JP2832037B2 - Food material - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a food material containing a natural saccharide, kojibiose, and having a function of regulating the physical condition of the human body, and particularly to a low caries, anti-cariogenic, and It is intended to provide a novel food material having a bifidobacterium growth promotion effect.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, sucrose, a typical sweetener, has been shown to cause tooth decay, and since then, sweeteners that replace sucrose and are less likely to cause tooth decay have been actively developed. For example, sugar alcohols, palatinose, coupling sugar, fructooligosaccharide, lactulose, etc. (Hosoya, Fukuba, ed., “Transferred Sugar and Nutrition”, pp. 137-163, 1984, Daiichi Shuppan Co., Ltd.) or isomaltosyl mono-, di- -Or tri-glucose (JP-A-58-76063, JP-A-61-181354) and the like have been proposed. In addition to these, it can be used as a caries preventive sweetener such as isomaltose, isomaltosyl fructoside, maltosyl fructoside, maltotriosyl fructoside, nigerosyl glucose, nigerosyl sucrose, and xylosyl fructoside. (Kano Takeuchi, Journal of the Japanese Society of Dental Medicine, No. 26)
Vol. 3, No. 698-713, 1984).

In addition to such a caries prevention effect, it is also a characteristic that is desired for a new sweetener that it does not become an energy source, is indigestible, and helps to promote the growth of bifidobacteria in the intestine,
Development of sweetener products focusing on this point is also active. For example, the fructooligosaccharide is known as a sugar having a low energy and an effect of promoting the growth of bifidobacteria. Also,
A so-called branched oligosaccharide having an α-1,6 bond of a glucose molecule is known as a sugar for selectively growing bifidobacteria (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-227777).

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

The present invention provides a novel low-calorie food material having a caries prevention effect and a bifidobacterium growth promotion effect.

[Means for solving the problem]

The present invention relates to a food material having a body condition adjusting mechanism for a human body, comprising 5% by weight or more of kojibiose.

Kojibiose is a disaccharide composed of two glucose molecules linked by α-1,2 bonds. Crystallized glucose from a saccharified solution of starch is used as a mother liquor, such as hydrol, sake,
It is known to be present in koji juice and the like. Although it is a saccharide that is easily soluble in water and has a slightly sweet taste, there has been no example of using it in foods and drinks and the like because a means for mass production has not been developed so far. We have:
Kojibiose is selectively assimilated by intestinal bifidobacteria and promotes its growth, and no insoluble glucan or acid is produced by bacteria that cause tooth decay such as Streptococcus mutans. It has been found that sucrose can suppress the production of insoluble glucan, and that it has useful properties such as being hardly digested and absorbed by the human body and low in calories. Therefore, kojibiose having such properties is a useful saccharide that can be used in a wide range of applications such as feeds, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, as well as food and drink. The kojibiose used in the present invention may be obtained by any method including a conventionally known method.

In the present invention, kojibiose can be used as it is for the above-mentioned applications, but since kojibiose has a lower sweetness degree than sucrose, kojibiose may be converted to other saccharides or reduced products thereof for applications requiring sweetness. It is preferable to use it in combination with one or more other sweeteners. Here, examples of sugars include sucrose, glucose, maltose, fructose, lactose, isomaltose,
Isomaltotriose, panose, isomaltotetraose, nigerose, cellobiose, gentibiose, trehalose (including neotrehalose) and the like. Examples of the reduced product of the saccharide include sorbitol, maltitol, isomaltitol, isomalttriitol, panitol, isomaltetriteol, and the like.
Examples of other sweeteners include honey, syrup, stevia, glycyrrhizin and the like. In the present invention, one or more of these saccharides, their reduced products, sweeteners and the like can be selected and used together with kojibiose.

In the food material of the present invention, it is necessary that kojibiose contains at least 5% by weight or more, preferably 10% by weight or more, in order to exhibit the effects of kojibiose such as promotion of bifidobacteria growth and prevention of dental caries.

This is the same even when the components other than kojibiose in the food material are sugars such as sucrose which are likely to cause caries.
In addition, in a food material in which kojibiose is added to a carbohydrate originally having a cariogenic property and having bifidobacteria activity, such as panose, isomalttriose, and isomaltetrate, the kojibiose is necessarily at least 5% by weight. Although it is not necessary, even in this case, when the kojibiose content is 5% by weight or more, preferably 10% by weight or more, it is recognized that the effect increases synergistically.

To the food material of the present invention, besides those described above, extenders such as dextrin, starch, lactose, coloring agents, spices and the like can be mixed as necessary. Further, in order to further promote the growth of bifidobacteria, dried cells of bacteria belonging to bifidobacterium and vitamins such as pantethine, pantothenic acid, and riboflavin which are required for the growth of bifidobacteria may be appropriately added. .

The food material of the present invention can be obtained in the form of liquid, starch syrup, granule, powder, etc. by appropriately combining known processing means such as mixing, dissolving, concentrating, and drying according to its use and purpose. it can.

〔Example〕

The following Examples and Examples will describe in detail the selective bifidobacterium growth promoting effect and the insoluble glucan production suppressing effect of kojibiose.

EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLE 1 Bifidobacterium growth-promoting effect Each strain of fresh bacteria described in Table 1 cultured on an agar plate medium was added to a peptone yeast field medium (PYF medium) supplemented with 0.5% of a test saccharide, and each strain was 10 ⁸ CFU. (Colony Fo
rmation Unit) and cultured under anaerobic conditions (steel wool method) at 37 ° C. for 48 hours. After thoroughly mixing the culture, the absorbance (turbidity) at 650 nm was measured.

