water absorption resistance. In other words, even if a high-temperature humidification treatment is suddenly applied to grains that have been dried to a moisture content of 15% or less, the activity of the enzyme that converts glutamic acid, which is a precursor of γ-aminobutyric acid, to γ-aminobutyric acid is weak. The present inventors exerted a high-temperature humidification treatment after moderate hydration of the cereals, thereby exerting the activity of the enzyme that converts glutamic acid into γ-aminobutyric acid, and thus compared with general cereals. It has been found that the content of γ-aminobutyric acid can be greatly increased.

And with sufficient hydration, the activity of the enzyme that converts glutamic acid to γ-aminobutyric acid becomes stronger by ventilation of high-temperature humidified air at a temperature of 50 ° C. or higher and a relative humidity of 90% or higher. Can be considered to change in a large amount to γ-aminobutyric acid.

Moreover, since the moisture of the cereal is adjusted so that the moisture content is in the range of 16.0 to 18.5% by the ventilation of the high-temperature humidified air, the cereal is not cracked and the cereal may germinate. In addition, external shape changes such as signs of germination do not appear. That is, a decrease in taste due to germination can be prevented, and furthermore, the grain can be eaten as a staple food like ordinary white rice by applying cereal.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the manufacturing process in the manufacturing method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a paddle type stirring and hydrostatic apparatus for carrying out the stirring and water adding method, and FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a machine.

  In the present invention, the grain that has been dried in advance to prevent alteration, improve storage properties, or improve flowability is used as a starting material, and the content of functional components is dramatically increased compared to the starting material. It relates to the method of processing into grains. As cereals, rice, barley, wheat, which is a staple food by eating seeds, corn, beans, buckwheat, buckwheat, sesame, millet, millet and millet Millet can also be used.

In general, these grains have a moisture content of 13 to 15% in the case of brown rice, and a moisture content of 12.5% or less in the case of wheat and barley, in order to prevent deterioration, improve storability, or improve circulation. In the case of corn (maize), it is dried and prepared to a moisture content of 13% or less. That is, when the water content exceeds this level, the enzyme activity increases during the storage, generates heat, and there is a risk (danger) that quality may be deteriorated such as generation of mold.

Referring to FIG. 1, the grain that has been dried to a moisture content of at least 15% becomes the starting material 10, and is put into a moisture adjustment step 11 to adjust the moisture content of the starting material 10 to 16.0%. In the moisture adjustment step 11, a dipping method (deep soaking), a spray water addition method in which the average particle diameter of water droplets is sprayed / hydrated at an average particle size of 100 μm or less, or water of about 2 to 5% of the grain weight is added while stirring the grains. There is no particular limitation such as a stirring water method. These hydration methods may be appropriately selected according to the type of grain and its physical properties. As a device for carrying out the spray hydration method, a spray hydration device provided with an atomizer inside the rotating drum (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-2005). 52073) can be employed. In addition, as an apparatus for carrying out the stirring water method, a paddle type stirring water apparatus as shown in FIG. 2 can be employed.

A paddle type stirring and hydrolyzing device 20 shown in FIG. 2 includes a water addition unit 22 for adding a starting material by a water injection nozzle 21, a horizontal cylindrical unit 23 for vibrating the grain hydrolyzed by the water addition unit 22, and the horizontal cylindrical unit. The main part is constituted by the agitation unit 24 that agitates the grain supplied into the unit 23 and transfers it to the end of conveyance. When the grain is supplied from the raw material supply hopper 25 to the moisture adding unit 23, water is supplied from the water injection nozzle 21, and about 2 to 5% of water is added to the weight of the grain, and then the supply port 26 enters the horizontal cylindrical unit 23. It reaches. The horizontal cylindrical portion 23 is conveyed toward the discharge port 29 while receiving the stirring action by the stirring paddle 27 and the vibration action by the vibration motor 28. At this time, the lower discharge pipe 31 is closed by the closing plate 30, and about 70% of the capacity of the cylindrical part stays in the horizontal cylindrical part 23, so that moisture penetrates the entire grain and overflows from the upper discharge pipe 32. Thus, it is discharged from the discharge basket 33 to the outside of the machine.

Next, the manufacturing process of FIG. 1 will be described. Grains whose moisture content has been adjusted to 16.0% in the starting material 10 in the moisture adjustment step 11 are then entered into a tempering step 12 and placed in a closed container such as a tank to keep the grains homogeneous. Perform the operation. In this refining (tempering) step 12, it is transferred to a container such as a tank after the addition of water, and the time condition is within 8 hours, preferably within 2 hours, the environmental condition is a temperature of 16-24 ° C., and the aeration condition is Should be ventilated while taking outside air into the tank. In the moisture adjustment step 11, when the moisture has already penetrated uniformly throughout the grain, the tempering step 12 can be omitted.

