JP3452894B2 - Manufacturing method of dried mozuku - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a novel method for drying mozuku. The dried mozuku produced using the drying method of the present invention can be reconstituted with water and used as a food. Further, the dried mozuku obtained by the method of the present invention,
It can be used as various food materials, and can also be used as a raw material for obtaining a useful component (eg, fucoidan) added to medicines, health foods and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Mozuku, which is one of the brown algae, contains the polysaccharides alginic acid and fucoidan as useful components. Although these polysaccharides give a pleasant texture and are physiologically important, they have high water retention and make it very difficult to dry mozuku. Therefore, from the commercial-scale production areas of Mozuku, such as Okinawa and the Kingdom of Tonga, to remote large-scale consumption areas,
It is bulky and heavy, and is transported as raw mozuku.
Raw mozuku can cause quality deterioration and spoilage even when stored at low temperature. Therefore, mozuku is transported from the place of production to the place of consumption in a frozen state, and is also stored frozen.

Several methods of drying mozuku or mozuku have been developed. For example, JP-A-6-141823
Washed the water with water, transferred it to a drying screen, floated it again in a water tank to balance it, picked it up in a rack, drained it, and stored it in the dryer while placing it on the rack. Disclosed is a dried mozuku, which is characterized in that it is dried for a predetermined time, and after drying, it is cut into a sheet having an appropriate size and finished. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-16082 discloses that raw mozuku is washed with a saline solution having a concentration similar to that of seawater, and then a cage-like net made of chemical fiber is attached to a flat plate-shaped base to wash the raw mozuku. Place the mozuku on the net, and use the bamboo shoots for about 1
Approximately 3 mm thick, or smoothed to the same thickness as above through a rotary roller, and dry the mozuku on the mesh part using either sun, ventilation or thermal power. Disclosed is a method for producing a dried mozuku, which is characterized in that the dried mozuku is formed by being dried by the above method and then peeled from the net portion after the drying. However, these techniques do not attempt to reduce or eliminate the water retention property of mozuku, and it seems that drying still imposes a long time and severe conditions. It is known that the quality of mozuku is severely deteriorated during the drying process, and therefore it is considered impossible to use the conventional dried mozuku like fresh mozuku.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-276121 discloses a method for producing mozuku powder, which comprises a step of mixing a thickening agent or a coagulant with raw material mozuku, dehydrating and drying by a drum dry method, and then pulverizing the mixture. Disclosed is a method for producing mozuku powder, which comprises a step of pulverizing raw material mozuku after alcohol dehydration, drying, and pulverization. However, this method relates to pulverization of mozuku, and it is not clear whether it can be used as a method for dehydrating fresh mozuku. In addition, the final concentration and pH of alcohol during alcohol dehydration have not been studied. Moreover, mozuku powder is obtained by this method, and it cannot be said that it has the same quality as fresh mozuku when reconstituted with water.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-169137 (Patent No. 3053)
No. 794) provides a method for producing low-salt, low-odor seaweed by treating edible seaweed with water-containing ethanol having an alcohol concentration of 10% to 54% (v / v) as a cleaning agent. However, this method is a method for reducing the salt content contained in seaweed and the odor peculiar to seaweed without degrading the nutrients of seaweed, and is not a method for drying seaweed. Further, from the viewpoint of dehydrating mozuku, the concentration of treated alcohol is not examined. Furthermore, it does not mention a method for maintaining the brown to green color which is a characteristic color of brown algae.

On the other hand, in order to obtain a dried product of mozuku, there is also a method of separating the algae from algal acid and fucoidan by hot water treatment, drying each and then mixing them. However, this method not only results in very high cost, but also has a completely different color tone, flavor and texture from fresh mozuku. Therefore, it is only used for some special purposes such as mozuku soup.

[0007]

For these reasons, there has been a demand for a technical development that can dry the debris even in a state in which high quality is maintained and helps reduce transportation and storage costs.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Invention The inventors have been engaged in research on polysaccharides having a higher viscosity than before, and alginic acid derived from mozuku and fucoidan have been one of the subjects of research. When the inventors examined in detail the polysaccharide contained in mozuku, the outer surface of the algal body was mainly covered with alginic acid, and if the polysaccharide was aggregated with a specific solvent, water retention and viscosity were remarkably increased. It was found to disappear. The inventors also found that fucoidan is soluble in about 80% ethanol, but when alginic acid is rich, 40-50% ethanol also co-precipitates with alginic acid based on the finding that a certain ethanol concentration It was thought that the water retention of alginic acid and fucoidan could be eliminated by treating the amount of dew in the range. Then, the present invention was completed. That is, the present invention is
There is provided a method for producing dried mozuku, which comprises (a) a step of dehydrating mozuku using a solvent containing a lower alcohol; and (b) a step of drying dehydrated mozuku.

