KR100977113B1 - Method of producing a dry earthworm powder - Google Patents

Abstract

In the present invention, after leaving the earthworms in a bright place for 10 to 50 hours, the dirt attached to the body is removed, and then contacted with an organic acid, followed by rapid dilution with water to adjust the pH to 2-5. After holding for 3 to 180 minutes under conditions, washing with water, and then grinding it, and freezing the ground material at -18 ° C to -35 ° C for 20 to 240 hours, then lyophilizing under vacuum and simultaneously degassing the earthworm In a living body, the digestion remaining in the digestive tract is excreted without lowering the physical strength of the earthworm and efficiently removing the dirt attached to the body, thereby producing dry powder of the earthworm without deteriorating useful pharmacological effects. It is.

Description

Manufacturing method of earthworm dry powder {METHOD OF PRODUCING A DRY EARTHWORM POWDER}

The present invention relates to a method for producing an earthworm dry powder effective for the treatment of various diseases by removing the dirt attached to the body in the digestive tract without lowering the pharmacological action of the earthworm.

Earthworms have been used by whales as a preventive and therapeutic agent for various diseases, mainly in the Oriental Empire. Until now, stone bladder reduction and discharge accelerators, jaundice therapies, labor accelerators, tonics, hair growth agents, tonics and antipyretic drugs It is known to use, such as spasm treatment, blood circulation promoting agent, semi-involuntary treatment, indirect analgesic, urination, bronchial asthma, and hypertension.

However, in order to prepare a medicament for oral administration of the earthworm as a raw material, it is necessary to remove the digestion remaining in the digestive tract of the earthworm, the dirt attached to the body, and so far, many methods for removing the dirt have been proposed. It is becoming.

For example, the earthworm body is immersed in an aqueous solution of an alkali salt such as sodium salt or potassium salt to excrete soil in the digestive tract, and then wet pulverized, and the resulting suspension is vacuum lyophilized to treat diabetes, antihyperlipidemic or blood pressure control agent. How to prepare useful earthworm dry powders (JP1-47718A, JP1-47719A, JP1-47720A and JP1-268639A), earthworms in the digestive tract by immersing earthworm in 0.1 ~ 5 hours in an aqueous solution maintained at 6 ~ 26 ℃ A method of producing a thrombosis patient therapeutic drug (JP3-72427A) and the like have been proposed until now, after grinding, grinding, removing the gas, and drying the vacuum while gradually raising the temperature.

However, when the earthworm body is immersed in an alkaline salt solution or an acid solution for a long time, the physical strength of the earthworm is lowered, and as a result, the protein contained in the body is denatured and the enzymatic action is lowered. Thus, the pharmacological effect of the earthworm powder obtained is deteriorated. do.

According to the present invention, the earthworms are dried in a state of maintaining the excellent pharmacological action by efficiently discharging dirt and dirt adhered to the body of the digestive tract and the body of the earthworm body without reducing the physical strength of the earthworm. It is an object to provide a method for producing a powder.

The present inventors have conducted extensive studies to effectively excrete the digestion remaining in the digestive tract of the earthworm body, without damaging the physical strength of the earthworm. When it comes into contact with an earthworm, an unfavorable environment appears in the earthworm, and when the earthworm is grown for a predetermined time under this condition, the earthworm tries to acclimate to the environment, excretes the digestive tract in the digestive tract, and covers the whole body with the excreta. When the attached dirt, ie, feces, was removed, it was found to produce a living body from which impurities were removed, and based on this knowledge, the present invention was completed.

That is, according to the present invention, after leaving the earthworm in a bright place for 10 to 50 hours, the dirt attached to the body is adsorbed and removed by nonwoven fabric, then contacted with an organic acid, rapidly diluted with water, and adjusted to pH 2-5, After holding for 3 to 180 minutes under these conditions, washing with water, followed by crushing it, freezing the ground product at -18 ° C to -35 ° C for 20 to 240 hours, lyophilizing under vacuum, and degassing at the same time It is to provide a method for producing an earthworm dry powder characterized by.

Next, the method of the present invention will be described in detail.