The assimilation was determined by determining the growth rate (RG), that is, the percentage of the test sugar-containing medium with respect to the absorbance of the target glucose-containing medium, and expressing the percentage as follows.

++: RG ≧ 75 +: 75> RG ≧ 50 ±: 50> RG ≧ 25−: 25> RG That is, the larger the numerical value of the degree of growth (RG), the greater the assimilation of the test saccharide. The growth degree (RG) is represented by the following equation.

The results are shown in Table 1.

Note) Branched trisaccharide is mainly composed of panose and isomalttriose.

As is clear from Table 1, microorganisms other than the genus Bifidobacterium do not utilize kojibiose at all. Therefore, it was found that kojibiose is a saccharide selectively assimilated only by so-called bifidobacteria.
Raffinose is conventionally known to have higher selectivity for bifidobacteria than glucose and maltose, but as shown in Table 1, it has been used for Escherichia coli and Clostridium perfrigens known as harmful bacteria. It is clear that the selectivity for Bifidobacteria is lower than that of Sentose. Branched trisaccharides such as panose and isomaltotriose have almost the same selectivity as kojibiose.

Example 2 Insoluble glucan, acid production inhibitory effect 0.1 M phosphate buffer 1.5 ml, 4 w / v% sucrose aqueous solution 1 ml, 4 w / v%
Mix 1 ml of the test sugar aqueous solution and 0.5 ml (0.02 units) of a glucosyltransferase (insoluble glucan-forming enzyme) solution prepared from Streptococcus mutans,
After reacting at 7 ° C for 16 hours, centrifugation was performed.
4 ml of 0.5N NaOH was added and the mixture was kept at 37 ° C. for 1 hour to dissolve the water-insoluble curcan, and the amount of the glucan was measured by the phenol sulfate method. In the case of only sucrose or test sugar,
The other was water only.

Further, to 0.2 ml of the viable cells of the Streptococcus mutans cultured in a BHI (brain heart infusion) medium for 25 hours, 1.5 ml of a stephan buffer solution,
After adding 0.8 ml of sugar solution containing 0 mg and holding at 37 ° C for 30 minutes,
The pH was measured. Note that Stefan buffer (pH 7.0) is available from Journal of Dental Research.
tal Research), Vol. 26, pp. 15-41 (1947).

Insoluble glucan production—Table 2 and pH measurements are shown in Table 3.

As is evident from the above, kojibiose does not show the formation of insoluble glucan or the formation of acid by Streptococcus mutans bacteria that cause dental caries. Also,
These are useful as anti-cariogenic and low-cariogenic sweeteners because they suppress the formation of insoluble glucan even when coexisting with other saccharides such as sucrose.

Example 1 Mixing 50 g of kojibiose with 500 g of branched oligosaccharide syrup (water 25%) mainly composed of disaccharide and trisaccharide having α-1,6 bond of glucose molecule such as isomaltose, isomalttriose, etc. The syrupy sweetener was obtained by dissolving. This product was suitable as a low cariogenic sweetener and had a remarkable bifidobacterial growth effect.

Example 2 500 g of sucrose, 500 g of glucose, and 100 g of kojibiose were mixed to obtain a pelleted low carious sweetener. This product was suitable as table sugar.

Example 3 2 kg of isomerized liquid sugar (25% moisture) and 100 g of kojibiose were mixed to obtain a syrup-like sweetener. This product was suitable for various cooking, confectionery, bread making, etc. as a low carious food material.

Example 4 90 parts by weight of the sweetener obtained in Example 4 was mixed with 30 parts by weight of dried bifidobacteria to obtain a sweetener containing bifidobacteria.
This product can be used as a raw material for various beverages and candies containing bifidobacteria.

〔The invention's effect〕

The kojibiose contained in the food material of the present invention is itself hard to be carious and, even when combined with other saccharides, for example, sucrose, which tends to cause tooth decay, has an effect of suppressing its carious activity. It is useful as a low cariogenic carbohydrate. In particular, for various applications where sucrose was conventionally used,
There is a great advantage that sucrose can be used as an anti-cariogenic and low-cariogenic sweetener. It goes without saying that the same applies to the case of the combined use with carious carbohydrates other than sucrose. Moreover, when combined with a cariogenic saccharide such as isomalttriose or panose, which is difficult to treat, the effect is synergistically large.

In addition, kojibiose is selectively funded by bifidobacteria and is not used for so-called harmful bacteria. This property is similarly exhibited when kojibiose is combined with another saccharide or its reduced product. Therefore, the food material of the present invention is useful as a food material having a bifidobacterium growth promotion effect.

Furthermore, kojibiose has an effect of suppressing cholesterol accumulation, and has an effect of suppressing the accumulation of low-density cholesterol, called so-called bad cholesterol, in serum and liver. In addition, since kojibiose is a carbohydrate that is hardly metabolized as compared with sucrose or the like, it can be used as a so-called low-calorie food material.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The food material of the present invention can be used not only in foods and drinks, but also in a very wide range of fields such as feeds, feeds, pet foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, toiletries such as toothpastes, and luxury goods such as tobacco. Useful.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-63-240756 (JP, A) JP-A-63-240758 (JP, A) "Appropriate use technology for new confectionery materials Series 7 No. 7 branched oligosaccharides" Japan Confectionery Research Center, March 27, 1987, page 1-41 (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23L 1/22-1/237 A23L 1/24 JICST file ( JOIS)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A novel food material having the function of regulating the physical condition of the human body, comprising at least 5% by weight of kojibiose. 2. The food material according to claim 1, comprising one or more selected from saccharides or reduced products thereof and other sweeteners together with kojibiose.