JPH11299450A - Algal pigment material and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an algal pigment material with excellent color-tone and thermal stability, useful in foods or the like by evaporating to dryness an aqueous solution essentially containing algal pigment(s) and trehalose so as to suppress color value depression and improve the eventual yield. SOLUTION: This algal pigment material is obtained by evaporating to dryness an aqueous solution essentially containing trehalose and algal pigment(s) such as phycocyanin, phycoerythrin or an algal pigment consisting mainly thereof; wherein the amount of the trehalose to be used is pref. >=10 wt.% based on the algal pigment(s). The algal pigment material has broad applicability, being used pref. as a colorant for foods such as ice cream.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an algal material which is particularly useful in the field of food, has high safety, and is excellent in heat stability, storage stability and solubility, and a method for producing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are a wide variety of red dyes, yellow dyes and blue dyes as food dyes. In recent years, however, synthetic colorants have been questioned due to problems such as carcinogenicity, and are considered to be more safe. Expectations for natural pigments are growing.
However, natural pigments have advantages and disadvantages in physical properties, and in particular, at present, there are few red and blue pigments with clear color tones.

[0003] Among them, the algal pigment phycocyanin is a bright blue pigment, and phycoerythrin is a bright red pigment. Since these algal pigments are protein-bound pigments, they have particularly poor heat stability and their usable range is narrow.
Further, also in the pigment production process, there was a problem such as deterioration of the pigment in the heat sterilization step.

[0004] In general, lactose is used as a color value (1% E: absorbance per 1% solids concentration) regulator for adjusting the pigment concentration of a colorant. Although it is convenient in terms of improving storage stability, the solubility in water is low, the freeze-dried pigment powder is inferior in uniformity, and there is no improvement effect on the thermal stability of the pigment. In particular, a decrease in the yield was observed in the dye production step, and it was difficult to introduce a more rational drying method such as spray drying.

[0005] On the other hand, trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide in which two molecules of glucose are bound, and is a carbohydrate widely existing in nature such as plants and microorganisms. Recently, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9 (1999) discloses a method for producing a surimi using trehalose.
JP-A-135927, JP-A-7-194378 concerning a method for stabilizing an enzyme, and JP-A-7-327039 about an egg white hardening inhibitor are reported. However, it has not been reported that trehalose is effective for stabilizing natural pigments, particularly algal pigments.

[0006]

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide algae pigments with thermal stability, thereby expanding the application range thereof, increasing the pigment recovery rate in the production process and drying the pigments. Is to enable the rationalization of

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems As a result of intensive studies, the present inventors have found that by using trehalose instead of lactose which has been conventionally used, heat stability can be imparted to algal pigments in an aqueous solution. And found that the present invention was completed.

That is, the present invention provides (a) a method for producing an algal color material, which comprises drying an aqueous solution containing an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components; and (ii) the algal pigment is phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, or The method for producing an algae color material according to (a), wherein

(C) The method for producing an algal pigment according to (a) or (b), wherein the amount of trehalose is at least 10% by weight based on the amount of algal pigment. It contains an algal color material produced by the production method according to any one of (a) to (c) and containing an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The algal pigment referred to in the present invention is a pigment obtained from natural algae, for example, blue phycocyanin, red phycoerythrin derived from cyanobacteria or red algae, or a mixture containing these as a main component. Algal pigments may be mentioned. Cyanobacteria include algae such as Spirulina, Synechocystis, Afanoteke (Suizenji Nori), Anabena, Nostok, Juremo, Ringbia, and Fischerella, and red algae include Porphyra (Asakusanori), Loriciphonia, and Carpoportis. Although algae such as genus are exemplified, algae such as genus Spirulina and Porphyra which are currently edible and industrially mass-produced are suitably used as the algal pigment source according to the present invention.

On the other hand, trehalose used in the present invention comprises trehalose consisting of α, α-1,1 bonds of two molecules of glucose, neotrehalose consisting of the same α, β-1,1 bonds, and β, β- Any of isotrehalose consisting of 1,1 bonds may be used, and these may be used in combination. Its existence has been confirmed in many things such as mushrooms, baker's yeast, seaweeds and shrimp, and it is one of the carbohydrates that humans have long been a food.

The aqueous solution containing the algal pigment and trehalose as essential components of the present invention is an aqueous solution containing the algal pigment and trehalose as essential components. The aqueous solution contains, in addition to the algal pigment and trehalose, Organic solvents miscible with a small amount of water, for example, alcohols and the like, as a pH adjuster useful for stabilizing the dye, for example, salts such as citrate and phosphate, and do not inhibit the effect as an edible dye A range of known and customary additives may be included.

For drying an aqueous solution containing an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components, a known and commonly used drying method can be used. However, for the purpose of preventing thermal deterioration of the pigment, for example, freeze drying, drying under reduced pressure, and heating for a long time are preferred. It is preferred to use short spray drying. Furthermore, the algae color material after drying, if necessary,
In particular, when used for food applications, it is particularly preferable to perform dry heat sterilization at 100 ° C. or higher. This is because when the algal pigment is sterilized at high temperature in the presence of water, the pigment is thermally degraded by hydrolysis.

