JP3428956B2 - Method for producing fine powder of green leaves of grasses - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf, and more particularly to a method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf having excellent palatability such as water dispersibility and texture.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Gramineous plants, typified by wheat, are rich in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, and adsorb harmful substances, improve the intestinal environment, suppress cholesterol absorption, and prevent postprandial blood glucose spikes. , Has attracted attention as a material for health foods having effects such as activation of superoxide dismutase (SOD). Generally, the green leaves of wheat are in the form of young wheat powder powder obtained by dry-powdering young wheat leaves, or in the form of young wheat-powder juice powder obtained by dry-powdering young wheat juice, and are used as a material for health foods. . Among these materials for healthy food, young wheat leaf powder retains more dietary fiber, minerals, etc., so that the components contained in natural young wheat leaves can be effectively utilized, and it is more useful as a material for healthy food. is there.

In order to obtain powdered barley leaf powder by drying powdered barley leaf powder to obtain powdered barley leaf powder, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-137530, the barley leaf cut before the emergence of ears is naturally dried or dried. After drying by the method of pulverizing,
As described in Japanese Patent No. 2544302, a cutting process, a cleaning process, a heat treatment process,
A method of performing a cooling step, a dehydration / drying step, a crushing step, and a sterilization step is performed. However, the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-1
When wheat barley leaf powder is produced by the conventional method described in Japanese Patent No. 37530 or Japanese Patent No. 2544302, the obtained barley grass leaf powder has poor dispersibility in water, and when dissolved in water to drink, There was a problem that the mouth feels rough.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to produce a fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having good dispersibility in water. To provide a way to do. Further, another object of the present invention is to produce a fine powder of a green leaf of a gramineous plant, which does not leave a rough texture when the suspension is put in the mouth, has a good texture of the suspension, and has excellent palatability. To provide a method.

[0005]

According to the invention of claim 1, the above-mentioned problem is a method for producing a fine powder of gramineous green leaves, which comprises a branching step of branching gramineous green leaves. And a kneading step of kneading the green leaves obtained in the blanching step, a drying step of drying the green leaves obtained in the kneading step, and a pulverizing step of crushing the green leaves obtained in the drying step. Will be solved by. In this way, by performing the kneading step, it is possible to produce a fine powder of a green grass of the grass family that has good water dispersibility when dissolved in water, and the suspension has excellent palatability such as texture and flavor. Is possible.

At this time, it is preferable that the kneading step is a dry kneading step of kneading the green leaves obtained in the blanching step while drying. By performing the dry kneading step in this way, the feeling of roughness is eliminated and the water dispersibility when dissolved in water is improved.

[0007] Further, it is preferable that the blanching step is an alkaline treatment step of treating green leaves of a grass family plant with an alkaline aqueous solution. As described above, by performing the alkali treatment step, the green odor peculiar to green leaves is suppressed, and fine powder of grass green leaves having a good flavor is obtained.

Further, the crushing step is preferably a step of crushing the green leaves obtained in the drying step with an impact crusher. Thus, by using the impact type crusher, efficient crushing is possible.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described. The Gramineae plant in the present invention refers to all plants classified as Gramineae in the plant classification table. Specifically, barley, wheat,
Wheat, such as rye and oats; rice, Italian ryegrass, foam, millet, acne, corn, sorghum, sugar cane, Italian ryegrass, etc. are included, but are not limited thereto. For example, bamboo grass may be used. Among these, in the present embodiment, it is more preferable to use wheat such as barley, wheat, rye, oats or rice as the grass family plant. This is because in the present embodiment, a fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having a higher nutritional value can be obtained.

The green leaf of a Gramineae plant in the present invention means a leaf and / or a stem of a harvested Gramineae plant. The green leaves are preferably young leaves harvested before maturity. This is because the young leaves harvested before maturity contain abundant nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. When the gramineous plant is wheat, it is preferable to use young leaves of barley such as barley, wheat, rye and oats as green leaves. As these young leaves of wheat, it is preferable to use young leaves of wheat harvested from the beginning of splitting to the beginning of heading (height of about 20 to 40 cm).

The manufacturing method of this embodiment will be described below. First, a young barley leaf, which is an example of a green leaf of a rice plant that has been harvested, is passed through a washing machine to perform a washing step of washing mud and the like attached to the young leaf with water. In this cleaning step, either a batch-type cleaning machine by immersion or a continuous-type cleaning machine such as immersion or shower type may be used. Further, instead of washing with water, an air shower that blows air of a predetermined pressure onto the young leaves may be used to remove the foreign matter attached to and mixed with the young leaves.

