JPH04258268A - Processing of plant - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To disintegrate the cell membrane of a plant in high efficiency to facilitate the extraction of an extract from the plant. CONSTITUTION:Dried DOKUDAMI (Houttuynia cordata) is left standing in cold place for 12hr in a state immersed in water to impregnate water into the cell of the dried DOKUDAMI. After draining, the dried DOKUDAMI is put into a heat-resistant glass vessel and irradiated with microwave in a microwave oven for about 15min at a rate of 1.5 based on about 500g of the impregnated water. The water impregnated in the cell is quickly heated with the microwave by dielectric heating and the pressure in the cell is quickly increased by the steam pressure to disintegrate the cell membrane. After breaking the cell membrane, the dried DOKUDAMI is further heated with microwave to evaporate the water impregnated in the dried DOKUDAMI and thus obtain dried DOKUDAMI.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for processing plants.
In particular, to make it easier to extract plant extracts from plants,
Concerning processing technology for disrupting plant cell membranes.

0002

[Prior Art] Plant extracts contained inside plant cells are used in medicinal products, luxury goods, industrial chemicals, etc. Methods for separating such plant extracts from plants include:
Extraction methods are often used in which plants are immersed in a liquid such as water and the plant extract is dissolved in the liquid.

[0003] In such extraction methods, in order to more efficiently extract the plant extract from inside the plant cells, the plant is generally squeezed using a roller or press.
After disrupting cell membranes made of cellulose, an extraction operation is performed.

0004

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, although the method of crushing the cell membrane of a plant by squeezing it from the outside is effective when the plant is young, the cell membrane ages and becomes corky. or when the plant is in a dry state, the cell membranes cannot be sufficiently disrupted, making it impossible to efficiently extract the plant extract.

[0005] In order to solve these problems, methods of further pulverizing plants and methods of using fermentation of bacteria such as yeast can be considered, but such methods require large-scale construction. Requires equipment.

[0006] Therefore, a method is sometimes adopted in which the cell membranes are thermally altered by roasting the plant and then the cell membranes are disrupted. In this case, the plant extract is likely to deteriorate due to the heat generated by roasting, resulting in a decrease in quality, such as a decrease in taste or aroma, which is not preferable.

[0007] In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to rapidly heat the water inside a plant cell, use the steam pressure to increase the pressure inside the cell, and efficiently crush the cell membrane of a plant. The aim is to realize a processing method that

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the plant processing method according to the present invention, the plants are irradiated with microwaves to rapidly dielectrically heat the water inside the plant cells. , is characterized by having a crushing step of crushing cell membranes.

[0009] Furthermore, before the above-mentioned crushing step, there may be an infiltration step in which the plant is soaked in water and water is allowed to penetrate into the inside of its cells.

0010

[Operation] When plants are irradiated with microwaves during the process of disrupting cell membranes, the water inside the cells is rapidly dielectrically heated. The water vapor generated by this heating causes
The pressure inside the cell rises rapidly. Furthermore, if the heated state is maintained, the cell membrane will be fractured due to the increased pressure. In plants whose cell membranes have been disrupted in this manner, plant extracts can be efficiently extracted from inside the cells. Here, since the temperature of the plant does not rise above 100° C., which is the boiling point of water, the plant extract will not be altered by heat.

[0011] Before such a crushing process, if there is an infiltration process in which the plant is immersed in water to infiltrate the inside of the cell, the cell membrane may be aged or the plant may be in a dry state. In this case, water permeates into the cell interior due to the permeability of the cell membrane to water. Therefore, it is possible to irradiate microwaves to plants that have water inside their cells, so dielectric heating by microwaves can be used to treat plants with aging cell membranes and plants that are in a dry state. , their cell membranes can be easily disrupted.

0012

[Example] Next, as a processing method according to an example of the present invention, a method for processing dried dokudami (dried plant) will be described.

[0013] First, the dried dokudami is immersed in water. Here, it is necessary to sufficiently infiltrate the inside of the cells of the dried dodder, and it is also necessary to control the amount of water and the soaking time so that the plant extract does not dissolve too much into the water from the dried dodge. In this example, the immersion time was set to 12 hours so that approximately four times the weight of water permeated into the dry well. In addition, since dried sludge easily floats on water, the dried slough and water were placed in a polyethylene bag, and the air was removed so that the dried slough was sufficiently submerged in water. Leave it in a cool place for about 12 hours in this state.
Allows moisture to penetrate inside the cells of dry dokudami.

[0014] Next, drain the excess water from the dry drain,
Store the drained dried dokudami in a heat-resistant glass container. Here, since the plant extract is eluted in the drained water, this water is used after being heated and concentrated in a separate concentration step.