Next, an example of the method for producing an algal color material of the present invention will be specifically described. For example, a phycocyanin-containing aqueous solution (phycocyanin content 1) obtained by extracting phycocyanin which is a blue pigment from spirulina of cyanobacteria and subjecting to ultrafiltration treatment
0% by weight), the pH is adjusted to 6-7 by addition of sodium citrate and then 30% by weight of phycocyanin.
Add trehalose by weight and stir to dissolve. Next, this solution was dried with a vacuum freeze dryer, and the powder obtained by pulverization was directly or, if necessary, at 105 ° C.
And sterilize by dry heat for about 7 hours.

At this time, the amount of trehalose to be added is determined by the color value of the algal material to be produced. The amount of trehalose to be added is preferably at least 10% by weight, more preferably at least 10% by weight, based on the weight of the algal pigment. Is 20% by weight or more. There is no particular upper limit to the amount of trehalose to be added, but the dye concentration is diluted by the amount of trehalose to be added, and the color value is reduced.If a large amount of trehalose is contained, it may not be preferable depending on the intended use. 10% to 400% by weight, preferably 10% to 3% by weight
00%, more preferably 20% to 200% by weight.

When conventional lactose is used in the above-mentioned phycocyanin-containing aqueous solution in the same amount as trehalose in place of trehalose, the solubility of lactose in water is low. Further, for example, lactose precipitates during the post-process, which causes poor color uniformity of the color material obtained by drying.

Further, as for the color value after dry heat sterilization, if the present invention using trehalose is assumed to be 100, the color value of the conventional product using lactose is at most 87, and the heat stability is improved by trehalose. The drying method can employ a more efficient spray drying method other than the vacuum freeze drying method.
The same tendency is also observed for phycoerythrin.

Many of the algal coloring materials of the present invention containing an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components are used as they are in a powder form, and the powdery algal coloring material is sterilized with water or a mixed solution of ethanol / water. Alternatively, it can be dissolved in a glycerin / water mixed solution and used as a liquid color material.

The algae-colored material obtained by the present invention has a higher solubility of trehalose than lactose in the range of application of the conventional algae-colored material (ice confectionery, ice cream, chewing gum, wasabi, sugar-coated confectionery, etc.) The solubility in water is improved, and a higher concentration aqueous dye solution can be used, so that the workability of food production is improved. Further, since heat stability is imparted, it can be used for foods requiring heat resistance, such as hard candy and jellies.

[0020]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below with reference to examples and comparative examples, but this is merely one embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to these examples.

(Examples 1 and 2, Comparative Examples 1 and 2) 450 g of spirulina blue dye aqueous solution (Example 1 and Comparative Example 1: 10.34% by weight of solid content, E618 (absorbance at 618 nm) = 188, Example 2 Comparative Example 2: Lactose in the Comparative Example and trehalose in the Example were added in predetermined amounts shown in Table 1, respectively, while stirring the solid content of 8.11% by weight, E618 = 209), and further, trisodium citrate ( Example 1 and Comparative Example 1: 10.9 g, Example 2
And Comparative Example 2: 12.1 g) and freeze-dried in vacuo. The dried product was pulverized and sterilized by dry heat at 105 ° C. for 7 hours, and then the color value and color tone (brightness, chroma) were measured.
Table 1 shows the results.

[0022]

[Table 1]

The 1% E618 in the table is 618 n of a 1% solution.
The absorbance at m is shown. As is clear from the table, when the color value was adjusted to 7.0 using lactose, the color value after dry heat sterilization was significantly lower than the target color value (7.0) (5.9).
On the other hand, when trehalose was used, the decrease was suppressed (6.8 to 6.9), and clear superiority was recognized. In addition, similar or better results were obtained in terms of color tone.

(Examples 3 to 7, and Comparative Example 3) The effects of the adjusted color values of 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 on the color values before and after dry heat sterilization were examined (trehalose). Effect of the amount added). That is, 200 g of a spirulina blue pigment aqueous solution (solid content: 12.59% by weight, E618 = 22
9, color value: 18.19), 9% by weight of the final solid content
(Color value: 7, 9) or 5% by weight (color value: 11, 1)
(3, 15) sodium citrate is added and dissolved,
Further, a calculated amount of trehalose was added and dissolved. This solution was freeze-dried in a vacuum and the color value (before sterilization) was measured. This powder was subjected to dry heat sterilization at 105 ° C. for about 7 hours, and the color value (after sterilization) was measured. Table 2 shows the results.

[0025]

[Table 2]

As a result, in Comparative Example 3 in which lactose was used as a color value adjusting agent instead of trehalose (adjusted color value: 7, lactose added amount: 52.5% by weight), the color value before dry heat sterilization was improved. Assuming 100%, the color value was reduced to 93%, whereas when the trehalose of the present invention was used, the same or higher color value was exhibited when the added amount was 10% by weight or more. However, the range in which the color value is not reduced at all is 20% by weight.
The addition of trehalose is preferred.

[0027]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION By imparting heat stability to algal pigments, it is possible to suppress a decrease in color value during dry heat sterilization caused by a conventional color value adjusting agent, to improve the yield of a color material, and to improve the color tone.
It is possible to provide an algae-colored material having excellent heat stability that can improve workability during dissolution and a method for producing the same.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for producing an algal color material, comprising drying an aqueous solution containing an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components. 2. The method for producing an algal color material according to claim 1, wherein the algal pigment is phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, or an algal pigment containing these as a main component. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the amount of trehalose is at least 10% by weight based on the amount of algal pigment.
2. The method for producing an algal pigment according to item 1. 4. An algal color material produced by the production method according to claim 1 and comprising an algal pigment and trehalose as essential components.