JPH10279487A - Lipid metabolism improver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a lipid metabolism improver hardly damaging the texture when the improver is added to various foods and drinks, drugs, etc. SOLUTION: This lipid metabolism improver comprising a starch material containing dietary fiber is obtained by carrying out a moist heat treatment of a starch and/or a derivative thereof having >=30 wt.% amylose content, and used for a food, a drug, a pet food, etc. The lipid metabolism improver has activities for reducing neutral fat in blood plasma and for reducing activities of synthetic enzyme of a fatty acid, and is expected to have activities for preventing hyperlipemia, obesity, cardiac disease such as cardiac failure, thrombosis, diabetes, etc. A high amylose corn starch and/or a derivative thereof are preferably used as the starch and/or a derivative thereof having >=30 wt.% amylose content.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an agent for improving lipid metabolism, which has a physiological activity such as a plasma neutral fat lowering action and an in vivo lipogenic enzyme activity lowering action.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Obesity is likely to be complicated by hypertension, impaired glucose tolerance, hyperlipidemia, etc., and is considered to be a risk factor for ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and the like. Preventive measures are extremely important. Obesity is defined as a condition in which the proportion occupied by adipose tissue (body fat percentage) is higher than normal. Regarding the accumulation of body fat such as subcutaneous fat and visceral fat, visceral fat obesity that accumulates between organs is more common in adult diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes than subcutaneous fat obesity that accumulates in subcutaneous tissue. Have been reported to be easy to merge. (Katsuto Tokunaga et al .: Journal of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine 81, 95-99, 1992)

[0003] Conventionally, food materials for preventing obesity include:
Water-insoluble dietary fiber such as wheat bran and corn hull, and water-soluble dietary fiber such as guar gum and indigestible dextrin reduce plasma cholesterol, lower plasma triglyceride, lower fatty acid synthase activity. It has been known to improve various physiological functions in vivo related to body fat accumulation.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned conventional food materials such as water-insoluble dietary fiber and water-soluble dietary fiber, when produced by using them, have the appearance, taste, texture, In many cases, the texture, such as smoothness, is impaired, so that it is difficult to include it in a sufficient amount in foods, and there has been a problem that the field of application is limited.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a lipid metabolism improving agent which does not impair the texture when added to various foods and drinks, pharmaceuticals and the like.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have made intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, and as a result, when a starch having a high amylose content is subjected to a wet heat treatment, the starch contains an indigestible starch classified as a dietary fiber. A starch material was obtained, and it was found that the starch material had a lipid metabolism improving effect such as a plasma neutral fat lowering effect and a fatty acid synthase enzyme activity lowering effect, and completed the present invention.

That is, a first aspect of the present invention is to use a dietary fiber-containing starch material obtained by subjecting starch and / or a derivative thereof having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more to moist heat treatment as an active ingredient, An object of the present invention is to provide a lipid metabolism ameliorating agent, which has a lowering action and a lowering action of a fatty acid synthase enzyme activity.

[0008] In a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof is a high-amylose corn starch and / or a high-amylose corn starch.
Or a lipid metabolism improving agent comprising a derivative thereof.

A third aspect of the present invention is the method according to the first aspect, wherein the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof is a high-amylose corn starch and / or
Another object of the present invention is to provide a lipid metabolism improving agent comprising a mixture of 99 to 40% by weight of a derivative thereof and 1 to 60% by weight of starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is the above-mentioned third aspect, wherein the starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight is a wurtched corn starch, a waxy corn starch, a sago starch, a wheat starch, a rice starch, a potato starch, a sweet potato starch. And at least one selected from tapioca starch and their derivatives.

The first lipid metabolism improver of the present invention comprises a dietary fiber-containing starch material obtained by subjecting starch and / or a derivative thereof having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more to moist heat treatment as an active ingredient. As shown in the test examples described later, it has a plasma neutral fat lowering action and a fatty acid synthesizing enzyme activity lowering action. Therefore, effects such as prevention of hyperlipidemia, prevention of obesity, prevention of heart diseases such as heart failure, prevention of thrombosis, prevention of diabetes, and the like are expected. Furthermore, since the dietary fiber content is high, an effect of promoting elimination of harmful substances in the living body and an effect of improving bowel movement can be expected.