[0015] After this, the heat-resistant glass container containing the dry container is placed in a microwave oven. Here, for 500g of moisture permeated into the dry ditch, 1.5kw
The conditions of the microwave oven are set so that the microwave is irradiated, and under these conditions, the microwave in the frequency band centered on 2450 MHz is irradiated for about 15 minutes. This results in
The water that has penetrated into the cells of the dry well is rapidly dielectrically heated, and the resulting water vapor pressure rapidly increases the pressure inside the cells. By maintaining this state, the pressure inside the cell is further increased, and this pressure ruptures the cell membrane.

Furthermore, even after the cell membrane has been crushed, microwave irradiation is continued to heat and evaporate the water that has permeated the dry well, thereby drying the dry well to a predetermined moisture content.

[0017] The dried dokudami treated in this way is
The cell membranes have already been homogeneously crushed, making it easy to extract plant extracts, and they have also been dried, so the dried dokudami is packaged and shipped in this state. Alternatively, it is sent to the next extraction step.

As described above, dried plants such as dried dokudami can be easily processed without pressing, roasting, etc.
The cell membrane can be efficiently disrupted. Also,
After disrupting cell membranes, microwaves also dry out excess water. Therefore, the dried pods that have been processed to disrupt cell membranes can be packaged and shipped as they are. Moreover, since the temperature of the plant does not rise above 100°C, the plant extract inside the cells will not be altered.

[0019] In this example, the step of infiltrating moisture into the dry plant and the step of crushing the cell membrane were performed, but in the case of young plants that have moisture inside their cells, the infiltration step can be omitted. However, it was possible to disrupt the cell membrane. In addition, it is not limited to dry plants such as dried dokudami,
Even if the plant has aged and become corky,
Using microwaves, we were able to efficiently disrupt the cell membrane. Here, for drying, in addition to using only microwave irradiation, other drying methods can also be used.
Further, microwave irradiation and other drying methods may be combined. Furthermore, in the infiltration process, when plants are left immersed in water, in order to enhance the infiltration effect or to utilize the function of plant-specific autolytic enzymes to destroy cell membranes, we have to prevent spoilage bacteria from multiplying. You may increase the water temperature.

Furthermore, in the above processing step, a connected microwave irradiation device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be used.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a coupled microwave irradiation device, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view thereof.

In these figures, 1 is a connected microwave irradiation device main body, which includes a tunnel-shaped heating section 2 having a length of 9 m and having an inlet opening 2a and an outlet opening 2b at both ends;
It has a conveyor belt 3 made of heat-resistant synthetic resin and arranged to pass through the inside thereof. Eighteen microwave supply waveguides 2c are connected to the upper surface of the heating section 2, and can irradiate microwaves to the conveyor belt 3 inside the heating section 2. It has a configuration in which microwave irradiation units 1a are connected. Further, a radio wave leakage prevention section (not shown) is disposed inside the heating section 2 near the entrance opening 2a and the exit opening 2b to prevent leakage of microwaves to the outside.

[0023] Connected microwave irradiation device 1 having such a configuration
In this step, the dry sludge impregnated with moisture is placed in a heat-resistant glass container and placed on the moving conveyor belt 3 at regular intervals. The conveyor belt 3 is moved by rollers 3a and 3b at a speed of 1 cm per second, and the dried waste is sequentially conveyed into the heating section 2. Inside this heating section 2, microwaves are irradiated for about 15 minutes to the heat-resistant glass container containing the dried sludge, and after the cell membranes of the dried slough are crushed, the dried sludge is carried out through the outlet opening 2b.

[0024] If such a connected microwave irradiation device 1 is used, plants can be processed with higher efficiency, making operations easier and reducing manufacturing costs. The microwave output, processing capacity, etc. of the connected microwave irradiation device 1 should be designed to optimal specifications depending on the type, amount, etc. of plants to be treated.

[0025]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the method for processing plants according to the present invention includes a crushing step of irradiating the plant with microwaves to rapidly heat the water inside the cells and crush the cell membranes. There is. Therefore, according to the present invention, the pressure inside the cell membrane is rapidly increased by utilizing the generated water vapor pressure,
Cell membranes can be easily and efficiently disrupted. Therefore, plant extracts can be extracted quickly and efficiently from plants whose cell membranes have been disrupted, and since the temperature of the plants does not rise above the boiling point of water, the plant extracts will not be altered by heat. .

[0026] If the plant is soaked in water before such a crushing process and there is an infiltration process in which water permeates inside the cells, the cell membrane may be aged, or the plant may be in a dry state. Also, since water can penetrate into the inside, the cell membrane can be crushed by the above-mentioned crushing step.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a connected microwave irradiation device used in processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of this coupled microwave irradiation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1...Connected microwave irradiation device 2... Heating part 3...Conveyor belt

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for processing plants to facilitate the extraction of plant extracts from inside the cells of the plants, in which the plants are irradiated with microwaves to rapidly dielectrically heat the water inside the cells. A method for processing plants, comprising a crushing step of crushing cell membranes. 2. According to claim 1, before the crushing step,
A method for processing a plant, comprising an infiltration step of soaking the plant in water and allowing water to penetrate into the inside of the cell.