JPH10179057A - Water-soluble propolis powder increased in flavonoid content and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain water-soluble propolis powder having high contents of useful components and more preferably flavonoid at a high recovery rate. SOLUTION: The frozen raw propolis is superfinely pulverized to superfine powder of <=1 microns and is extracted with water or hydrous ethyl alcohol and, thereafter, the superfine powder is pulverized by drying. More preferably, the ethyl alcohol extraction liquid obtd. by adding ethyl alcohol to the filtration residue after filtration of extraction liquid obtd. by extracting the superfine powder of the raw material propolis with water and a water extraction liquid are mixed and the mixture is pulverized by drying. Otherwise, the extraction liquid obtd. by extracting the superfine powder of the raw material propolis with the hydrous ethyl alcohol is pulverized by drying.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a propolis useful as a material for health foods, and more particularly to a novel method for producing a propolis powder, and a new method for producing a propolis powder with an increased content of useful components. Water-soluble propolis powder of the type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Propolis is a resinous substance produced by honey bees by collecting the secretions of the resin and the shoots and mixing them with the saliva of the honey bee. It is used to sterilize and protect the body from bacteria and viruses. In recent years, attention has been paid to the bactericidal action and the like of propolis, which has been prized as a material for health foods, and research has been conducted with a focus on its medicinal properties.

At present, propolis products used as materials for health foods are mainly liquid products extracted with an organic solvent such as ethyl alcohol (propolis solution: generally called tincture), and tincture (propolis extract). It is in the form of granules or capsules obtained by processing. However, these products extracted with organic solvents are not water-soluble and are difficult to add to beverage products and foods with a high water content, so that water-soluble propolis products have recently been desired.

[0004] Propolis products marketed under the name of "water-soluble" in liquid or powder form have been found,
Each of these is simply a liquid material obtained by simply pulverizing raw propolis appropriately and extracting it with water, or a dried powder thereof. These products have solved the problem of floating and adhering to the container, but because of the extremely low propolis concentration (recovery rate around 5%), they are susceptible to microorganisms and must be kept refrigerated, such as mold. There was a problem that breeding and rot. Furthermore, analysis of these water-soluble propolis solutions and water-soluble propolis powders revealed that the nutritional and useful components originally contained in propolis were low, and in particular, the content of flavonoids such as quercetin and kenphenol was low. ing.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventor has now proposed:
The inventors have found that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by extracting the propolis raw material in advance with an ultrafine powder and then extracting it with an aqueous solvent, whereby a water-soluble propolis having a high flavonoid content can be obtained at a high recovery rate.

Thus, the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a step of micronizing the frozen raw propolis into ultrafine powder of 1 micron or less, extracting with water or hydrous ethyl alcohol, and then drying and powdering. The present invention provides a method for producing a propolis powder.

According to the present invention, a water-soluble propolis powder having an extremely high flavonoid content is obtained by extracting an ultrafine powder of raw material propolis obtained by ultrafine grinding with water (purified water) to dry powder. Is obtained. However, in consideration of economic efficiency, a sufficiently high-quality water-soluble propolis powder can be obtained also by mixing and blending (blending) with a conventional propolis solution extracted with ethyl alcohol. That is, in one of preferred embodiments of the present invention, an ethyl alcohol extract obtained by adding ethyl alcohol to a filtration residue obtained by filtering an extract obtained by extracting an ultrafine powder of raw propolis with water is used. And an aqueous extract obtained by extracting the fine powder with water to dry powder. When the ultrafine powder obtained by micronizing the propolis raw material is extracted with hydrous ethyl alcohol, it is generally preferable to dry-pulverize only the extract.

When the raw propolis frozen in accordance with the present invention is micronized and then extracted with an aqueous solvent, the recovery is generally increased by a factor of two or more compared to the case without such an operation. It has also been found that the resulting propolis powder has a flavonoid content that is more than tripled.
Thus, as another aspect, the present invention provides a new type of water-soluble propolis powder having a high flavonoid content, which is produced by the above method.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In carrying out the present invention,
Generally, the raw propolis is frozen at a temperature of -20 ° C or lower. By doing so, when the raw material is pulverized, ultrafine pulverization becomes possible without softening or stickiness of the propolis due to heat. The ultrafine pulverizing operation is performed using a jet pulverizer, for example, so that the propolis raw material becomes a fine powder of 1 micron or less, preferably about 0.1 micron.