The mozuku which can be used as a starting material in the production method of the present invention is a brown alga plant (Pharophyta), which belongs to the family Chordariaceae and the family Acrohtr.
icaeae) or an alga belonging to the mozuku family (Spermatochnaceae), for example, mozuku ( Nemacystus decipiens OKAM). It can be either natural mozuku or cultured mozuku, fresh mozuku immediately after harvest, raw mozuku without special treatment after harvest, or refrigerated mozuku, frozen mozuku, salted mozuku, etc. Good.

The lower alcohols which can be used in the present invention include methanol, ethanol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol,
Includes isobutyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol, and tert-butyl alcohol, and mixtures thereof. Ethanol is preferable from the viewpoints of safety and cost.

The alcohol concentration of the solvent used in the present invention can be appropriately determined. The upper limit value may be determined according to the presence or absence of elution of a useful component (for example, fucoidan) in mozuku, the water content of mozuku, the cost, and / or the intended dehydration rate of mozuku. The lower limit is the presence or absence of elution of undesirable components in mozuku (for example, arsenic),
And / or it may be determined according to the intended dehydration rate of mozuku. Preferably the final alcohol concentration is about 10-
95%, more preferably about 40-80%, most preferably about
45-60%. In the present specification, the term "final alcohol (or ethanol) concentration" (also sometimes simply referred to as "alcohol concentration") in relation to mozuku treatment means:
Except in special cases, formula: final alcohol concentration (%) =
(Alcohol volume) / (Alcohol volume + Water volume) x 10
It refers to the concentration (v / v) based on the volume obtained by 0.

Further, the ratio of mozuku to be treated and the solvent containing alcohol can be appropriately determined. Cost, time for treatment, alcohol concentration, water content of mozuku, intended dehydration rate of mozuku, and / or presence or absence of elution of useful components (eg, fucoidan) in mozuku . Mozuku 1 (weight) is preferably about 0.1 to 10,000 times, more preferably about 0.5 to 1,000.
0 times, most preferably about 1 to 100 times the amount (volume) of solvent is added.

In the step (a), it is preferable to add an alkali to the solvent from the viewpoint of maintaining the brown to green color which is the characteristic color of fresh mozuku. The term "alkali" as used herein means that the solvent pH can be changed to the basic side,
Includes alkali metal hydroxides including sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, and alkaline earth metal hydroxides including magnesium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide. The alkali concentration can be set appropriately. Preferably, the final concentration in the solvent is about 0.01-1000 mM, more preferably about 0.1-100 mM, and most preferably about 1-50.
It is mM. Alternatively, it is an amount such that the pH of the solvent is in the vicinity of a weak alkali, for example, the pH is about 7.1 to 9.0, preferably about 7.1 to.
The amount is 8.5, more preferably about 7.5 to 8.0.

In the step (a), operations such as stirring, shaking, repeating immersion and unloading, and combinations thereof can be appropriately performed. The time for step (a) can also be set appropriately.

The step (a) is a step of dehydrating mozuku mainly based on the dehydrating action of alcohol and the action of eliminating the water retaining ability of mozuku. The dehydration rate of mozuku that has undergone the treatment in this step can be set to a desired value by varying the alcohol concentration and / or the treatment time. In order to easily perform drying in the subsequent step (b), the dehydration rate of mozuku after the step (a) treatment is preferably about 20% or more (for example, about 20% to 99.9%), more preferably about It is 40% or more (for example, about 40% to 99.9%), more preferably about 60% or more (for example, about 60% to 99.9%). The dehydration rate (%) as used herein means a value obtained by the formula: dehydration rate (%) = [(untreated mozuku weight)-(treated mozuku weight)] / (untreated mozuku weight) × 100. . The untreated mozuku as used herein means mozuku before being subjected to the step (a), and the treated mozuku means mozuku immediately after the step (a), that is, without undergoing the drying step of the step (b). The weight measurement is based on the method usually used by those skilled in the art. It may be appropriate to drain lightly.

The step (a) is also a step which makes it possible to remove NaCl from the raw material mist without losing useful components such as alginic acid and fucoidan. Therefore,
Step (a) may eliminate the step for desalting.

In the step (a), it is possible to remove various components which are generally considered to be unfavorable as foods or pharmaceuticals from raw materials without losing useful components such as alginic acid and fucoidan. It is also the process of. Such components include, for example, harmful heavy metals (Pb, Bi, Cu, Cd, Sb, Sn, Hg, etc.) and arsenic (As). This As may be problematic in brown algae, but this step can remove all or part of it.