In addition, since the lipid metabolism improver has a very fine particle size as compared with conventional dietary fiber, it does not have a rough feeling when added to foods and drinks, pharmaceuticals and the like, and therefore does not impair the texture. Since the viscosity increase when added to an aqueous solvent is small, the application field is wide. Furthermore, since it is not easily gelatinized and has high thermal stability, stable quality can be maintained even when added to various products requiring heat treatment.

[0013] The reason why a starch material having a high dietary fiber content can be obtained by subjecting starch having a high amylose content to moisture heat treatment is unknown in detail, but only the surface of the starch granules is gelatinized by the wet heat treatment. Aging occurs when the surface gelatinized layer is cooled, and the rearrangement of the internal amylose occurs, resulting in an indigestible structure in which enzymes do not easily act.This phenomenon is caused by the starch having a high amylose content. It is considered that this occurs more remarkably.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof is composed only of high amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof. Obtainable.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof is a high-amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof 99 to 40.
% Starch and an amylose content of less than 30% by weight.
% By weight, the physical properties such as increasing the viscosity and lowering the gelatinization temperature can be changed as compared with the case of using high amylose corn starch and / or its derivative alone.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight is a wurtch corn starch,
Since it is composed of at least one selected from waxy corn starch, sago starch, wheat starch, rice starch, potato starch, sweet potato starch, tapioca starch and derivatives thereof, a starch to be combined with high amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof is appropriately selected. Thereby, desired physical properties can be obtained.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the present invention, the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more may be one type of starch or a mixture of two or more types. Should be at least 30% by weight.

As the starch alone having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more, generally available high-amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof are preferably used. Known high amylose corn starches are those having an amylose content of 50 to 60% by weight (amylomaize V), those having an amylose content of 60 to 70% by weight (amylomaize VI), and those having a content of 70 to 80% by weight (amylomaize VII). Any of these may be used in the present invention. Some types of barley have an amylose content of 30% by weight or more, and starch obtained from such barley can also be used. Derivatives of high amylose corn starch include high amylose corn starch,
It means a starch derivative obtained by subjecting to chemical treatments such as esterification such as succinic oxidation and phosphoric acid crosslinking, etherification such as hydroxypropylation and epichlorohydrin crosslinking, oxidation and acid treatment.

In the present invention, the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more comprises a mixture of high amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof and a starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight, and the whole amylose is used. You may use what was adjusted so that content might be 30 weight% or more. High amylose corn starch and / or
Alternatively, when a derivative thereof and a starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight are used in combination, in addition to the effects of the present invention, for example, the viscosity is increased, the gelatinization temperature is reduced, and aging is hardly caused. , Physical properties can be changed.

When such a starch mixture is used, high amylose corn starch and / or its derivatives 99 to 40
% Starch and an amylose content of less than 30% by weight.
%. When the amount of high amylose corn starch and / or its derivative exceeds 99% by weight, the effect of adding starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight becomes poor, and high amylose corn starch and / or
When the derivative is less than 40% by weight, a starch material having a high dietary fiber content cannot be obtained, and it is difficult to obtain a sufficient bioactive effect.

The starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight is selected from, for example, wurch corn starch, waxy corn starch, sago starch, wheat starch, rice starch, potato starch, sweet dew starch, tapioca starch and derivatives thereof. It is preferable to use at least one of them.
Note that these derivatives are obtained by subjecting the starch to a chemical treatment such as esterification such as acetic acid, succinic oxidation, and phosphoric acid crosslinking, etherification such as hydroxypropylation and epichlorohydrin crosslinking, oxidation, and acid treatment. A starch derivative means a gelatinization temperature generally lower than that of the original starch, and the degree of aging tends to be lower.