In the method of the present invention, a live earthworm is used as a raw material, but as the live earthworm, for example, a red earthworm (scientific name: Lumbricus rubellus), a dew earthworm (scientific name: Lumbricus tetrilis, Lumbricus) terrestris), worms (Esinnia foetida), brown-fishing earthworms (Allolobophora caliginosa), Dendrobaena octaedra, allobophora japonica mishaelel ( Allolobophora japonica Michaelsen, Drawida hattamimizu Hatai, Peritima divergens Michaelsen, Pertima communissima, Pertima agrestis, Perri Pheretima sieboldi Horst, Pheretima hilgendorfi, Pontodrilus matsushimensis liz uka), tobipex hattai Nomura, worms (Limnodrilus gotoi Hatai = L.Socialis Stephenson), etc., which are generally belonging to the ring-shaped animal gates commonly referred to as earthworms. It can select arbitrarily and can use from.

In the method of the present invention, first, the earthworm is allowed to stand for a long time in a bright place. That is, the live earthworms collected from the farm floor are transferred to a shallow box such as a tray, and kept bright for 10 to 50 hours under sunlight or at night under a lamp light. At this time, the capacity in the shallow box is 30 to 60 mm, preferably 40 to 50 mm. Since earthworms are nocturnal, if they are left in such bright places, they show their self-defense instincts and cover their skin with dirt attached to block light or prevent evaporation of water. Repeat this several times, at the end of the intestine to excrete solids or fluids in the intestines to cover the body. And in the meantime, in the shallow box, while many live earthworms are stacked on top of each other, they each touch each other, because each acts to hide under the body of another earthworm to secure a dark place, and is in contact with each other by friction. The dirt or feces that cover are rubbed off and fall off. For example, when the raw earthworm is covered with a nonwoven fabric or the like, the dirt and excretion that has been peeled off and peeled off are adsorbed on these, and can be easily removed without force.

In the method of the present invention, after washing the earthworms from which dirt and excreta are removed in this manner, the earthworms are contacted with an organic acid to rapidly create an unpleasant environment in the earthworms. The contact with the organic acid may be sprinkled with the organic acid powder as it is on the earthworm, or treated with a rich organic acid aqueous solution and poured over.

Examples of the organic acid used at this time include acetic acid, malic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, malonic acid and succinic acid. These may be used independently, and may mix and use 2 or more types. Particularly preferred organic acid is citric acid

In this case, if the earthworm is brought into contact with the organic acid powder or the rich organic acid solution for a long time, it is killed or loses the living function, so that the digestion in the digestive tract is not excreted. Within 30 seconds, preferably within 20 seconds, the organic acid needs to be diluted with water and the pH adjusted in the range of 2-5. Dilution with this water needs to be carried out quickly. If the time is prolonged, the earthworm will die, so be careful.

As described above, in the method of the present invention, the sterilizing effect of the organic acid is used, and once the live earthworm is sterilized, it is sterilized again by freeze vacuum drying, whereby the sterilizing effect can be more surely obtained.

As described above, in the method of the present invention, the living earthworms have a self-preservation instinct by causing the living earthworms to quickly become unpleasant after leaving them in a living environment that is difficult to act in a nocturnal earthworm, that is, in a bright place. By releasing solids and body fluids such as waste and excreta, it improves the living environment and automatically cleanses them.

Since organic acids have bactericidal properties, in the method of the present invention, organic acids can be used to fulfill the role of excretion of digests remaining in the digester as described above, and can kill various germs that cannot be removed by washing with water.

The presence of water is required for this function of the body, but since 65% of the tissues of the earthworm are moisture, there is a little time for this body to function, but if the earthworm dies, there is no Therefore, it is necessary to exercise control of the time that the live earthworm is left under a living environment that promotes discomfort. Although this time depends on conditions, it is the range of 3 to 180 minutes normally.

In this way, by leaving the earthworm in a living environment that promotes discomfort by contacting with an organic acid, not only the digestion remaining in the digestive tract, but also body fluids containing ammonia that causes odor and arsenic toxic to the human body are excreted. Ammonia is almost removed.

In the past, ammonia was not removed because the washed raw earthworms were frozen as it was frozen. As ammonia was removed in a subsequent freeze vacuum drying process, the ammonia was not sufficiently removed. It was difficult. In addition, since ammonia is removed in the freeze-vacuum drying step, the apparatus in this step is likely to be damaged, and it is necessary not only to perform complicated repairs, but also to increase maintenance costs and avoid disadvantageous costs. Could not. In addition, the ammonia content of the live earthworm fluctuates seasonally, and if any residue remains, it causes gastritis, and thus, there is a problem that quality control of the product is difficult. Is removed, and since the remaining amount is completely removed by freeze vacuum drying, there is an advantage that a product of uniform quality can be obtained.