The step (b) is a step for drying the mozuku treated in the step (a) to obtain dried mozuku. The "drying" in this step broadly includes a treatment for reducing the water content (for example, draining). Conventional techniques can be used for the drying in this step. For example, centrifuge,
Water removal by squeezing, contact with an absorber or maintaining on a mesh, sun drying, warm air drying, cold air drying, and vacuum drying, and combinations thereof can be used. At the time of reconstitution with water, warm air drying at about 40 to 50 ° C is preferable from the viewpoint of reproducing the texture similar to that of raw mozuku and reducing the manufacturing cost.

According to the method of the present invention, by performing the step (a), the time required for the dehydration in the step (b) can be made shorter than usual. Further, the conditions such as the temperature at the time of drying can be made mild. This is preferable not only in terms of time, labor, cost, equipment reduction, etc., but also in terms of maintaining the color tone, flavor and texture of fresh mozuku. The dried mozuku obtained by the method of the present invention can exhibit a color tone, a flavor and a texture similar to fresh mozuku when reconstituted with water.

The dried mozuku obtained by the method of the present invention has a low NaCl content. Such dried mozuku is edible,
It is very useful as a food material and a raw material for obtaining useful ingredients. Therefore, the present invention also provides dried mozuku having a low NaCl content. The dried mozuku of the present invention has a low NaCl content to the extent that desalting operation is not required, and the NaCl content is preferably about 1.0% or less, more preferably about 0.5% or less. , And more preferably about 0.2
% Or less.

The dried mozuku obtained by the method of the present invention also has a low As content or is substantially free of As.
Such dried mozuku is very useful as an edible material, a food material, and a raw material for obtaining useful ingredients. Therefore, the present invention also provides dried mozuku having a low As content or being substantially free of As. In the dried mozuku of the present invention, As is removed by about 1/100 or more, more preferably about 1/10 or more, further preferably about 1/3 to 1/2 as compared with the raw material mozuku. There is. Alternatively, the dried mozuku of the present invention has an As content of about 60 ppm or less, more preferably about 50 ppm or less, and further preferably
It is about 40 ppm or less, and most preferably substantially free of As. In this specification, when As is not substantially contained,
From the viewpoint of safety, etc., the As content is so low that it can be ignored and / or the As content is too low to be detected by standard methods. The amount of As dissolved in the treatment solvent of step (a) or in the mozuku can be measured by a standard method (for example, atomic absorption photometry, Gutzeite method). Pretreatment of sample for measurement (dry ashing,
Conventional methods can also be used for wet ashing, solvent extraction, etc.).

The mozuku treatment in the step (a) may be repeated several times until dehydration up to an intended dehydration rate, NaCl removal and / or As removal can be performed. Further, the step (a) can be used not only when the main purpose is dehydration from the raw material mozuku but also when the main purpose is removal of NaCl in mozuku or removal of various undesirable components. These aspects are also included in the scope of the present invention.

[0023]

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to Examples. Example 1 <Study of treated ethanol concentration> The optimum ethanol concentration was examined so that the polysaccharide could not be eluted from mozuku but its water retention could be lost.

Raw mozuku (manufactured by NANO, Kingdom of Tonga. Below,
In all the examples, the same raw mozuku was used. ) For each 1 kg,
Final concentrations of 30%, 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%, 55 respectively
% And 60%, 99.5% ethanol and water were added, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes. The weight of the treated mozuku was measured, and the dehydration rate (%) = [(untreated mozuku weight (g))-(treated mozuku weight (g))] / (untreated mozuku weight (g)) × 100 was calculated. . In addition, the presence or absence of polysaccharides in ethanol after mozuku treatment was examined by cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis (H. Ohishi et al: Glycosaminoglycans of t.
he Hemodialysis-Associated Carpal Synovial Amyloid
and of Amyloid-Rich Tissues and Fiberilsof Heart,
Liber, and Spleen: Clinical Chemistry, Vol.36, N
o.1, 88-91 (1990)). The results are shown in Table 1.

[0025]

[Table 1] At low ethanol concentration, polysaccharides were detected in the ethanol treated with mozuku, but not at the final ethanol concentration of 40% or higher. However, at the final ethanol concentration of 40%, the dehydration rate was 55%. When the ethanol concentration was further increased, the dehydration rate from 45% or more was almost unchanged and became stable at 83 to 85%. From these, the final concentration of ethanol for dehydration treatment is 45%.
It was considered preferable to set the above.

Example 2 <Production of dried mozuku> (1) Ethanol treatment Dry method 8500 g of raw mozuku was added to a final concentration of 45% at 99.5%.
10440 ml of ethanol and water were added, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes. This was dehydrated with a centrifugal dehydrator (H120B type, manufactured by Kokusan Centrifugal Co., Ltd.) to remove water-containing ethanol as much as possible. Spread on a mesh tray and depressurize under warm air at 40-50 ° C for approx. 2
It was exposed to time and dried. 950 g of dried mozuku was obtained.