Grains that have undergone a tempering step 12 or have been kept in a homogeneous state by omitting this step 12 further enter a high-temperature humidification step 13 where the temperature is 50 ° C. or higher and the relative humidity is 90% or higher. The operation of adding water to a range of 16.0 to 18.5% by performing ventilation with high-temperature humidified air is performed. At this time, the temperature condition of the high-temperature humidified air is 50 ° C. or higher, preferably 50 ° C. to 70 ° C., more preferably 60 ° C. to 70 ° C. The humidity condition is preferably 90% or higher relative humidity. The time condition is preferably 2 to 6 hours. Expressing this high temperature humidification step 13 sensibly, it means that the grains are held for 2 to 6 hours in a steam bath or mist sauna environment at a temperature of about 50 ° C. and a relative humidity of about 100%. As an apparatus for carrying out the high-temperature humidification step 13, a circulating grain dryer described later can be employed.

Next, the grain enters the refining (tempering) step 14 under the same conditions as described above, and is put into a sealed container such as a tank to perform an operation for keeping the grain in a homogeneous state. In the case where moisture is uniformly permeated throughout the grain, this tempering step 14 can be omitted.

Then, the grain having passed through the tempering step 14 or omitting this step 14 and retaining moisture in a homogeneous state enters the drying step 15. This drying step 15 is performed by drying with air having a temperature of 40 to 50 ° C. and a relative humidity of 15 to 35% as drying conditions to prevent alteration of the moisture of the final grain, to improve storage properties, or to improve distribution. % Or less is preferable. As an apparatus for carrying out this drying treatment, a circulating grain dryer shown in FIG. 3 can be employed.

A circulation type grain dryer 40 shown in FIG. 3 is an apparatus for carrying out the high-temperature humidification step 13 and the drying step 15 (see FIG. 1). The grain storage unit 41 and the grains flowing down from the storage unit 41 are used. The main part is constituted by a high-temperature humidified air supply unit 42 for supplying high-temperature humidified air and a discharge unit 43 for taking out grains from the machine. The hot humidified air supply unit 42 is provided with a hot air generating burner 44 and a humidifying device 45 that burns kerosene as fuel at the lower portion thereof, and an exhaust fan 53 is provided at the rear of the hot humidified air supply unit 42.

The path from the hot air generating burner 44 to the humidifier 45 is connected via a pipeline, and the path from the humidifier 45 to the ventilation port 46 is also connected via a pipeline. Further, a bypass pipe 47 is provided as a path from the hot air generating burner 44 to the ventilation port 46 by bypassing the humidifying apparatus 45, and a flow branching from the bypass pipe 47 to a pipe line from the hot air generating burner 44 to the humidifying apparatus 45. A flow path switching valve 49 that communicates with the bypass pipe 47 is connected to a pipe path from the humidifier 45 to the ventilation port 46. Further, a temperature / humidity sensor 50 that detects the temperature and humidity of the humidified air and hot air is provided in the vicinity of the ventilation port 46, and a moisture meter 51 that detects the moisture value of the grain is provided on one side of the discharge unit 43.

  The humidifying device 45 can be appropriately selected from a general vaporizing type, a steam type, and the like, and the hot air generating burner 44 can be one commonly used in grain dryers. In addition to the kerosene burner, a hot air heater or a heat exchanger or the like can be used in order to prevent the bad smell generated when kerosene is burned on the grain.

  The circulation type grain dryer 40 is provided with a control unit 52 for controlling each part, and drives and controls the hot air generating burner 44, the humidifier 45, the flow path switching valve 48 and the flow path switching valve 49, and a humidifying operation program, It is configured to execute a drying operation program.

  Returning to FIG. 1 again, the manufacturing process of the present invention will be described. The grain dried in the drying step 15 reaches the milling step 16. When the drying step 15 is finished, the cereal grains have already been greatly increased in the content of functional components such as γ-aminobutyric acid as compared with the starting material. And in this mashing process 16, it removes the outer skin of the grain which content of the functional ingredient increased, and it is processed into a refined grain, and when a human eats, it aims at improving digestion absorption and taste. . Therefore, it can be handled in the same manner as the starting material, and can be processed into sprinkled rice, germed rice, or polished rice if it is brown rice by a known cereal machine. Furthermore, the milling process 16 is arrange | positioned in the post process of the milling process 15, and the grain flour (rice flour, wheat flour, barley flour, other miscellaneous flour) which content of the functional component increased can also be manufactured. In addition, it is possible to produce non-washed rice, non-washed grains and the like using a well-known non-washing technique.

