JPH08214896A - Color deepening of red dye of safflower - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To deepen color of carthamin pigment and obtain the subject pigment having always constant hue regardless of the habitat of the plant by spraying a dilute laccase solution to petal of safflower and stirring the mixture under specific conditions. CONSTITUTION: A dilute laccase solution is sprayed to dried petal of safflower, while stirring the petal and the petal is intermittently stirred at about 20-40 deg.C for about 24hr and sufficiently washed with water until yellow pigment of safflower is not extracted and 1% aqueous solution of calcium carbonate is added thereto to extract red pigment of safflower. Then, cellulose powder is added to the resultant extracted solution and the powder is dispersed into the extracted solution while sufficiently stirring and pH of the solution is gradually acidified by dropping hydrochloric acid and the mixture is filtered to recover cellulose powder colored to red and the powder is washed with water and dried and the red pigment of safflower is extracted therefrom with pyridine and dried to provide the objective red pigment of safflower capable of always exhibiting definite color tone regardless of the habitat of the plant.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for darkening a color of carsamine pigment collected from safflower (also known as safflower) belonging to the plant family Asteraceae.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Safflower contains a red pigment called calsamine and a yellow pigment called safflower yellow. With calsamine, the petals are washed thoroughly with water and the alkaline solution is added to the petals from which the water-soluble yellow pigment has been removed. After extraction, ultrafine cellulose such as Avicel (trade name, manufactured by Asahi Kasei Co., Ltd.) is added thereto, and then acid is added dropwise to lower the pH to be adsorbed and fixed on the fine cellulose. From this, the calsamine pigment is collected and purified. The calsamine pigment is used in cosmetics such as lipsticks as well as food colorants such as strawberry chocolate and strawberry ice cream.

Since the carsamine pigment is obtained from natural products, the demand for it is expanding more and more, so that the raw materials have been recently imported from China. However, Chinese safflower (Chinese name is turbulent flower) has different safflower petal color and calsamine pigment content depending on its origin. For example, those from Sichuan and Henan have a strong reddish color and calsamine pigment. The content is high (about 0.5% of the dry weight), while the product from Yunnan tends to have a strong yellowish color and a low content of calsamine pigment (about 0.2% of the dry weight). Therefore, it is desired to produce calsamine pigment of a certain quality from safflower imported from China.

As described above, various methods for separating and purifying the calsamine pigment from safflower have been conventionally announced.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 30-8943 discloses a method of separating calsamine from red petals using a water-containing organic solvent, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 47-50762 discloses extraction of calsamine with a water-containing organic solvent, followed by extraction of calsamine at -10 ° C. A method of precipitating and separating calsamine with tetrahydrofuran, benzene and a trace amount of water, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-226, after extracting crude calsamine from red petals and red rice cakes of safflower with a water-containing organic solvent, the organic solvent is removed, A method for extracting calsamine by salting out the obtained aqueous solution of calsamine, JP-B-62-5
In 3375, an adsorbent such as silica gel is added to a calsamine solution extracted with an alkaline aqueous solution, and then fixed and colored with an organic acid, impurities are removed with a water-soluble organic solvent, and calsamine with a water-containing organic solvent. There is known a method for extracting / separating calsamine, which is characterized by elution of