In the present invention, the wet heat treatment is not particularly limited as long as it is a method capable of imparting a physiological activity effect by increasing the dietary fiber content. It is preferable to employ the method described in JP-A-6-145203. This method uses a vessel having both a reduced pressure line and a pressurized steam line and capable of sealing both the internal pressure and the external pressure and has a surfactant and a metal as a moist heat treatment accelerator, if necessary. This is a method in which a raw starch to which salts or saccharides are added is added, and after reducing the pressure, steam is introduced and pressurized and heated, and this operation is repeated as necessary, thereby heating the starch for a predetermined time and then cooling. .

In the above description, as a moist heat treatment apparatus having a closed vessel which is provided with both a pressure reducing line and a pressurized steam line and has pressure resistance at both internal and external pressures, for example, "Nautamixer (reactor) NXV type" (trade name, Hosokawa Micron) (Made by Co., Ltd.) can be used. This device has a screw that revolves while rotating in an inverted cone-shaped container.The inside of the container can be sealed so that vacuum and pressure heating can be performed, and a jacket is attached to the outside. The contents of the container can be heated, and the contents are driven to the wall surface of the jacket by a screw that revolves while rotating, so that the temperature rises. In this apparatus, a pulse air collector of a back filter type for collecting scattering of the contents to the outside at the time of depressurization is installed in the vacuum line. When this apparatus is used, the treated starch is taken out at the time of heating, and the starch of the next lot is immediately charged, so that the pressure can be reduced and heated without preheating, and semi-continuous operation is possible. Suitable for production.

The wet heat treatment of the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more is carried out until the dietary fiber content becomes preferably 30% by weight or more and a lipid metabolism improving effect described later is imparted.
A starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more was obtained by
In order to produce a starch material having an effect of improving lipid metabolism by performing a wet heat treatment according to the method described in JP-A No. 02-1992 or JP-A-6-145203, the wet heat treatment is performed at a temperature of 100 to 140 ° C.
It is preferably performed for about 180 minutes.

The lipid metabolism improver of the present invention obtained as described above is made of starch, and therefore has high purity and high safety.
Finer particle size than dietary fiber etc. adjusted from the hulls of conventional cereals etc., so there is no roughness when used in various foods and drinks, pharmaceuticals, pet foods etc., it is hard to gelatinize and it has excellent heat stability Therefore, there is an advantage that deterioration due to heating during production hardly occurs.

The agent for improving lipid metabolism of the present invention has a plasma neutral fat lowering effect and a fatty acid synthesizing enzyme activity lowering effect, thereby preventing hyperlipidemia, preventing obesity and preventing heart failure such as heart failure. It is expected to have effects such as disease prevention, thrombosis prevention, and diabetes prevention. Furthermore, since the dietary fiber content is high, effects such as suppression of the onset of colon cancer and breast cancer, prevention of appendicitis, promotion of elimination of harmful substances in the body, and improvement of bowel movement are expected.

The lipid metabolism improver of the present invention can be administered alone to humans and animals. Various foods and drinks such as soft drinks, liquid foods such as drinks, baked confectionery, noodles, breads, seasonings, etc. It can also be added to solid foods such as foods for ingestion. Furthermore, various pharmaceuticals, for example, tablets,
It can also be added to granules and the like. It can also be added to various pet foods. These foods and drinks,
When added to pharmaceuticals, pet foods, etc., the amount added is usually preferably 1 to 50% by weight.

The dose (effective intake) of the lipid metabolism improving agent of the present invention is 0.05 g / kg body weight or more per day, preferably 0.1 g / kg or more.
/ kg body weight or more. In addition, ingestion in such an amount can compensate for the shortage of dietary fiber intake required per day.

[0029]

【Example】

Example (Production of wet heat-treated high-amylose corn starch) As a wet heat treatment apparatus having a container capable of sealing both the internal pressure and the external pressure, a Nauta mixer (reactor) NXV type (trade name, manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation) having an internal volume of 100 liters was used. , Introduce steam into the jacket in advance,
After preheating the whole device to about 80 ℃, put about 50kg of high amylose corn starch with 70% amylose content, seal it, and rotate the screw placed in the container at the rotation speed.
The mixture was stirred for about 6 minutes while rotating at 93 rpm and a revolving speed of 65 rpm.