  As one of the examples of the present invention, γ− produced when barley cultivar “Salute” is used as a test raw material, the water content of the starting material is 12%, and “moisture adjustment step (11) is omitted”. The content of aminobutyric acid (S0 in FIG. 4) was compared with the content of γ-aminobutyric acid (S16, S20 in FIG. 4) when manufactured using “use water adjustment step (11)”. An immersion method was applied to the moisture adjustment step (11). That is, in the case of S16, 100 g of the starting material (water content 12%) was put into the container, 5.4 g of water was added and sealed so that the raw material water content was 16%, and left for about 1 hour (quantitative water addition). . In the case of S20, 100 g of the starting material (water content 12%) was put into the container, 11.4 g of water was added and the mixture was left to stand for about 1 hour (quantitative water addition) so that the water content of the material became 20%.

  In the “high-temperature humidification step (13)”, the circulation type grain dryer 40 humidified at a humidification rate of 0.3% / h or less. In this humidification operation, the relative humidity of the humidified air is 90% or more, and the temperature of the humidified air is room temperature for 1 hour after the start of humidification, and is set to 20 ° C. for the next hour, and thereafter 25 ° C., 30 ° C., 35 ° C. ℃ and 40 ℃, increase the temperature by 5 ℃ every hour, raise the temperature of the humidified air to 40 ℃ 5 hours after the start of humidification, and then increase the temperature by 10 ℃ every hour Finally, ventilation was performed for 4 hours with humidified air at 70 ° C. for 4 hours. After the humidification operation was completed, the sample was left in the storage tank 41 of the circulation type grain dryer 40 for a maximum of 6 hours to increase the amount of γ-aminobutyric acid. After standing, drying was performed in a drying operation to obtain function-enriched barley.

  In the barley “Salute” obtained in this way, high-temperature humidification treatment (S0) from a starting material having a moisture content of 12% without passing through a moisture adjustment step, and high-temperature humidification treatment from a moisture content of 16% through a moisture adjustment step FIG. 4 shows the respective γ-aminobutyric acid contents of (S16) and those subjected to high-temperature humidification treatment from 20% moisture through the moisture adjustment step (S20). Moreover, the measurement of (gamma) -aminobutyric acid was performed with the high performance liquid chromatograph (Shimadzu Corporation, LC-VP).

  In FIG. 4, S0 and S20 have a content of γ-aminobutyric acid of 23.0 to 24.0 mg / 100 g, whereas S16 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid of 25.0 mg. / 100g, the highest content was found.

  The content of γ-aminobutyric acid when manufactured by using “Fiber Snow” as the test raw material as the barley variety, with the moisture content of the starting material being 12%, and “producing the moisture adjustment step (11)” in the same manner as in Example 1. The amount (S0 in FIG. 5) was compared with the content of γ-aminobutyric acid (S16, S20 in FIG. 5) when manufactured using “use water adjustment step (11)”.

  In FIG. 5, S0 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid of 12.0 mg / 100 g, S20 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid remaining around 14.0 mg / 100 g, whereas S16 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid. The content of butyric acid was found to be the highest at 15.0 mg / 100 g.

  Content of γ-aminobutyric acid when manufactured by using “Nishinohoshi” as a test raw material as a barley variety, with a moisture content of the starting material of 12%, and “producing the moisture adjustment step (11)” in the same manner as in Example 1. (S0 in FIG. 6) was compared with the content of γ-aminobutyric acid (S16, S20 in FIG. 6) when manufactured using “use moisture adjustment step (11)”.

  In FIG. 6, S0 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid of 13.0 mg / 100 g, S20 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid remaining around 12.0 mg / 100 g, whereas S16 has a content of γ-aminobutyric acid. It was found that the content of butyric acid was the highest at 14.0 mg / 100 g.

  As one example of the present invention, shelled buckwheat noodles were processed by the production method of the present invention. Even in the case of buckwheat, it was humidified by the circulating grain dryer 40 so that the water content did not exceed 18.5%. In this humidification, ventilation for humidification was performed for 3 hours with humidified air having a relative humidity of 90% or more and a temperature of 70 ° C. In the processing of the soba noodles, the standing step was not performed, and the soba noodles were dried in the drying operation after the humidification operation. In this drying operation, for 6 hours from the start of drying, dry air having a relative humidity of 30% and a temperature of 35 ° C. is ventilated, and then the temperature of the dry air is gradually lowered and finally lowered to room temperature. Drying was performed until the moisture content of the buckwheat was about 15%, so that buckwheat (hereinafter referred to as “function-enriched buckwheat”) having an increased content of γ-aminobutyric acid was obtained.

