JPH11236512A - Process for extracting natural carotene - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a process for extracting vegetable-derived natural carotene whereby a very low loss of carotene and a high recovery ratio are achieved. SOLUTION: In a process for extracting carotene by crushing a carotene- contg. vegetable, extracting carotene with an org. solvent, and distilling the solvent from the extract, carotene is extracted from a dry product which is obtd. through the step of agglomeration wherein a carotene-protein composite of the crushed vegetable is agglomerated; the step of enzyme treatment wherein a vegetable tissue disintegrating enzyme is caused to act on the crushed vegetable; and the dehydration and drying step wherein the crushed vegetable after caused to pass through the foregoing two steps is dehydrated and dried.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for extracting natural carotene from a carotene-containing plant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Carotene is a yellow to orange pigment and is used for coloring foods. Carotene is also known as a precursor that is converted into vitamin A in the human body, and is also used for nutritional enhancement of foods. In recent years, the physiological research of carotene has been advanced, antioxidant action, cancer prevention, prevention of heart disease,
Effects such as reduction of the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays have been found, and they have been recognized as extremely useful substances.

[0003] Carotene extracted from plants that have been eaten for a long time, such as carrots, is a natural additive that is easily accepted by consumers. However, no economically superior extraction method has been established, and it is traded at the highest price among natural carotene.

[0004] The carotene pigment of a plant is present in a living body by binding to a protein to form a carotene-protein complex. In a fresh sample, the carotene-protein complex may be in a water-soluble state.However, heat treatment or acidification of the pH may cause protein coagulation and precipitation, and may further strengthen the fiber content. It binds and increases insolubles.

In the prior art, the above-mentioned properties hindered the carotene recovery rate. In contrast, an extraction method that positively utilizes the above properties was also invented,
Carotene loss could not be completely avoided.

[0006] For example, as a method of extracting carotene from a liquid material, a method of preparing a juice from a crushed plant and collecting the carotene from the juice from which fibrous material has been removed by centrifugation (JP-A-60-6656) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-501840) and a method of recovering carotene by ultrafiltration from a squeezed liquid clarified using a pectinolytic enzyme.

However, according to these two methods, a large amount of carotene remains in the discarded fiber or squeezed residue, and it cannot be said to be an efficient extraction method.

[0008] On the other hand, as a method for extracting carotene from solid matter, when producing a squeezed residue from crushed plants,
A method of extracting carotene from squeezed residue by heating and coagulating a carotene-protein complex (JP-A-4-95066)
A method has been proposed in which a carotene-protein complex is acid-aggregated to extract carotene from a squeezed residue (JP-A-9-221469).

[0009] In these methods, depending on the crushed state of the plant, coagulation and precipitation of the carotene-protein complex may be incomplete, and there is a problem that the carotene-protein complex partially leaks to the side of the juice to be discarded. The partial loss of carotene in these two methods is believed to be due to the method of crushing the plant. In mere mechanical crushing, the crushed material has coarse particles and many intact cells are found. It is presumed that some of the carotene-protein complex present in the intact cells was squeezed out of the cells during the filtration step before forming large aggregates, and then leaked out through the filter paper. You.

[0010] In addition, in the step of extracting carotene with an organic solvent, there is a problem in the heat aggregation method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-95066) and the acid aggregation method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-221469), such as pectic substances. There is a problem that the extraction efficiency of carotene into the solvent is reduced due to the presence of the fiber component.

[0011] Therefore, although a step of removing the fiber is required, a simple filtration or centrifugation method leaves a carotene-protein complex in the fiber to be discarded, and cannot be an extraction method which eventually increases the carotene recovery rate. Was. In the ultrafiltration method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-501840), a combination use of a method using a pectin-degrading enzyme having a cellulose activity has also been proposed. However, since no enzyme with the activity to completely decompose the fiber has been developed so far, not all of the carotene-protein complex migrates to the juice side, and most of the juice residue is discarded. It remained and did not solve the essential problem.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the extraction of natural vegetable carotene, there has been a demand for an extraction method in which the carotene recovery rate is extremely high without leaving carotene in the portion to be discarded. It is an object of the present invention to provide an extraction method for efficiently coagulating and insolubilizing a carotene-protein complex and, at the same time, removing a fiber component that causes a decrease in extraction rate during an organic solvent extraction step. .

