JPH1014529A - Method for restoring or keeping green color of plant and color-developing agent pack to be used therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To restore a browned vegetable to green color having excellent color tone and regain the green color of vegetable in a state stably storable over a long period by treating a vegetable to develop green color. SOLUTION: A faded vegetable is brought into contact with a solution containing a metallic ion to regain or keep the green color of the vegetable by the action of the metallic ion. Concretely, a powdery zinc ore produced by crushing a zinc ore is immersed in a liquid to effect the dissolution of zinc from the zinc ore and the vegetable is brought into contact with the obtained solution containing zinc ion.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for restoring the green color of a faded plant for food or decoration by the action of metal ions or a method for keeping the plant green by the action of metal ions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When magnesium contained in chlorophyll is lost, plants lose their green color and are depleted to a depleted color. Chlorophyll can be restored to green by the action of metal ions by immersing the plant in a solution containing metal ions. The following gazette describes a technique for making a faded plant green using this property.

Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-128866 Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-12867 Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 2-265430 Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-46795 Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-217732 Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-67527

The publication discloses a method for turning chlorophyll of a faded plant into green by the following method. (1) Dissolve a mixture of citric acid and tartaric acid in water to make a color former solution. (2) Soak the decolored and depleted plants in the color former solution. (3) Heat the color former solution to develop a green color at the time of collection. According to this method, chlorophyll whose iron ions have faded develops a green color.

The publication discloses a method for turning chlorophyll of a faded plant into green by the following method. (1) A color former consisting of a mixture of citric acid and tartaric acid is dissolved in water in a copper container to prepare a color former solution. (2) The color former solution is sufficiently boiled to dissolve the copper ions. (3) The color former solution is heated to a temperature that does not boil, and the plants that have faded and become depleted are immersed to develop a green color at the time of collection. This method causes chlorophyll, which has faded due to the action of iron ions and copper ions, to develop a green color.

The publication discloses a method for processing tea leaves by the following method. (1) Tea leaves are blanched. (2) Egg white, ascorbate and magnesium salt are added to the blanched tea leaves and ground. (3) By the above method, green tea leaves which are excellent food materials are obtained. In this method, magnesium ions turn green chlorophyll contained in tea leaves.

The publication discloses a method for restoring a brown storage plant to green by the following method. (1) Soak the browned green plants in an aqueous solution of acid and ascorbic acid, which are recognized as food additives,
Fades brown tones. (2) To this aqueous solution, sodium copper chlorophyll is added and heated to restore the depleted green plant to its original green color. According to the method of this publication, chlorophyll contained in a green plant is made green by the action of copper ions.

The publication discloses a method of immersing green vegetables and seaweed in an aqueous solution containing copper chlorophyll, an alkali metal salt of copper chlorophyllin, and a reducing agent to color green. In this method, the chlorophyll of vegetables and seaweed is colored green by the action of copper ions.

Furthermore, the above publication describes a method in which anhydrous sodium acetate and dipotassium hydrogen phosphate are added to green vegetables, and the chlorophyll of the vegetables is kept green by the action of sodium and potassium.

[0010]

As described in the above publication, the conventional method restores the green color of chlorophyll with a solution containing iron ions, copper ions, magnesium ions and the like,
Alternatively, a technique for holding green is described. Immerse the plant in a solution containing iron ions and turn chlorophyll green,
There is a drawback that it becomes dark green, and not all plants can be made natural green. The method of immersing in a solution containing copper ions can make a plant have a beautiful color tone. However, the plants immersed in the copper ion solution have a high copper content after the treatment.
Copper is contained in a small amount in plants, but adding a large amount of copper is not preferable for health. For this reason, a method of turning chlorophyll green by the action of copper ions is not preferable as a food treatment. Furthermore, when a plant is immersed in a magnesium solution and treated green, there is a disadvantage that chlorophyll that has turned green is easily dissolved in water. For this reason, for example, when a side dish sold in water is sold by this method, chlorophyll dissolves in water to become green, and the green color of the plant becomes light. Also,
When the water turns green, it also has the disadvantage that it looks as if the plants were colored with pigments or dyes.

The present invention has been developed with the object of solving such disadvantages. An important object of the present invention is to restore a browned plant to an excellent color of green, and to restore the green of a plant that can be stored for a long time by treating the plant with green, or preserved in a green-treated state. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a color former pack used in the method.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for restoring or maintaining a green color of a plant according to the first aspect of the present invention. The present invention is an improved method of immersing a plant in a solution containing a metal ion to make chlorophyll green or to preserve it in a green state. Further, the method of the present invention, the zinc ore crushed zinc ore powder particles are immersed in a liquid,
It is characterized in that zinc contained in zinc ore is dissolved to form a solution containing zinc ions, and a plant is brought into contact with this solution to restore the green color of the plant or to maintain the green color.