Next, a cutting step of cutting young barley leaves into an appropriate size is performed. In this step, a general cutting device used for cutting tea is used to cut into a length of about 10 cm. In the present embodiment, the cutting step is performed after the washing step, but this cutting step may not be performed and the next blanching step may be performed with the length at the time of harvesting. Before and after the washing step or the cutting step, a step of enriching GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) contained in young barley leaves may be performed. The step of enriching GABA is preferably performed at any stage before the branching step described later.

When the step of enriching GABA is carried out, the anaerobic heat retaining step is carried out as the GABA enriching step. This anaerobic heat retention treatment step is a step of simultaneously performing anaerobic treatment and heat retention treatment. Here, the anaerobic treatment refers to placing young leaves for a predetermined time under anaerobic conditions, that is, under anoxic or extremely low oxygen concentration atmosphere.

In the anaerobic heat retention treatment step, first, young leaves are placed in an anaerobic treatment apparatus having a sealing property and a temperature adjusting function. The air in this device is replaced with carbon dioxide gas to obtain an anaerobic condition. At the same time, the temperature inside the anaerobic treatment device is set to about 20.
Adjust the temperature to ~ 50 ° C and keep warm. Then, while keeping the anaerobic condition and the temperature condition almost constant, 10 minutes to 24 minutes
Anaerobic heat retention is performed by leaving it for a while.

In this embodiment, carbon dioxide gas is used as the replacement gas for the anaerobic treatment, but other gas such as nitrogen gas may be used. Further, the inside of the anaerobic treatment apparatus may be depressurized and maintained in a high vacuum state without replacing the air with the replacement gas.

The temperature of the anaerobic heat retention treatment is about 20-50.
℃ means that the temperature of heat insulation is less than 20 ℃, 50
This is because the GABA content does not increase sufficiently at temperatures higher than ° C. The temperature of the anaerobic heat insulation treatment is about 30.
When the temperature is set to ˜45 ° C., and further to about 38 ° C. to 42 ° C., a large amount of GABA can be obtained, which is preferable. The time for the anaerobic heat insulation treatment is set to 10 minutes to 24 hours, but if it is set to 1 to 6 hours,
This is preferable because it can retain the good flavor peculiar to natural barley.

In the present embodiment, the anaerobic heat retention treatment step is performed as the GABA enrichment treatment step, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the anaerobic treatment, heat retention treatment, and immersion treatment may be performed alone or in combination. . The anaerobic treatment is performed under the same procedure and conditions as the anaerobic heat retention treatment except that the temperature is not adjusted.

The heat retention process is a hot water immersion process of immersing young leaves in warm water maintained at a predetermined temperature, a hot water shower process of applying a hot water shower set to a predetermined temperature to the young leaves,
Infrared irradiation treatment for irradiating young leaves with infrared rays, incubator treatment for leaving young leaves in a constant temperature bath set to a predetermined temperature, and the like are performed.

The heat retaining process is performed at about 20 to 50 ° C.
The temperature of the heat insulation treatment is set to about 20 to 50 ° C because the GABA content does not increase sufficiently when the temperature of the heat insulation treatment is lower than 20 ° C and higher than 50 ° C. In addition, the temperature of the heat insulation treatment is about 30 to 45 ° C., and further about 3
When the temperature is 8 ° C to 42 ° C, a large amount of GABA can be obtained, which is preferable. The heat retention time is 10 minutes to 24 hours.
Moreover, when it is set to 1 to 6 hours, a good flavor peculiar to natural barley can be retained, which is preferable.

The dipping treatment step as the GABA enrichment treatment step is carried out by dipping the young leaves in a predetermined dipping solution. Here, the predetermined dipping solution means an aqueous solution containing a food material containing at least one of an aqueous solution of glutamic acid, an aqueous solution of glutamate, an aqueous solution of glutamic acid and glutamate, and glutamic acid and glutamate. The aqueous solution may be either a saturated aqueous solution or a supersaturated aqueous solution. As the dipping solution, a suspension containing a substance such as glutamic acid may be used instead of the aqueous solution. Further, as the dipping solution, a solution obtained by adding a buffer agent usually used by those skilled in the art to these aqueous solutions or suspensions may be used.

Here, as the glutamate used in the dipping solution, for example, glutamate known to those skilled in the art such as sodium glutamate, potassium glutamate, calcium glutamate, and magnesium glutamate is used.