Next, the earthworm body which completely removes the dirt substantially in this way is washed with pure water, and then pulverized to obtain a liquid or paste-like grinding material. This grinding | pulverization is performed at the temperature of 1-25 degreeC normally, preferably 2-15 degreeC using a homogenizer, a mixer, a homomixer, a brain trajectory, and a pressurized cell disruption apparatus, for example. Next, this grinding material is housed in a stainless steel product tray and dried, but at this time, the enzyme contained in the earthworm body does not act on living cells but acts instantaneously on dead cells, causing heat to decay, and strongly decaying. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to use freeze vacuum drying which can quickly reach a temperature of -18 ° C to -35 ° C and can suppress the action of the enzyme in order to generate gas.

As described above, in order to powder the earthworms without impairing the original pharmacological action, it is necessary to freeze them quickly, but on the other hand, if frozen in a short time, impurities present with the protein, which is the main component of the earthworm paste, are spot-shaped freezing portions. Excessively rapid freezing is undesirable because it does not form and separates. Therefore, freezing is preferably carried out at a low temperature of -18 ° C to -35 ° C for 20 to 240 hours, preferably 50 to 170 hours.

Next, during freeze vacuum drying, it is important to select conditions that can remove impurities as well as water. For this purpose, it is advantageous to carry out the control in the range of 10 to 60 hours at a temperature of −60 ° C. to + 90 ° C. under a pressure of 50 Pa or less while gradually raising the temperature.

For example, as described above, after freezing the ground product at a temperature of -18 ° C to -35 ° C for 20 to 240 hours, the temperature is between -60 ° C to + 90 ° C and a pressure of 4 Aseptically pale yellow earthworm dry powder can be obtained by freeze vacuum drying for 10 to 60 hours while dividing and changing in several steps between -80 Pa. At this time, degassing is performed by vacuum suction.

In the method of the present invention, by selecting the drying conditions in this way, it is possible to remarkably shorten what conventionally required 100 hours or more for freeze drying.

The earthworm dry powder thus obtained varies slightly depending on the type of earthworm, the collection place and the harvesting time, but in 100 g of powder, arginine 70 to 120 mg, lysine 110 to 150 mg, histidine 35 to 60 mg, phenylalanine 55 to 80 mg, tyrosine 50 ~ 75mg, leucine 100-150mg, isoleucine 60-90mg, methionine 25-40mg, varin 70-105mg, alanine 85-135mg, glycine 75-105mg, proline 60-85mg, glutamic acid 210-300mg, serine 80-110mg, thre It contains 75 to 110 mg of onin, 150 to 220 mg of aspartic acid, 15 to 30 mg of tryptophan and 20 to 35 mg of cystine.

According to the method of the present invention, low-arsenic-containing high-quality earthworms can remove dirt and excreta using the action of the live earthworm itself without any artificial work, and do not contain bacteria and have no odor such as ammonia odor. Dry powder can be obtained. In addition, the dry powder of the earthworm obtained by the method of the present invention, compared with the conventional method, contains an enzyme having a titer of about 1.2 to 1.5 times higher and exhibits an effect of greater permeability to cells. .

Next, the best mode for implementing this invention by an Example is demonstrated.

Example 1

3 kg of raw red earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus) are placed in a shallow box, lined up to a thickness of about 5 cm, kept for 24 hours under fluorescent light irradiation, covered with a nonwoven fabric over the live earthworms, and the filth and feces separated on the skin It was adsorbed on and removed and washed with water. Next, 250 g of citric acid powder was sprinkled uniformly, and after 15 seconds passed, 30 liters of pure water was added and diluted. The pH immediately after addition of water was 2.25, and the pH when completely diluted was 2.74.

Next, when the earthworm immersed in this diluted citric acid is left for 60 minutes at 20 ° C., the earthworm tries to alleviate the unpleasant living environment in itself, and the body fluid is excreted together with the digestion in the digestive tract, causing the odor. Exposed ammonia and arsenic harmful to the human body were also excreted.