[0013] The method according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that the zinc ore is made of fiber zinc ore, sphalerite, rheolite, hemagite, pyrite, sphalerite, franklinite, couban or the like. Can be used. These zinc ores are used as a mixture of a plurality of types, or one obtained by crushing one of them.

Further, in the color forming agent pack according to the third aspect of the present invention, the zinc ore powder obtained by crushing the zinc ore is filled in a water-permeable pack that does not allow the zinc ore powder to pass through.
When this color former pack is immersed in a liquid, zinc contained in zinc ore dissolves to form a solution containing zinc ions. When the plant is brought into contact with this solution, the plant restores or retains its green color.

The present invention does not specify the size at which the zinc ore is crushed. Zinc ore increases the surface area by weight when crushed into small pieces. For this reason, fine particles of zinc ore powder are easily dissolved, and the zinc concentration can be increased by adding a small amount to the liquid. Large zinc ore powder particles can be reused many times because of their low solubility. As for the size of the zinc ore powder, the fine one has an average particle diameter of 5 to 100 μm, and the large one has an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 5 mm.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. However, the following examples illustrate the method for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the present invention restores the green color of the plant or the method for maintaining the green color in the following method. Do not specify.

A method for restoring or maintaining the green color of a plant is to immerse the plant in a coloring agent solution containing zinc ions, or to spray the coloring agent solution containing zinc ions on the plants, Contact. The coloring agent solution containing zinc ions is obtained by immersing zinc ore powder obtained by crushing zinc ore in a liquid such as water to dissolve zinc contained in zinc ore to form a solution containing zinc ions.

Examples of zinc ore include, for example, zinc-blende (Zn)
= 67%), fiber-zinc ore (Zn = 67%), rheolite (Zn = 52%), hemi-zinc ore (Zn = 54.2)
%), Sphalerite (Zn = 80.3%), sphalerite (Z
n = 58.5%), Franklinite (Zn = 15-20)
%), Coban (Zn = 23%) and the like can be used. These zinc ores are crushed to mix a plurality of kinds, or crushed ones are used without being mixed.

Further, iron powder or iron powder obtained by crushing iron ore can be added to the zinc ore powder particles. The powder of zinc ore powder mixed with iron powder has the feature that plants can turn dark green.

The color former solution is preferably heated to a temperature above 60 ° C. and below the boiling temperature. When the plant is immersed in the heated color former solution, the chlorophyll quickly turns green in a short time. Even if a large amount of zinc ore powder is immersed in a solution in which a plant is immersed to increase the zinc concentration, the time during which chlorophyll can be made green is short. Therefore, in order to make chlorophyll green in a short time, a large amount of zinc ore powder is added and the plant is immersed in a heated zinc-rich coloring agent solution. If the chlorophyll of the plant is slowly turned green over time, it is immersed in an unheated, low-zinc solution.

The amount of zinc ore powder added is determined in consideration of the type of zinc ore, the average particle diameter of the zinc ore powder, the time to make chlorophyll green, the temperature of the solution, and the type of liquid. Adjust to the optimal value. For example, fiber zinc ore is used as the zinc ore, the average particle diameter of the zinc ore powder is 100 μm, and the color former solution is 6 μm.
When heating to 0 ° C. or more and adding zinc ore powder to water to make chlorophyll green of the immersed plant in about 10 minutes, add zinc ore powder to 1 liter of water. , 1-30
0 g, preferably 2-200 g, more preferably 3-
150 g.

The pack filled with the zinc ore powder particles is optimally a water-permeable sheet that does not allow the zinc ore powder particles to pass through, for example, a sheet material used such as a tea bag. However, for the pack, any member having water permeability that does not allow the zinc ore powder particles to pass through, for example, water-resistant paper, nonwoven fabric, cloth, mesh material, and the like can be used. Further, the pack may be a molded plastic article. A pack formed of plastic is provided with a large number of fine through holes that do not leak zinc ore powder particles.

The color forming agent pack includes, for example, 3-150
g of zinc ore powder is charged. The filling amount of the zinc ore powder is determined to be an optimum value in consideration of the amount of the solution to be immersed.
The coloring agent pack immersed in one liter of liquid adjusts the filling amount of the zinc ore powder to the above-mentioned amount. The color former pack can also be filled with calcium lactate or the like.