As the food material containing at least one of glutamic acid and / or glutamate used in the dipping solution, for example, seaweeds such as kelp and wakame, mushrooms such as shiitake and maitake, and bonito (including bonito flakes) , Fish such as sardines, shellfish such as clams and shijimi, rice, wheat, soybean (including these germs), tea leaves, mulberry leaves, vegetables (for example, tomatoes), citrus fruits (mesocarp,
Membrane, etc. are used. It is preferable to use a food material containing glutamic acid or a salt thereof in a relatively high concentration.

As the food material containing at least one of glutamic acid and glutamate, edible protein may be subjected to enzyme treatment, heat treatment or the like to release or generate glutamic acid.

These food materials are added to water or the like in the original form to prepare an immersion solution. Also, not limited to that,
Cut these food materials into pieces, dry powder, squeeze, etc.,
What was added to water etc. may be used as the immersion solution.

Further, these food materials are put in water, ethanol, etc., and heated if necessary to prepare an aqueous solution or ethanol solution in which the components contained in these food materials are eluted, and the solution is dipped. It may be a solution. Moreover, what added this solution to water etc. may be used as an immersion solution.

Further, the solution obtained by eluting these food materials may be made into a dry powder, and the dry powder thus obtained may be added to water or the like to form an immersion solution.

For example, when dry kelp is used as a food material containing glutamic acid, the dry kelp is added to water,
By heating, broth is prepared as an aqueous solution in which the components of kelp are eluted. This soup stock is used as a dipping solution. GABA can be efficiently increased by using this dipping solution in the dipping process of young leaves.

The dipping process is carried out from glutamic acid to GAB.
It is carried out at a temperature within the range where the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion to A is not inactivated. Specifically, it may be carried out at a temperature of 20 to 50 ° C.
When the temperature is lower than 20 ° C, the increase of GABA is not sufficient, and when the temperature is higher than 50 ° C, glutamic acid to G
This is because the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion to ABA does not work.
It is preferable to perform the dipping treatment step at a temperature of 25 to 45 ° C. from the viewpoint of the efficiency of increasing GABA.

The immersion treatment step is performed by adjusting the pH of the immersion solution to a predetermined value. The pH of the dipping solution is adjusted by a pH adjusting agent usually used by those skilled in the art, for example, citric acid, succinic acid,
Adjust by adding tartaric acid, carbonic acid, phosphoric acid and their salts. Alternatively, foods or food additives such as vinegar and kansui may be used.

The immersion treatment step is carried out at a pH of 3.5 to 9.0. This is because when the pH is 3.5 or less, the green leaves of the grasses turn brown due to the strong acidity. Also, when the pH becomes higher than 9.0, glutamic acid changes to GABA.
This is because the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion to Also,
pH is within the range of 4.0 to 8.0, preferably 4.5 to
It is preferable to adjust within the range of 7.0, more preferably within the range of 5.0 to 6.0 from the viewpoint of the efficiency of GABA increase.

In the dipping treatment step, even when the dipping solution for dipping the young leaves has a pH of 8, the amount of GABA in the young leaves is more than twice the amount of GABA originally contained in the young leaves. In addition, young leaves when immersed in a dipping solution of pH 8
A vivid green color is exhibited as compared with the case of immersing in an acidic immersion solution or the case of immersing in an immersion solution whose pH is not adjusted.

In the dipping treatment step, the concentrations of glutamic acid and glutamate in the dipping solution are adjusted so that the total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate is 0.1 to 40% by weight. This is because GABA does not increase sufficiently when the total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate is less than 0.1% by weight. Also, the total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate is 40% by weight or less is 40% by weight
Is the saturated concentration of the solution of glutamic acid and glutamate. Further, the effect of GABA enrichment at a concentration of 40% by weight or more is similar to the effect obtained at a concentration of 40% by weight, and even if the concentration is higher than 40% by weight, no further effect is obtained. Is. In addition,
When the total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate is 5% or less, the health tea finally obtained has a good flavor, which is preferable.

The total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate is 0.2 to 20% by weight, more preferably 0.5 to 1
It is preferable to adjust it to 0% by weight. The effect of GABA enrichment is that the total concentration of glutamate and glutamate is 1
The highest effect is obtained when added in an amount of 0 to 20% by weight. Therefore, even if glutamic acid and glutamate are added so that the total concentration becomes 20% by weight or more, a dramatic effect more than the effect obtained when 20% by weight is added cannot be expected.

When only one of glutamic acid or glutamate is added to the dipping solution, the concentration of glutamic acid or glutamate is adjusted to be within the range of the total concentration of glutamic acid and glutamate.