When the ultrafine powder of the raw material propolis thus obtained is extracted with water, 2 to 4 times by weight of purified water (deionized water) is generally added to the fine powder. Then, the mixture is stirred for 5 to 10 hours while maintaining the temperature at 40 to 45 ° C. After the completion of such an extraction operation, filtration is performed, and the filtrate is used as an aqueous extract. This aqueous extract may be dried and powdered as it is, but usually, it is blended with an ethyl alcohol extract and dried and powdered as follows.

[0011] When the water extract and the ethyl alcohol extract are blended,
Generally, 5 to 10 times by weight of ethyl alcohol is added and stirred at a temperature of 40 to 45 ° C. for 5 to 10 hours. Then, impurities are removed by filtration, and the filtrate is used as an ethyl alcohol extract.

The filtrate (water extract) obtained by water extraction and the filtrate (ethyl alcohol extract) obtained by ethyl alcohol extraction are blended, and the blended solution is subjected to a freeze vacuum dryer or a spray-type heat dryer ( Spray dryer)
Dry and powder.

In another embodiment, when the ultrafine powder of the raw material propolis is extracted with hydrous ethyl alcohol, generally 3 to 5 times by weight of hydrous ethyl alcohol is added to the ultrafine powder, Stir at a temperature of ~ 45 [deg.] C for 5-10 hours. The hydrous ethyl alcohol to be used usually contains ethyl alcohol 8 to purified water 2 in a weight ratio. After the completion of such an extraction operation, impurities are removed by filtration, and the filtrate is dried and powdered with a freeze vacuum dryer or a spray-type heating dryer.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to Examples to further clarify the features of the present invention.

EXAMPLE A Brazilian raw material propolis was frozen in advance in a freezer at -20 ° C or lower, and then subjected to an ultrafine crusher (vertical jet crusher: SK jet crusher: Seishin Enterprise).
Micronized to 1 micron. 2.5 kg of purified water was added to 1 kg of the ultrafine powder, stirred for 6 hours with a stirrer while maintaining the temperature at 40 to 45 ° C., and filtered with a 1-mesh stainless steel filter to obtain a filtrate.

Next, 3.5 kg of 99.5% ethyl alcohol was added to the filtration residue, and the mixture was stirred with a stirrer at 45 ° C. for 7 hours. Thereafter, the mixture was filtered through a 1-mesh stainless steel filter to obtain a filtrate. The filtrate (water extract) of the water extraction thus obtained is blended with the filtrate (alcohol extract) of the ethyl alcohol extraction, and the blended liquid is freeze-dried with a freeze dryer [manufactured by Kyowa Vacuum Engineering Co., Ltd.]. , Dried and powdered.

As another means, 3.0 kg of hydrous ethyl alcohol was added to 1 kg of the ultrafine powder of the raw material propolis, and the mixture was stirred at 45 ° C. with a stirrer for 5 to 6 hours. Then, the mixture was filtered with a stainless steel filter, and the filtrate was dried and powdered with a freeze vacuum dryer. About the propolis powder obtained by the above two methods and the propolis powder obtained by the same method using the water-soluble propolis powder which has not been pulverized, the five flavonoids of quercetin, kaempferol, chrysin, galangin, and acacetin Analytical measurement gave the following results. The analysis of flavonoids was performed by high performance liquid chromatography.

[0017]

Further, as a result of calculating the recovery rate according to the following formula, the results are as shown in the following table.

[0019]

In the above table, the terms “blend” and “water-containing” mean, respectively, a blend of an aqueous extract and an ethyl alcohol extract of the raw material propolis micronized according to the present invention, and a hydrous ethyl alcohol extract. Refers to a water-soluble propolis obtained by drying and powdering. The “conventional blend” and “conventional water-containing” are obtained by the same operations as the “blend” and “water-containing” of the present invention, respectively. ２０20 mm) means a propolis powder obtained by extracting and drying powder. As can be seen from the table, according to the present invention, the recovery of the propolis powder is significantly increased, and the obtained water-soluble propolis powder has a very high flavonoid content.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A process for producing a propolis powder, comprising the step of ultrafinely pulverizing a frozen raw propolis into an ultrafine powder of 1 micron or less, extracting the same with water or hydrated ethyl alcohol, and then drying the powder. Method. 2. An ethyl alcohol extract obtained by adding ethyl alcohol to a filtration residue obtained by filtering an extract obtained by extracting an ultrafine powder of the raw material propolis with water; 2. The method for producing propolis powder according to claim 1, wherein the powder is mixed and dried. 3. The method for producing propolis powder according to claim 1, wherein an extract obtained by extracting the ultrafine powder of the raw material propolis with hydrous ethyl alcohol is made into a dry powder. 4. A water-soluble propolis powder produced by the method according to claim 1, wherein the powder has a high flavonoid content.