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As a result of the inventors' earnest efforts, it has been found that the above-mentioned object can be achieved. That is, the method for extracting natural carotene according to the present invention described in claim 1 comprises, after crushing a carotene-containing plant, extracting carotene with an organic solvent, and distilling off the organic solvent from the extract. In an extraction method for extracting a plant, an agglutination step of aggregating a carotene-protein complex of the crushed plant body, an enzyme treatment step of reacting a plant tissue degrading enzyme with the crushed plant body, the aggregating step and the enzyme A dewatering and drying step of dehydrating the crushed material after the treatment step and drying the residue, and then extracting carotene from the obtained dried substance with an organic solvent.

[0014] According to the method for extracting natural carotene according to the second aspect of the present invention, the aggregation step according to the first aspect includes:
This is a method based on acid aggregation or heat aggregation of a carotene-protein complex.

[0015] In the method for extracting natural carotene according to the third aspect of the present invention, prior to the enzymatic treatment step according to the first aspect, heating to inactivate plant-derived enzymes or kill bacteria. This is a method including a process.

In the method for extracting natural carotene according to the present invention described in claim 4, the aggregation step by heating described in claim 2 inactivates or inactivates the plant-derived enzyme described in claim 3. This method also serves as a heating step for sterilizing bacteria.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present invention, the decomposition of cell wall constituents of a plant is promoted by reacting a carotene-protein complex of a crushed plant with a plant tissue degrading enzyme. Furthermore, by aggregating this, the release of the carotene-protein complex present in the cells becomes remarkable, and the aggregation and insolubilization are efficiently performed. This makes it possible to obtain an extraction method with an extremely high carotene recovery rate.

Next, the fibers decomposed and solubilized into low molecules are separated and removed together with water and other soluble components as a squeezed liquid by a dehydration and drying step. Target carotene
Proteins efficiently form large aggregates and are very rarely leaked by filtration. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the leakage of the carotene-protein complex in the filtration step, and at the same time, to remove the fiber component that causes a decrease in the extraction rate in the carotene extraction step with an organic solvent.
In addition, by decomposing and depolymerizing the high molecular components of the plant by the plant tissue disintegration enzyme, the water retention capacity of the juice residue is reduced, the juice residue is reduced in moisture, and the subsequent drying process can be expected to be shortened. .

The aggregation step of the present invention may utilize the phenomenon of protein aggregation of the carotene-protein complex. For example, a method of heating and coagulating a carotene-protein complex by heating to 60 to 85 ° C., and shifting the pH of a crushed plant to an acidic side with an acid such as hydrochloric acid, citric acid, acetic acid, and lactic acid. A method based on acid aggregation of a carotene-protein complex is used.

The enzyme treatment step of the present invention is to decompose plant tissues to release all carotene-protein complexes present in cells. Plant cells are surrounded by hard cell walls, and the individual cells adhere to each other via the middle lobe to form tissues. Therefore, a plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme having a purpose of strongly decomposing a polysaccharide which is a component constituting a cell wall and a middle leaf may be used. Therefore,
As preferred plant tissue disintegrating enzymes, one or more selected from cellulases, hemicellulases, pectinases and the like can be used.

As the plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme, the carotene derived from the natural plant obtained in the present invention is mainly used as a food, so that it is preferable to select an enzyme for food production. Also, if it is available at low cost,
It goes without saying that manufacturing costs can be reduced. Specifically, the inventors of the present invention Pectynex Ultra SP-
L (Novo Nordisk Bioindustry Co., Ltd.),
It has been confirmed that Pectoliase (Shengshin Co., Ltd.) and the like can be used.

Each reaction condition of the above-mentioned enzymes shows the same tendency irrespective of the type of plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme. Effective activity is obtained when the temperature of the enzyme reaction is from room temperature to 55 ° C. and the pH is in the range of 3 to 5. The concentration of the enzyme to be added is preferably in the range of 0.05 to 0.2% with respect to the crushed plant, and the reaction is suitably performed for 0.5 to 4 hours. Note that gentle stirring during the reaction is effective in increasing the reaction efficiency.

The coagulation step and the enzyme treatment step of the present invention are applied singly, multiple times or in combination so as to minimize escape of the carotene-protein complex in the plant.
That is, if it is a heat treatment, it is preferably performed before the enzyme treatment to aggregate the carotene-protein complex released in the crushed product, and after the enzyme treatment, again, the carotene-protein released by the enzyme. Aggregate the complex.
In the case of acid treatment, an acid is added before the enzyme treatment, and during or after the enzyme treatment, it is checked whether the pH of the crushed product does not exceed 5, and if necessary, the acid is added. Further, the heat treatment and the acid treatment may be performed in combination.