In the above-mentioned dipping treatment step, if anaerobic treatment is also performed, GABA enrichment can be performed more efficiently, which is preferable. The anaerobic treatment performed in combination with the dipping treatment step is performed by directly bubbling a gas such as nitrogen into the dipping solution. In addition, the anaerobic treatment performed in conjunction with the dipping treatment step is to put the dipping solution and the young leaves in a dipping treatment tank that can be hermetically closed and has a gas introduction / exhaust port capable of introducing / exhausting gas, and remove air from the tank. Alternatively, it may be performed by substituting a substitution gas such as nitrogen gas or carbon dioxide gas. Alternatively, the inside of the tank may be depressurized to have a high degree of vacuum.

The dipping treatment step may be carried out by adding pyridoxal phosphoric acid, an inorganic chloride or the like to the dipping solution. Thereby, the GABA enrichment efficiency can be improved. Here, as the inorganic chloride, for example, inorganic salts known to those skilled in the art such as sodium chloride (salt), calcium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium chloride are used. Alternatively, bittern, crude salt or the like may be used. Here, the bittern is also called bitter salt or bitter soup, and refers to the mother liquor remaining after the salt is boiled down to make salt, and has magnesium chloride as a main component.

The final concentration of pyridoxal phosphate, inorganic chloride, etc. is 0.05 to 20%, preferably 0.1 to 1
It is preferable to add it so as to be 0%. Note that pyridoxal phosphoric acid, inorganic chloride, etc. may be added at concentrations other than these.

Here, young leaves of barley having a wet weight of 100 g were
An example in which the immersion solution at pH 6.0 and 30 ° C. for 5 hours is compared with the case where sodium chloride is added to the immersion solution and the case where sodium chloride is not added will be described.

When young leaves were dipped for 5 hours in a dipping solution consisting of a 3 wt% sodium glutamate solution to which sodium chloride was added so that the final concentration was 1 wt%, 3 wt% of sodium chloride was not added. It was found that GABA was increased by about 30% as compared with the case where young leaves were dipped in a dipping solution consisting of a sodium glutamate solution for 5 hours.

Further, the dipping treatment step is carried out using an organic acid or A
It may be carried out so as to remove the inhibitor such as TP from the reaction system. Further, when an excessive amount of an additive such as glutamic acid is added in the dipping treatment step, a step of removing the additive may be provided.

When the immersion treatment step is performed as the GABA enrichment treatment step, the young leaves are washed with water and then the dehydrated step of removing the attached water is performed. The dehydration step is specifically performed by a compression operation using a centrifugal separator or the like.

G for the above-mentioned anaerobic treatment, heat retention treatment, immersion treatment, etc.
The ABA enrichment treatment step increased the content of GABA contained in the young leaf of barley as an example of the green leaf of a grass family plant, and normally, the GABA content in the young leaf was 2% of that originally contained in the young leaf.
More than double. By appropriately selecting the conditions, it is possible to increase the amount of GABA originally contained in the young leaves to 3 times or more, or 5 times or more.

That is, when the above-mentioned GABA enrichment treatment step is performed on young leaves of barley as green leaves of grasses, the young leaves that have undergone the GABA enrichment treatment step usually have a dry weight conversion of 500 mg / 100 g or more. GABA is included. When suitable conditions are selected, the young leaves that have undergone the GABA enrichment treatment step have a dry weight conversion of 800 mg.
/ 100 g or more, or 1000 mg / 100 g or more,
Furthermore, GABA of 1500 mg / 100 g or more is contained. On the other hand, natural young barley leaves, although they contain a large amount of GABA in grasses, usually contain only about 200 to 300 mg / 100 g in terms of dry weight.

A blanching process is performed on the young barley leaves that have undergone the cutting process. The blanching step is performed by the step of the method for producing fine powder of green leaves of a grass family plant according to the present invention,
The purpose is to prevent deterioration such as discoloration of the green leaves such as fading or change in flavor. Therefore, by performing this branching step, it becomes possible to obtain fine powder having a vivid color and a good flavor.

In the present embodiment, a hot water treatment step of dipping young barley leaves in hot water is performed as the blanching step.
The hot water treatment step is performed by immersing young barley leaves in an alkaline blanching solution at 90 to 100 ° C for 1 to 5 minutes. The alkaline blanching solution having a pH of 7.0 to 10.0 is used. pH is 7.5-9.
More preferably, it is 0.

As an alkaline blanching solution,
For example, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide,
Add alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salts such as calcium carbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, or natural mineral mixture such as seaweed ash extract, shell calcium, egg shell calcium, and dolomite. Use the one whose pH has been adjusted. Further, it is not limited to that prepared by adding an alkaline substance, and alkaline ionized water may be used.