(2) Alkaline-Ethanol Treatment Drying Method To 8500 g of raw mozuku, ethanol and sodium hydroxide were added so that their final concentrations were 45% and 5 mM, respectively, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes (pH 7). .Five). This was treated with a dehydrator in the same manner as in Example 2 (1) to remove hydrous ethanol as much as possible. Spread on a mesh tray and decompress
It was dried by exposing it to warm air at 40 to 50 ° C for about 2 hours. 960 g of dried mozuku was obtained.

<Evaluation> The solid content, ash content, Na, As, and polysaccharides in the obtained dried algal cells and ethanol treated with mozuku (hereinafter referred to as "eluate") were measured (arsenic and polysaccharides). Body only with eluate). The solid content and ash content were measured according to the standard method. After wet ashing of sodium and arsenic, the former was measured by a polarized atomic absorption method, and the latter was measured by a simple arsenic detection kit (Mercoquant arsenic ion detection test, manufactured by Merck). Polysaccharides were measured by cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis. In addition, the dried mozuku was rehydrated with water and briefly washed once, and then the color tone and texture were evaluated by 6 panelists. Bad (1 point), Poor (2 points), Neither (3 points), Good (4 points), Good (5 points)
Points). The evaluation point of the same mozuku as the dried mozuku raw material (positive control) was 5 points. The average value of 6 panelists was calculated. The results are shown in Table 2.

[0029]

[Table 2] In both the ethanol treatment method and the alkali-ethanol treatment method, no polysaccharide was detected in the eluate. Despite the fact that the ethanol treatment was performed only once, almost all of the NaCl in the algal cells was removed. Also As,
About 1/3 to 1/2 of that was removed. In the evaluation by a panelist after returning the dried mozuku with water, both the ethanol method and the ethanol-alkali method were not significantly different from the control, but in terms of color tone and texture, more preferable results in the latter case. Was obtained.

Example 3 Each of the dried mozuku obtained in Example 2 was put in a vinyl bag and kept at 10 ° C. or lower at room temperature (25 ° C.) or 40 ° C. in the dark.
It was left for a month and evaluated for storage stability (general bacteria, fine / yeast, color tone and texture). General bacteria and micro / yeast are food hygiene inspection guidelines (supervised by Ministry of Health and Welfare Environmental Health Bureau, food hygiene inspection guidelines
Based on II Food by Food, published by Japan Food Hygiene Association (1978), the culture method was used. The color tone and texture were evaluated by the methods described in Example 2.

No change was observed in the dried mozuku stored at 10 ° C. or lower or at room temperature (25 ° C.) as compared with that before storage. Table 3 shows the results for those stored at 40 ° C.

[0032]

[Table 3] No change was observed in general bacteria, microbes and yeasts stored at 40 ° C. In the evaluation by the panelists, the ethanol method and the ethanol-alkali method were not significantly different from the control, but the latter was more preferable in terms of color tone and texture.

[0033]

According to the method of the present invention, it is possible to easily produce high quality dried mozuku from fresh mozuku, which is comparable to fresh mozuku. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the transportation cost and the storage cost of the raw material waste. The method of the present invention also has an effect of removing NaCl of mozuku algal cells. This produces the convenience that the desalting step is unnecessary and the obtained dried mozuku can be directly used for the intended food. The method of the present invention also has the effect of removing As, which is a problem in brown algae, from mozuku algal cells. The method of the present invention can provide mozuku with higher safety at low cost.

In addition to using mozuku for general cooking purposes,
Although it has attracted attention as a raw material for fucoidan, the dried mozuku of the present invention is useful not only as an edible or food material but also as a fucoidan raw material, and enables the production of inexpensive and safer fucoidan.

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-11-276121 (JP, A) JP-A-11-169137 (JP, A) JP-A-54-64660 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A23L 1/337

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for producing dried mozuku, which comprises the following steps: (a) Mozuku is treated with methanol, ethanol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol, and tert. -Butyl alcohol, as well as lower alcohols selected from the group consisting of mixtures thereof,
The process of dehydration treatment using a solvent with a final alcohol concentration of 40-80% , provided that alkali is added to the solvent
7.1-9.0 ; and (b) drying the dehydrated mozuku. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the lower alcohol is ethanol and the final ethanol concentration is 41-80%. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the mozuku is dehydrated by the step (a) to a dehydration rate of 20% or more. 4. A process for dehydrating a mozuku to more than 60% and dewatering rate by (a), the method described in any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. Compared to the raw material mozuku, which can be obtained by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 ,
1/3 or more of the dried mozuku has been removed. 6. A dried mozuku having an arsenic (As) content of 60 ppm or less, which can be obtained by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 .