JPS6148917B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing chlorella, and more particularly to a method for producing chlorella with a high content of divalent iron.

As is well known, chlorella contains abundant proteins, vitamins, minerals, etc., and is considered to be a promising food from a nutritional standpoint. In particular, the iron content in chlorella is
It is known to be effective in the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency anemia because it has a high content of 160 to 250 mg per 100 g compared to other foods.

By the way, the iron contained in foods includes divalent iron, which is easily absorbed by the body and is called effective iron, and trivalent iron, which is difficult to absorb by the body. The more iron is absorbed, the more effectively iron is absorbed. The case of chlorella mentioned above is no exception; divalent iron generally accounts for 40-50% of the iron content, and trivalent iron accounts for 50-50%.
60%, so even though it has a higher iron content than other foods, the reality is that when chlorella is ingested, more than half of the iron is not effectively absorbed and is excreted.

As a result of intensive research to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present inventor found that 5% of the vitamin C contained in the Chlorella algae during Chlorella culture.
By adding ~10 times the amount of vitamin C, 3
It was found that chlorella with a high proportion of effective iron in the iron content in which valent iron was reduced to divalent iron was obtained. However, simply adding vitamin C during chlorella culture did not increase the effective iron content in the harvested chlorella.

Therefore, as a result of further research based on the above findings, the present inventors found that by adding vitamin C just before the end of Chlorella culture, and then continuing the culture for several tens of hours to several hours and harvesting, Trivalent iron in the iron content is reduced and converted to divalent effective iron within the time period from to harvest, and the divalent effective iron can be harvested without being oxidized to trivalent iron. We have discovered a method for producing chlorella, which has an extremely high proportion of divalent effective iron in its iron content and is extremely useful for the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency anemia.
Furthermore, the addition of vitamin C is also effective in preventing the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in chlorella, making it possible to produce chlorella having high quality unsaturated fatty acids.

That is, in the present invention, just before the end of chlorella culture, vitamin C is added to the algae in the chlorella culture solution at a rate of 0.2
It is characterized by adding more than % by weight.

In the present invention, the time immediately before the end of chlorella culture, which is the point of addition of vitamin C, means 30 minutes to 2 hours before the time of harvesting chlorella. This is because if vitamin C is added too close to the time of harvest (less than 30 minutes before harvest), the reduction of trivalent iron by vitamin C cannot be performed effectively, and the ratio of available iron to divalent iron is high. It becomes difficult to obtain chlorella. However, if the time of addition of vitamin C is too long from the time of harvest (more than 2 hours before harvest),
The divalent effective iron, once reduced by vitamin C, returns to trivalent iron due to the oxidation process that occurs following photosynthesis of chlorella, and chlorella, which has a high proportion of divalent effective iron, becomes difficult to obtain.

In the present invention, the reason why the amount of vitamin C added during Chlorella culture was limited to the above range is that if the amount of vitamin C is less than 0.2% by weight based on the Chlorella algae, the reduction of trivalent iron in the iron content is reduced. This is because it cannot be carried out effectively and it becomes impossible to obtain chlorella with a high proportion of divalent effective iron. In addition, vitamin C does not increase the reducing effect even if added to the chlorella culture solution indiscriminately, and excessive addition of vitamin C leads to acidification of the PH of the culture solution and a rise in price. 0.2 to algae
It is desirable to add 0.5% by weight.

Next, examples of the present invention will be explained.
After culturing the Chlorella strain for 3 days in a fine culture solution of All algal bodies were harvested. Thereafter, the harvested Chlorella algae bodies were centrifuged and spray dried to obtain Chlorella.

Comparative Example After culturing the Chlorella strain for 3 days in the same manner as in the above example,
Chlorella was harvested without adding vitamin C, centrifuged and spray dried.

Therefore, the proportions of divalent iron and trivalent iron in the iron content in the chlorella of the present example and comparative example were investigated. As a result, in the case of the comparative example, divalent iron was 50%,
The proportion of trivalent iron was 50% and the proportion of effective iron was half. On the other hand, in the case of the example, the divalent iron content is 85
%, and trivalent iron accounted for 15%, indicating that the proportion of effective iron was extremely high. In fact, when the same amount of chlorella obtained in the example and the chlorella obtained in the comparative example were ingested by people with iron deficiency anemia, the chlorella obtained in the example and the chlorella obtained in the comparative example were It was found that the treatment effect for iron deficiency anemia was significantly improved.

As detailed above, according to the present invention, by adding a predetermined amount of vitamin C just before the end of chlorella culture, the ratio of divalent effective iron is 80 to 90% compared to conventional chlorella. The present invention provides a method for producing chlorella, which has extremely high and high quality unsaturated fatty acids and is extremely useful for the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency anemia.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for producing chlorella, which comprises adding 0.2% by weight or more of vitamin C to the algae into a chlorella culture solution immediately before the end of chlorella culture.