Conventionally, since it was necessary to immerse it in the citric acid aqueous solution of pH3-6.5 for at least 1 hour, the earthworm was weakened and there was much loss, but as a result of quick contact with a high concentration of citric acid, the earthworm is not weakened, Removal of ammonia can also be carried out almost completely.

Next, raw earthworms were picked out from the contaminated aqueous citric acid solution and washed with water, and then ground at 10 ° C using a homogenizer to prepare earthworm paste. Next, the earthworm paste was transferred to a stainless steel product tray, quenched to -30 ° C instantaneously, held at this temperature for 50 hours, and slowly frozen.

Thus, the frozen earthworm paste was gradually reduced in pressure from −35 ° C. to 50 Pa, and maintained for 3 hours. After that, the temperature was raised to 20 ° C., and the temperature was increased to 40 Pa for 12 hours, followed by 40 ° C., for 25 hours at 35 Pa. Finally, the temperature was raised to 80 ° C. and freeze vacuum drying was performed by maintaining the pressure at 20 Pa for 5 hours. This treatment yielded a pale yellow earthworm dry powder having a water content of 8% by mass. The amino acid content of the dry powder thus obtained is shown in Table 1.

Example 2

Instead of 30 kg of red earthworms in Example 1, 30 kg of dewworms (Lumbricus terrestris) were used, and were treated in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a pale yellow earthworm dry powder. The amino acid content of the dry powder thus obtained is shown in Table 1.

Content unit of amino acid mg / 1OOg Yes Example 1 Example 2 Arginine 114 72.5 Lysine 148 128 Histidine 55 40 Phenylalanine 77 62.5 Tyrosine 73 57 Leucine 145 119.5 Isoleucine 87 74 Methionine 35 33 Varin 104 89 Alanine 131 98 Glycine 103 82.5 Prorin 83 65.5 Glutamic acid 296 245.5 Serine 105 87 Threonine 104 81.5 Aspartic acid 212 167 Trift Edition 28 20 Cystine 32 21.5

Example 3

Instead of 250 g of citric acid in Example 1, 160 g of malic acid was used, and the treatment was carried out in exactly the same manner as in Example 1, whereby a dark yellow earthworm dried powder having a composition substantially similar to that obtained in Example 1 was obtained.

Reference Example

The earthworm dry powder obtained in Example 1 was processed according to the method described in the Example of JP2716472B, and a purified protease was prepared.

Purified human tissue plusminogen (O.05CU, manufactured by KABIAB) was added thereto and reacted with 0.5 µg of this purified protease, and the plusmin activity after the reaction was measured. Next, the plusmin hydrolysis activity was determined from the difference in activity between the addition of the purified protease and the absence of the addition of the purified protease, which was 0.145 nmol / min. For comparison, plusmin hydrolysis activity was determined using the purified protease prepared from the earthworm dry powder obtained by the conventional method used in the above patent publication, which was 0.112 nmol / min, and the earthworm dried produced by the method of the present invention. Enzyme activity derived from the powder was found to be about 1.3 times higher.

According to the method of the present invention, low-arsenic-containing high-quality earthworms can remove dirt and excreta using the action of the live earthworm itself without any artificial work, and do not contain bacteria and have no odor such as ammonia odor. Dry powder can be obtained. In addition, the dry powder of the earthworm obtained by the method of the present invention, compared with the conventional method, contains an enzyme having a titer of about 1.2 to 1.5 times higher and exhibits an effect of greater permeability to cells. .

The earthworm dry powder produced by the method of the present invention, like the earthworm dry powder prepared by the conventional method, is useful as a blood pressure regulator, antihyperlipidemic agent, diabetes treatment agent, thrombolytic agent and the like. By separating the active ingredient from the earthworm dry powder, it may be used for applications such as whitening agent, anti-wrinkle agent, eczema treatment drug, athlete's foot medicine.

Claims (2)

After leaving the earthworms in a bright place for 10 to 50 hours, the dirt attached to the body is removed, and then contacted with an organic acid, and then rapidly diluted with water to adjust the pH to 2-5, under these conditions 3 ~ It is kept for 18O minutes, washed with water, and then crushed, and the crushed product is frozen at -18 ° C to -35 ° C for 20 to 240 hours, and then lyophilized under vacuum and degassed at the same time. Method for preparing the powder. The method of claim 1, The organic acid is at least one selected from acetic acid, malic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, malonic acid and succinic acid.