JPH0813254B2 - Effect enhancer of taste modifier - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a taste enhancer effect enhancer, and more specifically, by reducing the concentration of divalent metal ions in the oral cavity, the fruit of Curculigo latifolia or The present invention relates to an effect enhancer that enhances the taste modifying effect of a dried taste product or a taste modifier comprising curculin obtained from them.

[Prior Art] As a substance that acts on the receptive membrane of the tongue to change the taste of food (taste modifier), it has been conventionally eaten with a sweet substance after being contained in the mouth, or with a sweet substance. , Gymnema acid contained in the leaves of Gymnema sylvestre and didifine contained in the leaves of Ziziphus jujuba are known to prevent sweetness. It is known that miraculin, which is contained in the fruit of miracle fruit (Synsepulm dulcificum), has a sweet taste when eaten.

Also, the Curculigo latifo
lia) is a plant belonging to the family Anthrush that grows naturally in West Malaysia and southern Thailand, and its fruits are known to be edible and have an appetite enhancing effect.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Although the above-mentioned miraculin has the above-mentioned functions, it has a problem in stability and has not been put into practical use as a taste-modifying substance.

Also, the fruit of Curculigo latifolia is not known for properties other than the above.

The present inventors have found that after eating the fruit of Curculigo latifolia, eating a sour substance or water causes a sweetness to be felt, and as a result of diligent research on what the inducer is, the fruit of Curculigo latifolia ( It has been found that a specific protein (named curculin) contained in Fruit is a sweet taste-inducing substance (Japanese Patent Application No. 63-
No. 153143).

However, the taste-modifying effect of the taste-modifying agent containing curculin is that even if the taste-modifying agent of the tongue is taste-modified with a sufficient amount of the taste-modifying agent, a sweetness equivalent to that of a 0.3M sucrose aqueous solution is obtained by 0.02M citric acid aqueous solution. Induced and 0 by water.
It is as sweet as 1M sucrose solution.
Therefore, the range of industrial application of taste modifiers containing curculin is limited.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a taste-modifying agent effect enhancer capable of enhancing the taste-modifying effect of the above-mentioned curculin-containing taste-modifying agent and making the above-mentioned taste-modifying agent more widely applicable. Especially.

[Means for solving the problem]

As a result of mirror studies, the present inventors have found that the above object can be achieved by a substance capable of reducing the concentration of divalent metal ions in the oral cavity.

The present invention has been made based on the above findings, and is composed of a substance having a function capable of reducing the concentration of divalent metal ions present in the oral cavity, and is obtained from the fruit of Curculigo latifolia, or a dried product thereof. The present invention provides a taste-modifying effect enhancer, which enhances the effect of a taste-modifying agent comprising a curculin-containing component.

Hereinafter, the effect enhancer of the taste modifier of the present invention will be described in detail.

Examples of the divalent metal ion present in the oral cavity include calcium ions as those generally present in the oral cavity, particularly saliva, and magnesium ions, 2
Valuable iron ions are also included.

Examples of the substance having a function capable of reducing the metal ion concentration include those containing carbonate ions,
Examples thereof include those that generate carbonate ions in the oral cavity or cation exchangers.

The carbonate ion reacts with calcium ion and magnesium ion to form a water-insoluble salt and precipitates, resulting in the effect of reducing the concentration of calcium ion and magnesium ion in the oral cavity. Examples of the above-mentioned substances containing carbonate ions and those generating carbonate ions in the oral cavity include carbon dioxide gas, water-soluble carbonates, and aqueous solutions thereof. Examples of the water-soluble carbonates include sodium hydrogen carbonate and potassium carbonate.

The carbon dioxide gas and the water-soluble carbonate aqueous solution preferably have a carbonate ion concentration of 0.01 to 1.0M.

As the cation exchanger, Ambe of ion exchange resin is used.
rlite IR-120, IRC-50 (Rohm & Haas), Dowe
Examples include x50 (manufactured by Rohm & Haas), Bio-Rex70 (manufactured by Rohm & Haas), CM-cellulose as an ion exchange cellulose, phosphocellulose, and other CM-Sephadex.