When the temperature of the raw starch reaches about 80 ° C.,
The pressure was reduced by opening the pressure reducing line. After elapse of 6 minutes, when the pressure reached 70 Torr, the pressure reducing line was closed and the steam line was opened to introduce steam. 11 minutes after the steam was introduced, the internal pressure was 1.
5kg / cm2, temperature reached 125 ° C. After maintaining this state for 20 minutes, the steam line was closed, the internal pressure was released, the pressure was reduced, then the pressure reduction line was opened and the pressure was reduced, and the product was cooled to about 80 ° C. and subjected to wet heat treatment. High amylose corn starch was obtained.

The dietary fiber content of the moist heat-treated high amylose corn starch was determined by the Prosky method (L. PROSKY
J. ASSOC. OFF. ANAL. CHEM, Vol. 71, No. 5, p.
1017-1023, 1988), 64.5%
Met.

Comparative Example (Untreated High Amylose Corn Starch) The same high amylose corn starch as in the above example was used.
The sample was used as it was without performing the wet heat treatment. In addition,
The dietary fiber content of this high amylose corn starch was 19.3% as measured by the same Prosky method as described above.

Test Example 1 Rats (male 6-week-old, weighing about 145 g) were grouped into 6 rats, and diets 1 and 2 were prepared using the starches of Examples and Comparative Examples in the composition shown in Table 1. 2 (control) for 2 weeks.

[0034]

[Table 1]

After breeding, the animals were sacrificed and dissected, adipose tissue was taken out, and the activities of lipogenic enzymes (fatty acid synthase, malic enzyme and glucose-6-phosphate dehydratase) were measured by the following method.

Preparation of enzyme solution and measurement of enzyme activity: Mu
to and Gibson's method (Muto Y. and Gibson, DM (197
0), "Selective dampening of lipogenic enzymes of l
iver by exogenous polyunsaturated fatty acids ", Bi
ochem. Biophys. Res. Commu. 38, 9-15).
nthetase, FAS), malic acid dehydrogenated oxygen (also known as malic enz
yme, ME), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenated oxygen (glucos
The oxygen activity of e-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (GSPDH) was measured.

Preparation of enzyme solution: In preparing an enzyme solution for liver, after washing in ice-cooled 0.9% physiological saline, an accurate 2 g portion was weighed, and 4 ml of 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer solution was added.
pH7.4 (including 0.25M sucrose, 0.07M potassium bicarbonate,
1 mM disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA-N
a ₂ ) 1 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) was added, and the tissue was homogenized using a Teflon homogenizer (trade name “AM-8”, manufactured by Nippon Seiki) under ice cooling. The homogenate was centrifuged at 8,000 × g (9,100 rpm) at 4 ° C. for 20 minutes,
The mitochondrial fraction was removed. The obtained supernatant fraction was further centrifuged at 4 ° C. and 105,000 × g (40,000 rpm) for 60 minutes using an ultrahigh-speed centrifuge (trade name “70P-70”, manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd.). The supernatant fraction was used as an enzyme solution.

In the case of epididymal adipose tissue, 1 ml of the above-mentioned 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer was added to 0.5 g of the tissue, and the mixture was subjected to 15,000 rpm using a polytron homogenizer (shaft PTA7, Kinematica) under ice-cooling. For 30 seconds. Thereafter, the same operation as in the case of the liver was performed, and the obtained supernatant fraction was used as an enzyme solution.

The FAS activity was measured on the day when the enzyme solution was prepared. A portion of the 105,000 xg supernatant was frozen at -70 ° C,
ME activity and GBPDH activity were measured within 2 days.

Measurement of fatty acid synthetic oxygen activity (FAS) activity:
20 mM NADPH 20 μl (final concentration 300 μl)
M), 7 mM acetyl-CoA 20 μl (final concentration 176 μM), cocktail (0.114 M L-histidine hydrochloride buffer, pH 6.5, 5.7 mM)
DTT, 4.57 mM EDTA-Na ₂ ) 700 μl (final concentration: histidine 100 mM, 5 mM DTT, 4 mM EDTA) and an enzyme solution 40 μl were sequentially added into a cuppet and mixed well. Immediately pre-incubate for 2 minutes in a self-recording spectrophotometer (trade name “UV265-FS”, manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation) set at 37 ° C., then 3.2 mM
20 μl of malonyl-CoA (78 μM final concentration) was added for reaction, and the rate of decrease in absorbance at 340 nm during the reaction was measured. NA
The molar extinction coefficient of DPH was 6,230, and the activity value was determined from the amount of NADPH consumed by the reaction.

