JP2012006861A - Chewable soft capsule agent and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a chewable soft capsule agent having a new texture.SOLUTION: The chewable soft capsule agent is characterized in that a capsule film is gelled with an aqueous gelling agent, the contents are gelled with an aqueous gelling agent, and the contents have a jelly or gummy shape. Preferably, a crystalline water-soluble substance having high water retaining capacity is precipitated on the boundary on the side of the contents of the capsule film. The contents are made into the ones not inferior to oily ones. After the production of a wetting capsule, it is subjected to ventilation drying treatment in a high humidity atmosphere, and when the moisture content in the contents reaches 20 to 25 mass%, the capsule is subjected to ventilation drying treatment in an ordinary or low humidity atmosphere and is made to be a final dry capsule, thus deterioration in the capsule film is prevented.

Description

  The present invention relates to a soft capsule.

  Since soft capsules contain plasticizers such as glycerin and sorbitol, the soft capsules are highly elastic and have high capsule strength and are not easily cracked. In addition, the antioxidant effect of the contents and the masking effect of off-flavors and off-flavors are excellent. Therefore, soft capsules are starting to be widely used not only for pharmaceuticals but also for health supplements, cosmetics, fragrances, general processed foods and the like.

JP 2010-047548 A

By the way, recently, in order to further expand the applications of soft capsules, there is a demand for application to palatability foods such as confectionery.
Therefore, it has been considered to give a soft texture to the soft capsule as a whole.
However, if it is intended to give elasticity to the contents, the contents become gelled or gummy by gelation, but most of the currently marketed gelling agents are swollen with water and used. It is aqueous.

Thus, soft capsules usually have a film-forming property such as gelatin alone and a gelling property as a film agent, or those having respective properties in combination. It is swollen with water to form a gel, and then the contents are encapsulated to form a wet capsule. The wet capsule is then finished and dried to a dry capsule with an appropriate water content. By finishing and drying, it is finally given moderate elasticity that does not plastically deform even when pressed on the capsule film, and storage stability that can prevent adhesion and mold generation.
Therefore, if the content is an aqueous solution, in the conventional technology, moisture rapidly moves to the capsule film during drying, and the capsule film swells or dissolves in an irregular shape, resulting in a significant reduction in commercial value. End up.

  The present invention has been tried by paying attention to the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a chewable soft capsule having good elasticity and storage stability even when the content is aqueous, and a method for producing the same. For the purpose.

The present invention is a chewable soft capsule characterized in that the capsule film is gelled by an aqueous gelling agent, the content is gelled by an aqueous gelling agent, and the content is in a jelly or gummy shape. is there.
Preferably, a crystalline water-soluble substance having a high water retention ability is deposited on the content-side boundary of the capsule film.
Also preferably, the soft capsule is characterized in that a crystalline water-soluble substance is deposited and exposed on the outer surface of the capsule film.

The above chewable soft capsule is prepared by producing a wet capsule in which the content is encapsulated by a capsule film, and then subjected to a ventilation drying treatment in a high-humidity atmosphere, when the water content of the content reaches 20 to 25% by mass Thus, it can be produced by subjecting it to an air-drying treatment in a normal or low-humidity atmosphere to obtain a final dry capsule.
Preferably, the high humidity atmosphere is adjusted so that the relative humidity is 50 to 70%.

  A chewable soft capsule whose contents obtained by the present invention are jelly or gummi-like has secured good formulation and storage stability.

The chewable soft capsule according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
(Capsule film)
The capsule film contains a water-soluble gelling agent. Examples of the gelling agent include gelatin, agar, carrageenan, alginic acid or a salt thereof, soluble starch, dextrin, glucomannan, pectin, curdlan, pullulan, gums (for example, locust bean gum, psyllium seed gum, tamarind seed) Gum, gum arabic, gellan gum, xanthan gum, guar gum, etc.) and celluloses (for example, HPMC, HPC, MC, HEC, CMEC, HPMCP, etc.). These may be used alone or in combination.
To this, an appropriate plasticizer, for example, glycerin, polyvinyl alcohol, sorbitol, mannitol, polyethylene glycols, polyvinyl pyrrolidone is added.
In addition, coloring agents, preservatives, mold release agents, fragrances, sucralose, acesulfame K, aspartame, stevia, thaumatin and other sweeteners and flavoring agents may be added to the capsule film as necessary. Good.