The effect enhancer of the present invention comprising the above-mentioned substance having a function capable of reducing the concentration of divalent metal ions present in the oral cavity is used by administering in the oral cavity, and comprises the above-mentioned cation exchanger. When the effect-enhancing agent of the present invention is placed in the oral cavity, it is preferable to contact the upper surface of the tongue as much as possible.

In addition, the effect enhancer of the present invention may be before or after ingestion of a taste-modifying agent comprising a curculigo latifolia fruit or a dried product thereof or a curculin-containing component obtained from them, or the above-mentioned taste-modifying agent. When administered after ingestion, it may be before or at the same time as ingestion of a substance such as a sour substance whose taste is modified.

As the fruit of Curculigo latifolia and the dried product thereof, which constitute the taste-modifying substance in which the taste-modifying effect is enhanced by the effect enhancer of the present invention, since the skin and seed of the fruit do not contain curculin, the skin and It is preferable to use those without seeds (flesh and dried pulp).

The dried product of Curculigo latifolia fruit is not particularly limited in its drying means, and examples thereof include sun dried product, hot air dried product, and freeze dried product such as freeze dried pulp.

The fruit of Curculigo latifolia and the dried product thereof are not particularly limited in the form of use, but are usually crushed, crushed, made into a paste or the like and used.

Further, as a component containing curculin obtained from the fruit of Curculigo latifolia or a dried product thereof, curculin extracted from the fruit or a dried product thereof, or the fruit or a dried product thereof is appropriately treated,
Residues obtained by separating and removing components that do not contain curculin may be mentioned. The curculin extracted from the fruit or its dried product is not limited to the purification purity at all, and in addition to high purity, it may be one containing a large amount of components other than curculin, or the extract contains other components. It may be a mixture of.

Extraction method of the curculin is not necessarily limited, but it is preferable to extract from a fruit of Curculigo latifolia or a dried product thereof with an aqueous solution of a salt having a concentration of 0.01 M or more, and as the salt, sodium, potassium, Calcium, magnesium or ammonium hydrochloride, sodium, potassium, magnesium or ammonium phosphate, sodium, potassium, magnesium or ammonium carbonate, sodium, magnesium, calcium or ammonium sulfate or sulfite, sodium or potassium Nitrate or nitrite, sodium or calcium lactate, alum, roasted alum, sodium acetate, sodium or potassium pyrophosphate, sodium or calcium pro On salt, sodium benzoate, fumaric acid - sodium, sodium polyacrylate and the like are used.

Then, a typical example of the method for extracting curculin with the above aqueous solution of salt is as follows.

Curculigo latifolia fruit or its dried product can be homogenized by adding an aqueous solution of salt such as salt, followed by filtration and centrifugation, but curculin can be extracted in the water-insoluble part of the fruit pulp of curculigo latifolia. Since it is included, homogenize by adding water to the above-mentioned fruit or its dried product, and after washing well with water to remove the water-soluble part, it is more pure to extract curculin with an aqueous solution of the above-mentioned salt from the residue. It is preferable because it can be obtained.

If the aqueous salt solution used for extraction has a concentration of less than 0.01 M, curculin cannot be sufficiently extracted, so an aqueous salt solution of 0.01 M or more is required. On the other hand, if the concentration is too high, desalting after extraction takes time, so it is not possible to balance the efficiency of extraction and the purification after extraction.
An aqueous solution of salt with a concentration of 1 to 1.0 M is preferred.

By desalting and drying the extract with an aqueous solution of the above salt, a curculin-containing substance that can be sufficiently put to practical use can be obtained, but the extract is further subjected to ion exchange with CM-Sepharose and purification by HPLC using a gel column. The purity can be increased and then desalted and dried to obtain pure curculin. Of course, in addition to the above-mentioned purification method, the curculin purity can be increased by fractionating the extract by salting out, solvent precipitation or other known protein purification methods.

A specific example of the curculin thus obtained is a protein having a molecular weight of about 12500 daltons and an isoelectric point of 7.1, and this protein exists as a dimer having a molecular weight of about 26000 daltons. The amino acid composition of the protein is shown in Table 1 below, and the protein contains a relatively large amount of aspartic acid, leucine and glycine.

[Examples] Next, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to Examples.