In the present embodiment, an alkaline blanching solution is used as the blanching solution, but the blanching solution is not limited to this, and water-soluble sugars, sugar alcohols, nitrogen-containing substances, organic acid salts, or An aqueous solution obtained by adding an inorganic salt to water may be used as a blanching solution. When using a blanching solution added with these substances, good color originally possessed by grasses such as young barley leaves, retains the flavor, etc., and a fine powder of grasses excellent in storage stability is obtained. It becomes possible to obtain. Furthermore, by selecting the conditions, it is possible to obtain a fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having a color and a flavor which are better than the original color and flavor.

Also, a solution prepared by dissolving a water-soluble saccharide, sugar alcohol, nitrogen-containing substance, organic acid salt, or inorganic salt in an alkaline aqueous solution or alkaline ionized water prepared by adding an alkaline substance is blanched. It may be a solution. This makes it possible to obtain a fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having a brighter color and a good flavor.

Here, the water-soluble saccharides, in other words,
It is a water-soluble sugar, and it is a water-soluble monosaccharide, disaccharide, oligosaccharide,
It means polysaccharides and does not contain poorly water-soluble cellulose or chitin. Any water-soluble saccharide can be used, but trehalose, dextrin, cyclodextrin, reduced palatinose, starch (amylose, amylopectin) and the like are more preferable. The addition amount is 0.1 to 50% by weight, preferably 2 to 20% by weight.

As the sugar alcohol, erythritol,
Monosaccharide alcohols such as xylitol, ribitol, arabitol, galactitol, sorbitol (also known as glucitol), iditol, mannitol, palatinit (palatinose), maltitol, lactitol, maltotriitol, isomaltotryitol, maltotetriitol, iso. It is advisable to add an oligosaccharide alcohol such as maltotetitol or reduced starch syrup. The addition amount is 0.1 to 50% by weight, preferably 2 to
It is advisable to add 20% by weight.

As the nitrogen-containing substance, amino acids, fermented rice extract, proteins or peptides which can protect the tissue of vegetables as described in JP-A-10-229816 and can prevent the outflow of chlorophyllin, etc. are added. Good to do. As the protein or peptide capable of protecting the tissue of vegetables and preventing the outflow of chlorophyllin, those having the ability to form a complex with chlorophyllin are preferable. This is because chlorophyllin is stabilized by forming a complex with a protein, and also becomes difficult to flow out. Examples of specific proteins include gelatin, fibroin, casein, and examples of peptides include soybean peptides. Of these, gelatin and the like are particularly preferable. The amount of the nitrogen-containing substance added is 0.1 to 20% by weight, preferably 0.5 to 2% by weight.
It is good to

The salt of an organic acid is used as an antioxidant, a β-carotene content lowering agent, and a discoloration preventing agent, and as described in JP-A-10-066506, ascorbic acid, kojic acid. Acid, acetic acid, citric acid,
Succinic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, malic acid or salts thereof (sodium salt, potassium salt, calcium salt, etc.) may be used. Also, erythorbic acid or a salt thereof (sodium salt, potassium salt, calcium salt, etc.), and ferulic acid or a salt thereof described in JP-A-2000-041622 may be used. The addition amount is 0.01 to 5% by weight, preferably 0.1 to 5% by weight.
It is advisable to add 2% by weight.

As the inorganic salts, sodium salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium salts such as magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate, potassium salts such as potassium chloride and potassium sulfate, calcium salts such as calcium chloride and calcium phosphate may be added. . The addition amount is 0.01 to 5% by weight, preferably 0.2 to 3% by weight. These water-soluble sugars, sugar alcohols, nitrogen-containing substances, salts of organic acids, and inorganic salts may be added to water alone to prepare a blanching solution, or may be prepared by combining two or more kinds. Good.

After carrying out the blanching step, a cooling step for cooling the young barley leaves obtained in the blanching step is carried out. The cooling step is performed by immersing the young leaves in cold water. In addition, refrigeration, freezing, evaporative cooling with cold air or warm air, and evaporative cooling with blowing cold air and hot air simultaneously or alternately may be performed. Whichever method is used, the cooling step is performed by rapid cooling. In the present embodiment, the cooling step is performed after the blanching step,
It is also possible to directly proceed to the next kneading step without performing the positive cooling step.