  Preferably, a precipitate derived from a crystalline water-soluble substance is dispersed. Examples of water-soluble substances include sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, erythritol, maltitol, and lactitol, monosaccharides such as arabinose, xylose, glucose, fructose, galactose, and mannose, maltose, trehalose, neotrehalose, sucrose, and the like. Disaccharides, raffinose, sialyl lactose, trisaccharides such as fucosyl lactose, malto-oligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, balatinose, etc. Oligosaccharides (sucrose), glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine, cysteine, cystine, methionine and other amino acids or salts thereof, and oligopeptides such as glutathione And the like. All of these have high water retention. Furthermore, a sweet substance, a salty substance, an umami substance such as an amino acid or a nucleic acid, a bitter substance such as caffeine, an astringent substance such as tannin, and an acid substance. These may be used alone or in combination.

  On the basis of the final dry capsule, the preferable formulation of the capsule film is that the moisture content is about 5 to 20% by mass, the gelling agent is 30 to 70% by mass, and the plasticizer is 25 to 50% by mass. When the crystalline water-soluble substance is blended, the content is preferably 1% by mass or more and 26% by mass or less in the capsule film so as not to impair the function originally required for the film.

When a crystalline water-soluble substance is blended, it is contained as a precipitate in the capsule film of the dry capsule, and is preferably deposited and exposed on the outer surface of the capsule film. By thus depositing on the outer surface and covering the capsule film, the shielding action can prevent sticking due to the swelling of the film even under high-temperature and high-humidity conditions, and the storage stability is dramatically improved. In particular, a higher shielding effect can be expected by depositing a material having a high water holding capacity.
In addition, by precipitating a high water retaining capacity at the boundary on the contents side, it is possible to hold the free water contained in the contents and to significantly delay the moisture transfer rate to the capsule film. .
The precipitate does not need to be segregated on the content side and the outer surface side, and may be dispersed in the capsule film.

(Contents)
The contents also contain a water-soluble gelling agent. The same gelling agent as that contained in the capsule film can be used. Due to gelation, the contents are in the form of jelly or gummy.
Add appropriate ingredients, sugar, syrup, fructose, glucose, liquid sugar, sorbitol, erythritol, xylitol, maltitol, lactitol, palatinit, cacao, emulsifier, flavor, western liquor, fruit juice, sweetener, acidulant, etc. Will be attached. These components only need to be in a liquid state with the above-described gelling agent and applied to a conventional soft capsule manufacturing apparatus.
The jelly strength of the contents can be appropriately adjusted depending on the type of gelling agent.

  On the basis of the final dry capsule, the preferred formulation of the contents is that the gelling agent is 0.2-5.0% by weight and the moisture content is about 5-20% by weight.

(Production method)
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as a manufacturing method of the said soft capsule agent, It can select suitably from well-known manufacturing methods, For example, a rotary die system, a seamless system, etc. are mentioned.
In the rotary die method, a capsule is formed from two capsule film liquid sheets, filled with contents, and heat-sealed at the same time using a rotary die (die) to produce a wet capsule. Further, the seamless method is a method in which the contents are discharged from the discharge port inside the single or multi-layer nozzle, the capsule coating liquid is discharged from the discharge port outside the nozzle, and the oil or gas is supplied at a constant speed by a pump or gravity. Discharge, apply physical force such as vibration, cut the discharge liquid at regular intervals, and manufacture wet capsules with the cut part as a sphere by the interface or surface tension between oil liquid or gas and the capsule coating liquid It is.