Example 1 1 g of Curculigo latifolia fruit was finely crushed in a mortar to obtain a pasty taste modifier.

The oral cavity was thoroughly washed with carbonated water, and 0.5 g of the above paste-like taste modifier was evenly attached to the upper surface of the tongue. After 1 minute, when 20 ml of a 0.02 M aqueous citric acid solution was added to the mouth, a sweetness equivalent to that of a 0.4 M aqueous sucrose solution was felt.

Example 2 600 ml per 30 g of dried fruit of Curculigo latifolia
After adding water and homogenizing for 2 minutes with a mixer,
Centrifuged at 000 rpm for 30 minutes. After removing the supernatant (colored), 600 ml of water was added to the residue, homogenization, centrifugation, and removal of the supernatant were repeated 4 times until the supernatant was no longer colored, and a residue was obtained.

Next, 250 ml of 0.5 M NaCl aqueous solution was added to this residue, and the mixture was homogenized with a mixer for 2 minutes and then suction filtered. After collecting the filtrate, 250 ml of 0.5 M NaCl aqueous solution was further added to the residue, homogenization and suction filtration were performed, and the filtrate was collected.

Next, the filtrates were combined and then centrifuged at 30,000 rpm for 1 hour to obtain a supernatant (cruculin crude extract).

The crude extract was desalted and dried to obtain a curculin-containing substance (crude curculin).

The above crude curculin 100 mg and common salt 1 mg were dissolved in water 20 ml to prepare a 0.5% curculin aqueous solution.

After including 1 ml of this aqueous solution in the mouth for 1 minute and exhaling,
5 mg of L-ascorbic acid, or 10 mg of a 1: 1 mixture of L-ascorbic acid and sodium hydrogen carbonate was consumed. The sweetness feeling at that time was as shown in Table 1 below.

Example 3 500 ml of the crude curculin extract obtained in Example 2 was concentrated to 30 ml by ultrafiltration, and then 0.01 M was added to this concentrate.
CM-Sepharose column chromatography was carried out using 70 ml of phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) added to 100 ml as a sample solution [CM-Sepharose CL-4B. Equilibrated with 0.01M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8). ]. The sample solution was flowed down to a column with a bed volume of 130 ml and a bed height of 17 cm, washed with 0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), and then 0-1.0 M NaCl / 0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8).
Was eluted with a gradient of and the active fractions were collected. This active fraction was concentrated by ultrafiltration, subjected to HPLC using a gel column (TSK gel G3000SW manufactured by Toyo Soda), and eluted with 0.01M phosphate buffer (pH 6.8).

Curculin was eluted as one sharp peak with strong activity.

This active fraction was desalted and dried to obtain purified curculin.

10 mg of this purified curculin and 1 mg of sodium chloride were dissolved in 20 ml of water to obtain a 0.01% curculin aqueous solution.

Cation Exchanger Amberlite IR-120 (ROHM &
(Manufactured by Haas Co., Ltd.) was thoroughly contacted with the entire upper surface of the tongue for 1 minute, and then exhaled. Then, 0.01% curculin aqueous solution
1 ml was contained in the mouth for 1 minute, and after spit out, 0.02 M aqueous citric acid solution was consumed. How to feel the sweetness at this time, and without deionizing the mouth with a cation exchanger, 1 ml of the above 0.01% curculin aqueous solution was included in the mouth for 1 minute, and after exhaling, the sweetness when eating and drinking 0.02M citric acid aqueous solution How to feel is shown in Table 2 below.

[Effect of the Invention] The effect enhancer of the taste-modifying agent of the present invention enhances the taste-modifying effect of the taste-modifying agent comprising curculigo latifolia fruit or a dried product thereof or curculin obtained therefrom, It is intended to expand the industrial application range, and is very effective and important in putting the taste modifier into practical use.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masako Miyake 7-2-35 Higashiohisa, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo Inside Asahi Denka Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A taste comprising a substance having a function capable of reducing the concentration of divalent metal ions present in the oral cavity, and comprising a fruit of Curculigo latifolia or a dried product thereof or a component containing curculin obtained from them. Effect enhancer of taste modifier that enhances effect of modifier