Then, a dry kneading step is carried out in which the young barley leaves obtained in the blanching step are kneaded while being roughly dried. In this dry kneading process, the water content of the young barley leaves was 30 to 7
Coarsely dry to 0% by weight. In addition, in the present specification, the term “rubbing” refers to rubbing green leaves, and includes any of hand kneading, rough kneading, middle kneading, and fine kneading performed during tea making. The kneading can be performed by using a kneading device used in a general tea manufacturing process such as a rough kneading machine, a kneading machine, a middle kneading machine, and a kneading machine. In the present embodiment, as a dry kneading step, young barley leaves are put into a rough kneading machine and kneaded while being kneaded while being dried using hot air at about 80 ° C. This rough kneading is performed so that the product temperature of the young barley leaves is kept at around 34 to 36 ° C. until the water content reaches about 40%.

Further, in the present embodiment, the rough kneading, that is, the dry kneading step of kneading while drying is performed, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a predetermined moisture can be previously used using a dryer usually used by those skilled in the art. The preliminary drying step of evaporating the water content in the young leaves of barley may be performed until the content is reached, and after the semi-dried state, a kneading step of kneading the young leaves may be performed.

After the drying and kneading step, a drying step is carried out in which the young barley leaves are fully dried so that the water content of the young leaves is 10% or less, preferably 5% or less. In the present embodiment, hot air drying in which hot air is blown onto the young barley leaves is performed as the drying step.
In addition, other known drying methods such as high pressure steam drying, electromagnetic wave drying, and freeze drying may be used. Desirably, the drying is performed at a relatively low temperature close to room temperature. When heating and drying, it is desirable to carry out at 50 to 80 ° C., preferably 55 to 65 ° C.

After the drying step, a crushing step of crushing the dried barley leaf obtained in this drying step into a fine powder is carried out. In the present embodiment, an impact-type crusher having an effect of milling (mill-type impact-type crusher), which is an example of an impact-type crusher, is used to crush dried barley young leaves. The crushing process is not limited to this, and an impact type crusher such as a pin mill or a jet mill, a shearing type crusher, a grinding type crusher such as a mass colloider, a grinder, a stone mill, or a low temperature freeze crusher is used. Other known pulverizers such as such a composite pulverizer may be used. In the crushing step, the fine powder of young barley leaf is crushed to a particle size of 75 μm or less, preferably 60 μm or less, and more preferably 30 μm or less. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and other granularity may be used depending on the use and preference.

After the crushing step, a sterilization step of sterilizing the fine powder of young barley leaf obtained in the crushing step by airflow sterilization is performed. The sterilization step may be performed by other techniques known to those skilled in the art, such as high-pressure sterilization and heat sterilization. The above is the method for producing fine powder of young barley leaves, which is an example of the method for producing fine powder of green leaves of grass, and in this way, the fine powder of young barley leaves, which is an example of green leaf of grass, is completed. After that, it is supplied to the market through packaging processes such as bagging and boxing.

According to the present embodiment, the water dispersibility is good as compared with the conventional method for producing young barley leaf powder, it is easy to disperse when placed in water, and it does not have a rough texture on the tongue. A fine powder of young barley leaves with a pleasant texture can be produced. That is, the fine powder of barley young leaves produced in this embodiment,
When suspended in water etc. and served as a health food,
It is almost evenly dispersed in water, has no roughness on the tongue, and has a good texture. Also, it becomes possible to quickly adjust the health food.

[0061]

The present invention will be described below with reference to examples.
It goes without saying that the invention is not limited by this example. (Embodiment 1) This embodiment is an embodiment of the invention according to claims 1 to 4. A young leaf of Nijo barley, which is an example of a green leaf of a grass family plant, was cut when the height reached 30 cm.
The young leaves were washed with water to wash off adhering mud and the like, and a washing process was performed. Then, the young leaf was cut into about 5 cm.

Then, an alkaline aqueous solution containing 0.75% by weight of sodium chloride and 0.75% by weight of sodium hydrogen carbonate was prepared and heated at 90 to 100 ° C. To this aqueous solution, add 10 to 20 volumes of young barley leaves,
An alkali treatment step as a blanching step was performed at 90 to 100 ° C. for 3 minutes. Immediately after the alkali treatment step, young wheat leaves were put into cold water at 2 to 7 ° C., and a cooling step by immersion was performed. Subsequently, the cooled young barley leaves were centrifuged for 30 seconds to perform a dehydration step of dehydrating some water.