In the present invention, a heating step for inactivating plant-derived enzymes or killing bacteria is preferably provided before the enzyme treatment step in order to make the plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme act effectively. In this case, the heat treatment for aggregation before performing the enzyme treatment also serves as a heat treatment for inactivating plant-derived enzymes or killing bacteria.

[0025]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples. However, the present invention is not limited to these examples. FIG.
FIG. 2 is an extraction process diagram of one embodiment of the natural carotene extraction method according to the present invention.

Carrot was used as a raw material for extracting vegetable natural carotene. This was washed and, after removing unnecessary portions such as leather, was crushed into a paste using a crusher. This crushed material was separated by 1 kg and subjected to each treatment for each test plot. The heat treatment section set for comparison is
The extraction method and the acid treatment in JP-A-4-95066 correspond to the extraction method in JP-A-9-221469, and the enzyme treatment corresponds to the extraction method in the present invention.

In the heat treatment section, 3 kg of distilled water was added to the crushed material, and the mixture was stirred at 65 ° C. for 30 minutes, and then dehydrated and filtered by a filter press. In the acid treatment section, the crushed material is
The pH was adjusted to 4.0, left for 30 minutes, and filtered in the same manner.

In the enzyme treatment section, the crushed product is adjusted to pH with citric acid.
The temperature was adjusted to 4.0, and the mixture was heated at 65 ° C. for 30 minutes to perform the first heat aggregation, and to inactivate enzymes and bacteria derived from carrots. After cooling to 40 ° C., 0.1% of a plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme (Pectinex Ultra SPL) was added thereto, and after dispersing the enzyme, the mixture was reacted for 1 hour. After the reaction, the mixture was heated at 85 ° C. for 20 minutes to perform the second heat aggregation and inactivate the added plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme. The obtained one was similarly filtered.

The squeezed residue obtained by filtration in each of the above methods was dried at 70 ° C. for 10 hours in a vacuum drier. The dried product was pulverized with a pulverizer having a 0.2 mm screen to obtain a dry powder. The amount of carotene extracted by adding n-hexane to this dry powder was measured by HPLC, and the total amount of carotene extracted (mg) was calculated. However, this total carotene amount is the sum of α- and β-carotene. The total carotene of the raw carrots was determined by HPLC according to the method of the Fifth Edition Japanese Food Standard Composition Table Analysis Manual, and 1k
It was 280 mg per g. The carotene recovery rate from the raw materials was calculated, and each test plot was evaluated. The results are shown in Table 1.

[0030]

[Table 1]

It was shown that carotene was most efficiently recovered in the enzyme reaction group among all the test groups. In the heat-aggregated group, insufficiently aggregated carotene-protein complex leaked from the filter paper in the filtration step, and it was considered that the recovery rate decreased. In the acid-aggregated group, it was considered that the carotene-protein complex in the unbroken cells leaked from the filter paper without acid-aggregation, and the recovery rate was reduced.

In the enzyme reaction group, since the fiber component constituting the cell wall component was decomposed, aggregation of the carotene-protein complex became remarkable, and it was considered that the leakage from the filter paper was relatively reduced. In addition, in the enzyme reaction zone, the decomposition and solubilization of pectin and other fibers proceeded, and it was presumed that carotene was efficiently extracted in the final organic solvent extraction step.

In the examples, carrot was used as a raw material. However, since carotene in a plant is considered to form a complex with a protein in the same manner, the raw material was changed to another plant. It is considered that the same effect can be obtained.

[0034]

According to the present invention, carotene in a plant can be extracted without leaving it, and carotene can be extracted at a high recovery rate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an extraction process diagram of one embodiment of a natural carotene extraction method according to the present invention.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for extracting carotene by crushing a carotene-containing plant, extracting carotene with an organic solvent, and distilling off the organic solvent from the extract to extract carotene; An aggregation step of aggregating a protein complex, an enzyme treatment step of reacting a plant tissue-disintegrating enzyme with the crushed plant, and dewatering the crushed matter after the completion of the aggregation step and the enzyme treatment step to dry a residue. A method of extracting carotene from a dried product obtained through a dehydration and drying step, using an organic solvent. 2. The method for extracting natural carotene according to claim 1, wherein the aggregation step is performed by acid aggregation or heat aggregation of a carotene-protein complex. 3. The method for extracting natural carotene according to claim 1, further comprising a heating step of inactivating a plant-derived enzyme or killing bacteria before the enzymatic treatment step. 4. The method for extracting natural carotene according to claim 2, wherein the coagulation step by heating also serves as a heating step of inactivating the plant-derived enzyme or killing bacteria. .