Measurement of malate dehydrogenase (ME) activity: 80 μl of distilled water, 0.1 M magnesium chloride 40
μl (final concentration 4 mM), 12 mM β-NADP 20 μl (final concentration 0.24 mM), cocktail (0.125 M Tris-HCl buffer,
pH 7.4, 0.125mM DTT) 800μl (final concentration 0.1M Tris, 0.1mM DTT) and cocktail solution (2-5 times)
20 μl of the diluted enzyme solution was sequentially added into the cuppet and mixed well. After preincubation at 37 ° C. for 2 minutes in the same manner as in the measurement of FAS activity, 20 μl of 0.15 ML-sodium malate (final concentration: 3 mM) was added for reaction, and the rate of increase in absorbance at 340 nm was measured. The activity value was determined from the amount of NADPH produced by the reaction.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (GS
PDH) activity measurement: 100 µl of distilled water,
12 mM β-NADP 40 μl (final concentration 0.40 mM), cocktail solution (0.125 M Tris-HCl buffer, pH 8.0, 17.5 mM magnesium chloride) 800 μl (final concentration 0.1 M Tris, 14 mM MgCl ₂ )
And 20 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 8.0 (2-5
20 times) diluted enzyme solution is sequentially added into the cuppet.
Mix well. As in the measurement of FAS activity, 2
After pre-incubation for 20 minutes, 20 mM glucose-5-phosphate 40 μl (final concentration 0.8 mM) was added and reacted at 340 nm.
The rate of increase in absorbance was measured. NA generated by the reaction
The activity value was determined from the amount of DPH.

Expression of enzyme activity: The activity of the lipophilic enzyme was expressed in nmol as the amount (specific activity) of NADPH produced by the enzyme per minute per 1 mg of protein in the enzyme solution. The total activity per tissue was expressed in μmol of the amount of NADPH (total activity) produced per minute by the total amount of the tissue homogenate supernatant per 100 g of body weight.

The fatty acid synthase is an enzyme for synthesizing a fatty acid in the living body of a higher animal by itself. Starting from acetyl-CoA (acetyl-coenzyme A), malonyl-CoA is condensed to have about 16 carbon atoms. It is an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction of biosynthesizing saturated fatty acids.

The malic enzyme is also called malate dehydrogenase (decarboxylation), and L-malate is converted to N-malate.
It is an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction that produces pyruvate in the presence of ADP (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate). Pyruvate is a raw material of acetyl-CoA, which is a starting material of fatty acid synthase, and NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (reduced)) by-produced during the reaction of malic enzyme is a fatty acid. It also acts as an essential coenzyme for the synthase reaction.

In addition, glucose-6-phosphate dehydratase converts glucose-6-phosphate and NADP ⁺
It is an enzyme of the pentose-phosphate cycle that catalyzes the reaction that produces phosphoglucono-δ-lactone, NADPH and H ⁺ . The pentose-phosphate cycle is involved in the utilization of glucose in adipocytes, and the NADPH generated in the process is used in a reduction reaction for fatty acid synthesis.

Therefore, by reducing the activity of these fatty acid synthase enzymes, fatty acid synthesis in the body can be suppressed, fat accumulation can be suppressed, and an obesity prevention effect can be brought about.

In addition to the measurement of the lipogenic enzyme activity, the amount of triglyceride in plasma was also measured. The measurement of the amount of triglyceride is performed using a commercially available measurement kit “Triglyceride E”.
-Test "(trade name, manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., reagent containing lipoprotein lipase, glycerol 3-phosphate oxidase, and glycerokinase). Table 2 shows the results.