Then, the young barley leaves were put into a coarse kneader, and the young barley leaves were exposed to hot air at 90 ° C., and the barley leaf temperature was adjusted to 3
While keeping the temperature around 5 ° C, rough kneading was performed for 50 minutes, and a dry kneading step was performed. Next, the young barley leaves were placed in a dryer and subjected to a drying step of drying at 60 ° C. for 8 hours to reduce the water content to 5% or less. Impact type fine pulverizer (mill type) of dried young wheat leaves
A high-speed rotary impact crusher (trade name: New Cosmomizer, manufactured by Nara Machinery Co., Ltd.), which is an example of the above, is used to perform a crushing step, and a grain size of about 200% of 200 mesh is passed to obtain finely powdered wheat leaf. Obtained.

(Embodiment 2) This embodiment is an embodiment of the invention according to claims 1, 2, and 4. A young leaf of rice (Koshihikari) as an example of a green leaf of a grass family plant was cut when the height became 30 cm. The young leaves were washed with water to wash off adhering mud and the like, and a washing process was performed. Then, the young leaf was cut into about 5 cm.

Then, the young leaves are put into a zoning steamer and placed in
The blanching process was performed by steaming by applying steam to the young leaves for a minute. Then, the young leaves were taken out of the feeding steamer, blown with air, and subjected to a cooling process by air cooling. Thereafter, this young leaf was subjected to a dry kneading step and a drying step in the same procedure as in Example 1 above to obtain a dry young leaf having a water content of 5% or less. Then, a crushing step was performed by the same procedure as in Example 1 described above, and the particle size was set so that 95% of the particles passed through 200 mesh to obtain fine rice young powder.

(Comparative 1) This example is a method for producing fine powder of young leaves of Nijo barley by a conventional method. Patent No. 254
According to the method described in Japanese Patent No. 4302, the fine powder of young leaves of Nijo barley is produced by the following steps. That is,
A young leaf of Nijo barley, which is an example of a green leaf of a grass family plant, was cut when the height reached 30 cm. The young leaves were subjected to a washing step, a cutting step, an alkali treatment step, a cooling step and a dehydration step in the same procedure as in Example 1 above.

Then, the young barley leaves that had been subjected to the dehydration step were put into a dryer and subjected to a drying step of drying with warm air at 60 ° C. for 10 hours to reduce the water content to 5% or less. Dried young barley leaves,
High-speed rotary impact crusher (brand name: New Cosmomizer, Nara Machinery Co., Ltd.), which is an example of an impact type fine crusher (grinding type)
The crushing process of crushing using
The grain size was set to allow 5% to pass, and barley green fine powder according to Comparative Example 1 was obtained.

(Comparative Example 2) This example is a method for producing fine powder of young leaves of rice (Koshihikari) by a conventional method.
According to the method described in Japanese Patent No. 2544302, fine powder of young leaves of rice (Koshihikari) is produced by the following steps. That is, a young leaf of rice (Koshihikari), which is an example of a green leaf of a grass family plant, was trimmed when the height became 30 cm. The young leaves were subjected to a washing step, cutting, blanching step by steaming, and cooling step in the same procedure as in Example 2 above.

Then, the young wheat leaves that had been subjected to the cooling step were put into a dryer and subjected to a drying step of drying with warm air at 60 ° C. for 10 hours so that the water content was 5% or less. Dried young barley leaves,
High-speed rotary impact crusher (brand name: New Cosmomizer, Nara Machinery Co., Ltd.), which is an example of an impact type fine crusher (grinding type)
The crushing process of crushing using
The particle size was set to allow 5% to pass, and rice young leaf fine powder according to Comparative Example 2 was obtained.

(Test Example 1) In this test example, the fine powder of the green leaves of Gramineae plants obtained in the above Examples 1 and 2 was subjected to a particle size measurement and a texture evaluation test by a panelist to carry out the present invention. Examples 1 and 2 demonstrated that fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having a good texture was obtained. In this test example, as a control, fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant obtained by the production methods of the above-mentioned comparative examples 1 and 2 was used. a Measurement of Particle Size The particle size was measured by measuring the average particle size of the fine powder obtained in Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 using a laser diffraction particle size distribution analyzer.

B Texture Evaluation Test The texture evaluation test was conducted in the following procedure. That is, 100
Example 1 was prepared by dissolving 3 g of fine powder in ml of water.
2, 2 and 1 of the proportional powders were prepared and used as samples. These samples were made to drink by 20 panelists, and whether or not they felt powdery or rough was evaluated by a sensory test.

The evaluation was carried out on a 7-point scale from -3 points to +3 points according to the following criteria for powderiness and roughness. Evaluation Criteria -3 points ... Very bad (feels like powdery / rough) -2 points ... Quite bad-1 point ... Slightly bad 0 point ... Cannot say +1 point ... Something good +2 points ... Quite good +3 points … Very good (does not feel powdery or rough)

The results of this test example are shown in Table 1.