  Table 1 shows the amount of γ-aminobutyric acid contained in the function-enriched buckwheat so obtained. In addition, the measurement of (gamma) -aminobutyric acid was performed with the high performance liquid chromatograph (Shimadzu Corporation, LC-VP).

  In Table 1, in order to show the increase rate of γ-aminobutyric acid in the function-enriched buckwheat, the buckwheat used for the raw material (the buckwheat before being processed by the production method of the present invention) is indicated as “raw buckwheat”. . In the raw buckwheat and the functional enriched buckwheat, the content of γ-aminobutyric acid in the functional enriched buckwheat became 11.6 times or more that of the raw buckwheat.

It is the flowchart which showed the manufacturing process in the manufacturing method of this invention. It is a schematic longitudinal cross-sectional view of the paddle type stirring and hydrolyzing apparatus for implementing the stirring and stirring method. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a circulation type grain dryer. In barley “Salute”, high-temperature humidification treatment from a starting material with a moisture content of 12% without passing through a moisture adjustment step (S0), one that has undergone a moisture adjustment step with a moisture content from 16% (S16), and moisture It is a comparison figure of (gamma) -aminobutyric acid content with what carried out the high temperature humidification process from the moisture 20% through the adjustment process (S20). In barley “Fiber Snow”, high-temperature humidification treatment from a starting material having a moisture content of 12% without passing through a moisture adjustment step (S0), and one that has been subjected to a moisture adjustment step from a moisture content of 16% (S16), It is a comparison figure of (gamma) -aminobutyric acid content with what carried out the high temperature humidification process from the moisture 20% through the moisture adjustment process (S20). In barley “Nishinohoshi”, a raw material having a moisture content of 12% was subjected to a high-temperature humidification treatment without passing through a moisture adjustment step (S0), a moisture product having been subjected to a moisture adjustment step from a moisture content of 16% (S16), and moisture It is a comparison figure of (gamma) -aminobutyric acid content with what carried out the high temperature humidification process from the moisture 20% through the adjustment process (S20).

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Starting material 11 Water | moisture-content adjustment process 12 Tempering process 13 High temperature humidification process 14 Tempering process 15 Drying process 16 Refinement process 17 Milling process 20 Paddle-type stirring and water addition apparatus 21 Water injection nozzle 22 Water addition part 23 Horizontal cylindrical part 24 Stirring part 25 Raw material supply hopper 26 Supply port 27 Stirring paddle 28 Vibration motor 29 Discharge port 30 Closure plate 31 Lower discharge tube 32 Upper discharge tube 33 Discharge basket 40 Circulating grain dryer 41 Storage unit 42 High-temperature humidified air supply unit 43 Discharge unit 44 Hot air generating burner 45 Humidification Device 46 Ventilation port 47 Bypass pipe 48 Channel switching valve 49 Channel switching valve 50 Temperature / humidity sensor 51 Moisture meter 52 Control unit 53 Ventilation fan

Claims (6)

A method for producing a cereal having an increased content of functional ingredients, the following steps:
1) A step of obtaining a shelled grain that has been subjected to a drying treatment to at least 15% moisture;
2) a moisture adjusting step of adjusting moisture to 16.0% by spray or stirring water on the cereal grains;
3) A high-temperature humidification step in which the grain after the moisture adjustment step is humidified at a high temperature so that the moisture content is in the range of 16.0 to 18.5% by ventilation of high-temperature humidified air having a temperature of 50 ° C. or higher and a relative humidity of 90% or higher;
4) A drying step of drying the grain after the high-temperature humidification step with air having a temperature of 40 to 50 ° C. and a relative humidity of 15 to 35%;
A method for producing cereals, wherein the content of the functional component is increased. Between the step 2) and the step 3), the following steps:
5) Tempering step of tempering the grain with moisture adjusted at room temperature;
A method for producing a cereal having an increased content of the functional ingredient according to claim 1. Between the step 3) and the step 4), the following steps:
6) Tempering step of tempering the grain with moisture adjusted at room temperature;
A method for producing a cereal having an increased content of the functional ingredient according to claim 1 or 2. The functional step according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the step 3) is performed by gradually increasing the air temperature after starting high-temperature humidification and finally controlling the temperature to 50 ° C or higher. A method for producing grains with increased amounts.   The functional grain component according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the cereal is plant seeds such as rice, barley, wheat, corn, beans, buckwheat, sesame, straw, straw and straw. A method for producing grains with increased amounts. Grain which increased content of the functional component manufactured by the manufacturing method in any one of Claims 1-5.

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