KR102572447B1 - Method for Manufacturing Reusable Cotton Tea Bag - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cotton tea bag that is harmless to the human body, recyclable, and can be brewed several times.
According to the present invention, reusable cotton tea bags can be easily manufactured at low cost, are harmless to the human body and the environment, can fully incorporate tea ingredients into tea water, and do not cause discoloration or yellowing even after repeated use of cotton tea bags. There is no objection to reuse.

Description

Manufacturing method of reusable cotton tea bag {Method for Manufacturing Reusable Cotton Tea Bag}

The present invention relates to a cotton tea bag that is harmless to the human body, recyclable, and can be brewed several times.

In general, tea refers to tea leaves or beverages made by decocting or brewing them in a narrow sense, and refers to tea raw materials such as leaves, stems, roots, fruits, flowers, etc. of plants or a favorite drink using them in a broad sense.

These teas have recently been attracting attention as a health drink because they contain ingredients beneficial to the human body along with their unique flavor. Tea ceremony (茶道) is also recommended as one of the methods of healing.

However, since it is not easy for busy modern people to formally enjoy tea using ceramic teaware, tea products in the form of tea bags have recently gained much popularity.

In general, a tea bag is one in which a predetermined amount of tea raw material in the form of particles is sealed in a disposable bag made of filter paper, and the tea bag is put into an appropriate amount of water (hot or cold water) and the tea raw material inside is sufficiently brewed in water for convenience. You can drink tea.

For the conventional tea bag, a pouch-shaped tea bag filled with tea raw materials is most commonly used, and a filter paper made of paper (pulp), tea stored inside the filter paper, a thread connected to one side of the filter paper, and a handle made of paper connected to the end of the thread are used. It consists of a wrapping paper that surrounds it.

However, in order to prevent paper tea bags from tearing when wet, they are used by thinly coating with plastic, and polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) is widely used as the plastic coated on the tea bags. It is reported to the academic world that up to 100 million pieces of microplastics and 3.1 billion pieces of nanoplastics are released, which is a problem of high concern for human health.

In order to solve this problem, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2021-0011763 proposed a recycled tea bag made of cotton. It consists of a connecting line connecting the water bottle and a hook that can be mounted on a water bottle. The body of the tea bag is made of cotton so that it can be brewed several times, and it is not coated with plastic to prevent harm to human health.

However, since the above invention is equipped with a zipper pack, the manufacturing cost is high, and the cotton material is highly absorbent, so that the tea water inside the tea bag body escapes outside the tea bag body and is absorbed a lot by the cotton material. There are downsides.

In addition, most tea materials are colored, so even if the cotton tea bag body is colored with the tea color and washed, the tea color remains on the tea bag body, giving a visually unclean feeling. There is a disadvantage in reluctance to reuse a car having a different color from the color.

In addition, Korean Patent Registration No. 1233310 proposes an eco-friendly tea bag made of polylactic acid (PLA) material, and polylactic acid has an effect harmless to the human body because it is an eco-friendly and non-toxic polymer having biodegradability.

However, polylactic acid is weak against heat, so if you put a tea bag made of polylactic acid in hot water, the tea bag becomes soft and loses its shape, and the polylactic acid dissolves and can block the microscopic passage through which the water in which the contents are brewed escapes to the outside of the tea bag. Polylactic acid melts and the contents may leak to the outside, so there is a limit to discarding after one use in low temperature water.

The present invention is to solve the above problem, to provide a method for manufacturing a cotton tea bag to be used repeatedly at a low cost.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention comprises the steps of cutting a fabric of cotton material; Folding the lower part 2 of the cut fabric 1 in an upward direction to form a non-overlapping portion 3 of the fabric 1 on a portion of the upper portion; folding the upper non-overlapping fabric portion (3) over the lower (2) folded fabric portion; Overlocking the left and right edges of the folded fabric and extending one side of the backstitch thread from the end so that the thread hangs down from the fabric 1; immersing the fabric (1) treated with the overlock (4) in milk, taking it out, putting it in calcium chloride-added vinegar, boiling it, cooling it to room temperature, washing it with water, and drying it; immersing the dried fabric (1) in citrus juice, heating to 80 to 100 ° C, and then drying; And attaching a label (7) to the end of the thread extending from the fabric (1); provides a method for manufacturing a reusable cotton tea bag, including.

delete

At this time, it is more preferable that the citrus fruit is tangerine, lemon or lime, and the juice of the citrus fruit has a pH of 4 to 6.

delete

According to the present invention, reusable cotton tea bags can be easily manufactured at low cost, are harmless to the human body and the environment, can fully incorporate tea ingredients into tea water, and do not cause discoloration or yellowing even after repeated use of cotton tea bags. There is no objection to reuse.

1 and 2 are views conceptually showing the manufacturing process of the cotton tea bag according to the present invention, FIG. 1 is a view viewed from above and FIG. 2 is a view viewed from the side.
3 is a photograph showing the appearance of a cotton tea bag prepared by the method of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a reusable tea bag using cotton material, which is manufactured at low cost, can be used repeatedly, and is practical, and can provide a tea bag that is safe from the harm of microplastics by using cotton material. .