As described above, in any method, after producing a wet capsule, it is dried to obtain a dry capsule. For example, this drying is performed using a “rotary drum dryer” with a ventilator. In addition, there is a fluid type in which a small capsule such as a seamless capsule is dried while being blown up and fluidized. In any of the drying methods, the present invention is performed in a high-humidity atmosphere that is first forcedly humidified. The relative humidity of this atmosphere is preferably 50 to 70%.
By slowly drying in a high-humidity atmosphere in this way, the moisture transfer from the contents to the capsule film solution becomes slow, and the capsule film is prevented from swelling and dissolving indefinitely during drying. it can.

At that time, if the above-mentioned water-soluble substance having a high water-holding power is blended in the capsule film, a part of the water-soluble substance has a high water content and a high water activity at the wet capsule stage. It is transferred to the object side. Thereafter, as described above, when the drying is started, the water is transferred more slowly from the contents to the capsule film liquid by the water retaining action of the water-soluble substance.
In parallel with the above, the water-soluble substance also migrates to the outer surface.

When the water content of the contents reaches 20 to 25% by mass, it is subjected to a ventilation drying treatment in a normal or low humidity atmosphere.
At this point, the contents have already been sufficiently dried, and there is no need to worry about the transfer of moisture to the film, so the drying is promoted by returning to the regular drying atmosphere.
In addition, since a moisture content etc. cannot be measured during drying, it confirms by a prior test etc. and the operation schedule of a drying apparatus will be determined based on it.
The finally obtained dry capsule has a content comparable to that of oil.

(Manufacturing)
Soft capsules were produced from a liquid having the following formulation by a rotary die method.

The capsule coating solution was heated to adjust the viscosity to 20000 to 30000 cps and vacuum degassed. The content was adjusted to 500 to 2000 cps, and the contents were applied to the apparatus to produce a wet capsule.
Then, after drying using the above-mentioned rotary drum dryer in a high humidity atmosphere with a relative humidity of 55% according to the operation schedule, the final drying is performed in a low humidity atmosphere with a relative humidity of 29%. It was.
The soft capsules were football-shaped, the size was about 9 × 14 mm, the capsule film weight was about 180-220 mg, and the content weight was about 500-520 mg.
Thereafter, it was stored for 1 day in a high temperature and high humidity atmosphere (30 ° C., relative humidity 60 to 70%).

(Evaluation)
When the soft capsule after manufacture was visually inspected, there was no superiority or inferiority in the shape of the capsules according to formulas 1 to 3. In particular, Formula 1 and Formula 2 were not superior or inferior in touch.
Then, when the time-dependent change in a hot and humid atmosphere was investigated, the thing of the prescription 1 and the prescription 3 did not have a change especially, but the thing of the prescription 2 was that the capsule film became sticky and the capsules adhered.

  The present invention can be used in manufacturing industries such as foods and drinks and cosmetics.

Claims (5)

  A chewable soft capsule characterized in that the capsule film is gelled by an aqueous gelling agent, the content is gelled by an aqueous gelling agent, and the content is in a jelly or gummy shape. In the chewable soft capsule according to claim 1,
A soft capsule, characterized in that a crystalline water-soluble substance having a high water retention ability is deposited on the boundary of the capsule film on the content side. In the chewable soft capsule according to claim 2,
A soft capsule, wherein a crystalline water-soluble substance is deposited and exposed on the outer surface of the capsule film. In the method for producing a chewable soft capsule according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
After producing a wet capsule with the contents encapsulated by the capsule film, it is subjected to a ventilation drying treatment in a high-humidity atmosphere, and when the moisture content of the contents reaches 20 to 25% by mass, in a normal or low-humidity atmosphere To produce a final dried capsule by subjecting to a ventilation drying process. In the method for producing a chewable soft capsule according to claim 4,
A high humidity atmosphere has a relative humidity of 50 to 70%.