Plants tend to become soft when immersed in a solution. In particular, when immersed in a heated solution, it has a property of absorbing moisture and becoming very soft. The softening by immersion in the solution can be prevented by, for example, adding a calcium ion such as calcium lactate to a coloring agent solution containing zinc ions. Calcium ions prevent plants from absorbing water and becoming swollen. The amount of added calcium such as calcium lactate is adjusted to an optimum value in consideration of the type of plant, immersion time, solution temperature and the like. Increasing the amount of calcium can effectively prevent plants from becoming soft. The addition amount of calcium is, for example, 30 to 10
The amount is set to 00 ppm, preferably 100 to 500 ppm, and more preferably 150 to 400 ppm.

The green plant which has been brought into contact with the coloring agent solution containing zinc ions is then immersed in an adjusting solution to adjust the color tone, or the washing can be completed in a short time.

As the adjusting solution, a solution such as citric acid which forms a complex salt by reacting with a metal ion can be used. When the green plant is immersed in the citric acid solution, the metal ions that are released and adhere to the plant surface react with the citric acid and can be separated as a complex salt. Therefore, the plants can be washed with water in a short time by immersing in a citric acid solution.

Further, the adjusting liquid may contain a reducing sugar or a reducing agent. When a green plant is immersed in a solution of a reducing sugar or a reducing agent, an unnatural color such as artificially colored with a pigment or dye is adjusted. Further, discoloration of the plant after the treatment can be prevented. This is because the reducing sugar or reducing agent prevents oxidation and reduces discoloration. Furthermore, the method of adjusting the color tone with a reducing sugar or a reducing agent is as follows:
By increasing the zinc concentration of the color former solution, turning the plant green in a short time, and then adjusting the color tone with the adjusting solution, there is a feature that natural colored plants can be treated in a short time.

As the reducing sugar, glucose, fructose, sorbitol and the like can be used. Ascorbic acid, vitamin C, ersorbic acid and the like can be used as the reducing agent. The adjustment liquid can increase the concentration of the reducing sugar or the reducing agent to give a color with an exposed color.
The concentrations of the reducing sugar and the reducing agent in the adjusting solution are adjusted to a concentration that makes the plant an ideal color tone. For example, the concentration of reducing sugar or reducing agent is 100-5%, preferably 200-1%.
%, More preferably 300 to 3000 ppm.

[0029]

EXAMPLES Example 1 A salted and faded prepared dish is treated as follows to restore green. Processing to restore green color by immersing prepared foods in a color former solution A color former solution is produced as follows. One color pack is immersed in one liter of water. In the color former pack, a nonwoven fabric pack is filled with the following amounts of zinc ore powder and calcium lactate. Powder of zinc ore powder of fiber zinc ore 10 g (wurtzite ZnS Zn = 67%) (average particle diameter 100 μm) Calcium lactate 2 g (Ca [CH ₃ CH ( _{OH) COO] 2 · 5H 2} O) was immersed color former pack water was heated to 100 ° C., for 30 minutes, the color former solution and to dissolve the zinc ions contained in the zinc ore granular powder of color former pack I do. The temperature of the color former solution is set to 90 ° C., and 200 g of prepared food is immersed. Discoloration of the soaked side dish starts after about 5 minutes have passed. 5-15
After soaking for a minute, the prepared food is taken out of the color former solution.

The processing adjustment liquid for adjusting the color tone by immersing the prepared green food in the adjustment liquid to fix the color is manufactured as follows. To 1 liter of water, add and dissolve citric acid: 1000 mg Reducing sugar: 1000 mg Reducing agent: 500 mg Let it.

Using glucose as the reducing sugar and ascorbic acid as the reducing agent to prepare an adjusting solution, the adjusting solution is heated to 60 to 65 ° C., and the heated adjusted solution is colored with the prepared food prepared by the above process. Remove from the solution and immerse. The prepared food is immersed in the prepared solution for 30 minutes to 1 hour to fix the color.

Thereafter, the prepared food is taken out of the prepared liquid, and immersed in fresh water overnight to remove salt to prepare a food with green chlorophyll. When the treated side dish was immersed in Shimizu for 30 days, the water did not turn green, and the green color of the side dish did not change.

Example 2 The green color of the dried bamboo is restored. A process of immersing bamboo chopsticks in a color former solution to restore the color to green A color former solution is produced as follows. 5 g (zincblende ZnS Zn = 67%) (average particle size 200 μm) of 1 g of zinc ore powder of zinc ore is added to 1 liter of methanol, and heated to 60 ° C. for 1 hour. The zinc ions contained in the powder of the mineral powder are dissolved to form a color former solution. With the color former solution at 60 ° C., bamboo chopsticks are immersed. Since bamboo chopsticks do not become soft when immersed in a color former solution, calcium lactate is not added to the color former solution.