[0049]

[Table 2]

From the results in Table 2, it can be seen that the rats bred using the diet 1 containing the moist heat-treated high-amylose corn starch of the example were compared with the rats bred using the diet 2 containing the untreated high-amylose corn starch of the comparative example. In comparison, it is found that the fatty acid synthase activity and the malate enzyme activity are significantly lower, and the amount of triglyceride in plasma is also lower.

Test Example 2 Rats (Wistar male, 6-week-old, weighing about 145 g), 6 per group
And 1.5 g each of diet 1 and diet 2 prepared in Test Example 1
Were added to each other and mixed, and each rat was ingested, blood was collected over time, and the amounts of plasma glucose and plasma insulin were measured. The measurement of the plasma glucose level was carried out using a commercially available measurement kit “Glucose B Test” (trade name, manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., by the glucose oxidase method). In addition, the measurement of the amount of plasma insulin is performed using a commercially available measurement kit “Insulin-EIA test”.
(Trade name, manufactured by Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd., based on immunoassay).

As a result, the change in plasma glucose level is shown in FIG. 1 and the change in plasma insulin level is shown in FIG. As shown in these results, in the group fed the diet 1 containing the moist heat-treated high amylose corn starch,
Diet 2 containing untreated high amylose corn starch
It can be seen that the increase in the amount of plasma glucose and the amount of plasma insulin was slower than in the group that was ingested.

[0053]

As described above, the lipid metabolism-improving agent of the present invention reduces the activity of fatty acid synthesizing enzymes in the body and the neutral fat in plasma to prevent hyperlipidemia, It is expected to be effective in preventing obesity, preventing heart diseases such as heart failure, preventing thrombosis, and preventing diabetes. In addition, because of its high dietary fiber content, colorectal cancer, suppression of breast cancer, etc., prevention of appendicitis, promotion of elimination of harmful substances in the body,
Effects such as improved bowel movements are also expected.

Further, the lipid metabolism improver of the present invention can be produced only by wet heat treatment using a starch having a specific amylose content as a raw material, and thus can be produced in a simple process at a relatively low cost. It is also excellent in safety for the human body. Furthermore, because of its small particle size, when added to foods and drinks and pharmaceuticals, it has a good palatability, improves palatability and savory taste, and hardly impairs the texture originally possessed by them. In addition, even starch is hard to gelatinize and has good thermal stability, so it is hard to deteriorate even if heat-treated in the manufacturing process,
Various products of stable quality can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows plasma of rats bred using a diet 1 containing a lipid metabolism improver (moist heat-treated high amylose corn starch) of the present invention and rats bred using a diet 2 containing an untreated high amylose corn starch. It is a chart which shows the change of the amount of glucose.

FIG. 2 shows plasma of rats reared on a diet 1 containing a lipid metabolism improving agent (moist heat-treated high amylose corn starch) of the present invention and rats reared on a diet 2 containing an untreated high amylose corn starch. It is a chart which shows the change of the amount of insulin.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tsuyoshi Ito 2954 Imaizumi, Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture (72) Inventor Teruo Nakakuki 57 Kamo, Mishima City, Shizuoka Prefecture Kamo Green Hill 7 (72) Inventor Yoshiki Kurahashi Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture (72) Inventor Koichi Higashida 8-13-3 Shirakashi-cho, Kashihara-shi, Nara

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A dietary fiber-containing starch material obtained by subjecting a starch and / or a derivative thereof having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more to moist heat treatment as an active ingredient, and has a plasma neutral fat lowering effect and a fatty acid synthase enzyme. An agent for improving lipid metabolism, which has an activity of reducing activity. 2. The lipid metabolism improving agent according to claim 1, wherein the starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof comprises high amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof. 3. The starch having an amylose content of 30% by weight or more and / or a derivative thereof is composed of 99-40% by weight of high amylose corn starch and / or a derivative thereof and 1-60% by weight of a starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight. %. 2. The lipid metabolism improving agent according to claim 1, which comprises a mixture with 4. The starch having an amylose content of less than 30% by weight is at least one selected from wurch corn starch, waxy corn starch, sago starch, wheat starch, rice starch, potato starch, sweet potato starch, tapioca starch and derivatives thereof. The lipid metabolism improving agent according to claim 3, which is composed of one kind.