Recently, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-302038 discloses that an alkaline solution of a calsamine dye is adsorbed on an adsorptive resin, and then the calsamine dye is released from the resin using a system consisting of an organic solvent and water. A method of concentrating the resulting solution is shown. However, these methods are techniques relating to the extraction of the calsamine pigments, and are not intended to increase the yield of the calsamine pigments by darkening the color tone of the calsamine itself in safflower. In the literature, there is a method of culturing tissue as a means for increasing the yield of calsamine dye. That is, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-13872 discloses a method of adding safflower petal cells to a tissue culture medium and culturing.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention The present inventors have conducted various studies to increase the yield by darkening the color tone of the calsamine pigment of safflower petals without depending on the tissue culture method. The color of safflower petals is darkened by doing so, and by extracting and purifying it by a conventional method, an extremely darkened color of calsamine pigment is obtained, which has a more uniform color tone than that of safflower raw materials from different origins. It was found that a carsamine pigment can be obtained, and the present invention has been completed. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for darkening a calsamine pigment collected from safflower.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems The gist of the present invention is to spray a dilute laccase solution on safflower petals and then to stir at about 20 to 40 ° C. for about 24 hours to darken the calsamine pigment. It is a method for darkening the color of a calsamine pigment. It can be predicted from the nature of the enzyme that the safflower petals are suspended in water and the laccase treatment with the addition of a laccase enzyme is carried out to increase the calsamine content. However, the amount of dissolved enzyme in water is rapidly decreased by simply stirring, and the reaction by the laccase enzyme cannot be continued. However, in the present invention, since the spraying means is adopted as the means for adding laccase, the contact area with air is large, so that oxygen can be sufficiently supplied and the laccase reaction can be continued, resulting in an increase in the yield of the calsamine dye. This made it possible to darken the color.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail. The laccase enzyme used in the present invention is collected from a culture solution of mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms, kawatake mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. In the present invention, a dilute aqueous solution of this laccase is used, and its concentration is 10 to 3 per 1 kg of petals.
000 units, preferably 100 to 1000 units, of laccase are used by dissolving in 1 to 5 times the weight of the petals by weight of water. The unit referred to here is a unit showing the activity of laccase, and is expressed as 1 unit when 1 μmol of oxygen is absorbed per minute using catechol as a substrate.

The spraying process in the present invention is not particularly limited, and it is simply sprayed directly on the safflower petals by an ordinary sprayer. The safflower in a wet state produced by this spraying treatment is stirred at 20 to 40 ° C. for about 24 hours. In the present invention, the reaction is not effective at 20 ° C. or lower, and the enzyme may be inactivated when the reaction is carried out at 40 ° C. or higher for a long time. Is more preferable. The stirring may be intermittent or continuous, and the reaction is continued until a darkened and constant color tone is obtained. The reaction time is about 24 hours. A calsamine pigment is extracted and collected by a conventional method from the petals obtained by such treatment. As a result, the color value of the calsamine pigment is 2
More than double.

[0010]

EXAMPLES Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples. Example 1 To 1 kg of dried safflower petals, 2 L of an aqueous laccase solution containing 200 units of activity was sprayed while stirring the petals, and the mixture was intermittently stirred and treated at room temperature (20 to 30 ° C) for 24 hours. Next, after thoroughly washing with water until no safflower yellow pigment appears, 5 L of 1% potassium carbonate aqueous solution is added to extract safflower red pigment. Most of the safflower red pigment can be extracted by repeating this extraction step three times in total. To the extract thus obtained, 2 kg of cellulose powder was added, dispersed with sufficient stirring, and hydrochloric acid was added dropwise to gradually make the pH acidic. The cellulose powder colored red is collected by filtration, washed thoroughly with water, and then dried. The color value E (10%, 1 cm) of the red pigment extracted and dried with pyridine from the safflower red pigment-adsorbed cellulose powder was 570. On the other hand, the color value E (10%, 1 cm) of the red pigment extracted by the same operation from the petals not subjected to the laccase spray treatment was 230. By the laccase treatment, the color value of safflower red pigment was more than doubled.

[0011]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, in the present invention, by diluting safflower petals with a diluted laccase solution and by intermittent stirring, it is possible to sufficiently supply oxygen necessary for the enzyme reaction. This makes it possible to deepen the color of safflower petals and always obtain a calsamine pigment of a constant color tone.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for darkening a calsamine pigment, which comprises spraying a dilute laccase solution on safflower petals and then stirring at about 20 to 40 ° C. for about 24 hours.