The green bamboo chopsticks are immersed in the color former solution for 15 to 25 minutes, and the green bamboo chopsticks are taken out of the color former solution.

Washing the Bamboo Chopsticks Recovered to Green with Water The bamboo chopsticks that have turned green are removed from the color former solution, washed with water for 24 hours, and then dried. This processed bamboo chopsticks
After 30 days, the green color did not change.

Example 3 Browned cherry leaves used for sakura mochi are treated as follows to restore green color. A process of immersing cherry leaves in a color former solution to restore green color The color former solution is produced as follows. In one liter of water, Franklin ore ........................... 50g (franklinite (Fe, Zn , Mn) (Fe, Mn) 2 O 4 Zn = 15~20%) ( average particle size 50 [mu] m) calcium lactate ................................. was added _{1g (Ca [CH 3 CH (} OH) COO] 2 · 5H 2 O), to dissolve the zinc ions by heating for 1 hour to 80 ° C.. Cherry leaves are immersed in the coloring agent solution containing zinc ions, and after soaking for 10 to 20 minutes, the cherry leaves are taken out of the coloring agent solution.

The processing adjustment liquid for adjusting the color tone by immersing the leaves of the cherry blossoms restored to green to the adjustment liquid and producing the color is manufactured as follows. To 1 liter of water, add and dissolve 1000 mg of citric acid, 1,000 mg of reducing sugar, 1,000 mg of reducing sugar, …………………………………. .

Glucose as reducing sugar and vitamin C as reducing agent
Is used as a control solution, the control solution is heated to 60 to 65 ° C., and the leaves of the cherry blossoms which have been subjected to the treatment are taken out of the color former solution and immersed in the heated control solution. The cherry leaves are immersed in this preparation for about 1 hour to stop coloring.

Thereafter, the leaves of the cherry tree are taken out of the preparation and washed with fresh water. The green color of the treated cherry leaves did not fade even after 30 days.

The above examples illustrate a method for restoring the green color of browned plants. However, the method of the present invention can also treat plants having a green color to prevent the green color from fading, instead of treating a plant with a brownish green color. This is because by adding zinc to a plant, it is possible to prevent magnesium contained in chlorophyll of the plant from being lost and browning.

[0041]

According to the present invention, browned plants can be restored to a green color having an excellent color tone, and the plants can be treated to a green color and stored for a long time. The plant treated by the method of the present invention has the advantage that the green color hardly fades when immersed in water and the green color can be maintained for a long time. This is because zinc contained in the zinc ore powder powder has a smaller ionization tendency than magnesium, and prevents zinc from being dissolved and removed in water.

Further, according to the method of the present invention, the zinc ore powder obtained by crushing zinc ore is immersed in a solution to form a color former solution containing zinc ions, and the color former solution turns a plant green.
It does not adversely affect the human body like copper,
It does not make plants dark green like iron. For this reason, the plant treated by the method of the present invention has a green color close to natural chlorophyll, its color does not change, and furthermore, it has extremely excellent features that the treated plant does not have to worry about phytotoxicity.

Furthermore, the method of the present invention restores chlorophyll contained in plants to green instead of coloring with pigments or dyes. Even if plants containing the same are treated together, only the green parts are green, and the flower parts and the like are not colored green. For this reason, there is the feature that, despite processing the whole plant, only the portion that was green can be selected and restored to green.

Further, in the color former pack according to the third aspect of the present invention, when immersed in a liquid, a solution containing zinc ions is obtained, and the solution is used to restore the green color of the plant or maintain the green color with the solution. It has the feature that it can be separated from plants and easily removed from solution. In addition, this coloring agent pack can adjust the immersion time to adjust the concentration of zinc ions in the solution, and can be used repeatedly and used effectively.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. The method of claim 1, wherein the discolored plant is brought into contact with a solution containing a metal ion to restore the green color of the plant by the action of the metal ion.
Alternatively, in a method of maintaining green color, a zinc ore crushed zinc ore powder is immersed in a liquid to dissolve zinc contained in the zinc ore to form a solution containing zinc ions. How to restore or maintain the green color of the plant. 2. The plant according to claim 1, wherein the zinc ore includes any of sphalerite, fiber zincite, rheolite ore, hepatite ore, sphalerite, sphalerite, franklinite and couban. How to restore or keep the green color of your computer. 3. The zinc ore powder crushed from zinc ore is filled in a water-permeable pack that does not allow the zinc ore powder to pass through, and the pack filled with zinc ore powder is immersed in a liquid. A color former pack in which zinc contained in zinc ore is dissolved to form a solution containing zinc ions, and the plant is brought into contact with this solution to restore or maintain the green color of the plant.