[0074]

[Table 1]

As shown in FIG. The average particle diameter in Table 1 is a volume-based median diameter. From the results of Table 1, although the fine powder of Example 1 has almost the same average particle size,
It was found that it was felt that it had less powderyness and roughness than the fine powder of proportionality 1. It was also found that the fine powder of Example 2 was felt to be less powdery and rougher than the fine powder of Comparative Example 2 although the average particle size was about the same. From the above, the first embodiment of the present invention
According to the method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf according to 2, there is less powderyness / roughness than in the conventional production method,
It was found that a fine powder of grass green leaf having a good texture was obtained.

(Test Example 2) In this test example, a taste evaluation test by a panelist was conducted on the fine powder of the green leaves of the Gramineae plants obtained in the above Examples 1 and 2, and in Example 1 and 2 of the present invention, It was demonstrated that a fine powder of gramineous green leaves with good flavor was obtained. In this test example, as a control,
The fine powder of the green leaves of the Gramineae plant obtained by the production methods of the above Comparative Examples 1 and 2 was used. The taste evaluation test by panelists
The procedure was as follows. That is, the sample prepared in Test Example 1 was allowed to drink by 20 panelists, and the sensory test was conducted to evaluate the overall appearance, scent, texture, blue odor, acridness, umami, flavor and appearance.

The evaluation was carried out on the basis of the following criteria for the overall appearance, scent, texture, blue odor, acridness, umami, flavor and appearance, according to the following criteria, and was evaluated in a 7-point scale from -3 to +3. Evaluation criteria-3 points ... very bad-2 points ... quite bad-1 point ... somewhat bad 0 points ... normal + 1 point ... somewhat good +2 points ... pretty good +3 points ... very good

The results of this test example are shown in Table 2.

[0079]

[Table 2]

As shown in FIG. From the results of Table 2, the fine powders of Examples 1 and 2 are more than the fine powders of Comparative Examples 1 and 2 in all of appearance, scent, texture, blue odor, acridness, umami, flavor and appearance. It turned out to be better. From the above,
It was found that according to the method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaves according to Examples 1 and 2 of the present invention, fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf having superior palatability to that obtained by the conventional production method can be obtained.

(Test Example 3) In this test example, a water dispersibility test was conducted on the fine powder of the green leaves of the Gramineae plants obtained in the above Examples 1 and 2, and the It was demonstrated that a fine powder of grass green leaves with good dispersibility was obtained. In this test example, as a control, fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant obtained by the production methods of the above-mentioned comparative examples 1 and 2 was used. The following water dispersibility test was conducted for each fine powder of green leaves of Gramineae plants obtained in Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2. That is, 10 ml of water was put into a Spitz tube, 50 mg of each fine powder was melted, stirred, and left standing for 10 minutes.

As a result, the fine powders having the proportions of 1 and 2 are
A large amount of particles settled earlier than the fine powders of Examples 1 and 2. From the above, according to the method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaves according to Examples 1 and 2 of the present invention, it was found that fine powder of gramineous plant green leaf having better water dispersibility than the conventional production method can be obtained. It was

[0083]

As described above, according to the method for producing fine powder of gramineous plant green leaves according to the present invention, since the kneading step is performed after the blanching step, the water dispersibility when dissolved in water is improved. Often, the suspension makes it possible to obtain a fine powder of a green leaf of a grass family plant having excellent palatability such as texture and flavor.

Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-7-241176 (JP, A) JP-A-11-127781 (JP, A) JP-A-9-135671 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A23L 1/30-1/305 A23L 1/212 A61K 35/78 JISST file (JOIS)

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for producing a fine powder of a green grass of a Gramineae plant, which comprises a blanching step of branching the green leaves of the Gramineae plant, and a kneading step of kneading the green leaves obtained in the blanching step. A method for producing fine powder of green leaves of a grass family, comprising: a drying step of drying the green leaves obtained in the kneading step; and a pulverizing step of crushing the green leaves obtained in the drying step. 2. The method for producing fine powder of green leaves according to claim 1, wherein the kneading step is a dry kneading step of kneading the green leaves obtained in the blanching step while drying. . 3. The method for producing fine powder of gramineous green leaves according to claim 1, wherein the blanching step is an alkaline treatment step of treating the green leaves of the gramineous plant with an alkaline aqueous solution. 4. The fine powder of gramineous green leaves according to claim 1, wherein the pulverizing step is a step of pulverizing the green leaves obtained in the drying step with an impact pulverizer. Production method.