Cotton material increases strength when wet, does not weaken easily even after repeated water washing, has excellent heat resistance, does not decompose in boiling water at 100 ℃, and has high chemical resistance and biodegradability, making it safe as a tea bag material for tea. It is an eco-friendly material that is easily decomposed when disposed of.

The cotton tea bag of the present invention folds one sheet of cotton fabric cut to a predetermined size to form a tea bag body, and the overlock operation of stitching the edge to prevent the strands of the cut fabric from unraveling. In the finishing process, it is manufactured by extending the backstitch thread and connecting it with the label. In this way, the backstitch thread of the overlock operation is used as a connection line connecting the teabag body and the label, so that the cotton tea bag can be manufactured simply and at low cost.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show the process of manufacturing the cotton tea bag of the present invention, Figure 1 is a view from above and Figure 2 shows a view from the side.

In step ①, the fabric of cotton material is cut to a predetermined size, and the width of the fabric (1) can be cut according to the width of the tea bag body, or only the length can be cut using the fabric (1) matching the width of the tea bag body. Also, the upper and lower ends of the fabric 1 are overlocked to prevent the fibers from unraveling.

As a material of the fabric 1, cotton fabric, cotton knitted fabric, cotton non-woven fabric, etc. may be used, but it is preferable to use cotton fabric with uniform gaps between cotton yarns.

In step ②, the lower part of the fabric (2) is folded to a length slightly shorter than half of the length of the fabric (1) so that a part of the non-overlapping fabric (1) remains on the upper part of the fabric (1), and in step ③, the non-overlapping portion of the upper part of the fabric is left. Fold (3) over the bottom of the fabric (2) folded in step ②.

In this state, the fabric (1) is overlapped in two layers in a wide area and the fabric (1) is overlapped in three layers in a narrow area. This prevents the thread from unraveling.

At this time, one of the two sides is finished with the overlock (4) treatment at the upper and lower ends, but the other side is the upper or lower end, preferably by extending the backstitch thread from the upper end (empty space treatment) to the tea bag body (6) A connection line 5 connecting the label 7 and the label 7 is formed, and the label 7 is attached to the distal end of the connection line 5 in step ⑤.

In this way, by forming the connection line 5 while completing the overlock 4 work in step ④, the installation work of the connection line 5 connecting the tea bag body 6 and the label 7 can be omitted during tea bag manufacturing, Therefore, it is possible to manufacture cotton tea bags simply and at low cost.

In the cotton tea bag manufactured as described above, a passage 8 through which tea ingredients can be inserted and removed is formed between the lower fabric 2 and the upper fabric 3, so that the tea material is inserted into the tea bag through the passage 8 Since the tea material inside the tea bag can be taken out again through the passage 8 after soaking in water, it can be reused by washing and drying the cotton tea bag after use.

The cotton tea bag is made of cotton material, is harmless to the human body, and is environmentally friendly because it decomposes more quickly than plastic-coated tea bag products when disposed of. Since the installation work can be omitted, the cotton tea bag can be manufactured at a low cost.

Cotton fibers are composed of hydrophilic cellulose polymers and have a hollow cross section in the shape of a broad bean, so they have good heat retention and moisture absorption, and the fiber cross section changes to a circular shape through a mercerising process.

The hollow of cotton fiber is where the protoplasm was filled before the cotton flower bloomed.

Due to this hollowness, when tea ingredients are put inside a cotton tea bag and brewed in water, the water (tea water) with tea ingredients first passes through the cotton tea bag, is absorbed by highly hygroscopic cotton fibers, and then elutes out of the tea bag. There is a disadvantage in that the high concentration of tea water is first absorbed into the hollow of the cotton fiber and the content of the tea component eluted out of the tea bag is reduced.

In addition, since the cotton fibers expand due to moisture absorption, the gap between the cotton threads narrows, so it takes more time for the tea water inside the tea bag to escape to the outside of the tea bag, and even if the cotton tea bag is washed for reuse, the absorbed into the hollow of the fiber The tea water does not come out easily, so it takes a long time to dry, and after drying, the tea water ingredients remain in the hollow, leaving the color and aroma of the tea in the cotton tea bag. There are disadvantages of being mixed.

In order to solve this disadvantage, it is preferable to soak the cotton tea bag processed in step ④ in milk to absorb the milk into the hollow of the cotton fiber, boil it in vinegar, cool it to room temperature, and wash it with water. When immersed in, milk is filled in the hollow cotton fiber of the tea bag, and when it is boiled with vinegar, the casein protein of milk is coagulated by vinegar and heat.

In other words, the negative charge (-) of casein protein combines with the hydrogen (+) of vinegar, and the repulsive force between the negative charges disappears, and they aggregate with each other due to the intermolecular attraction. Since the coagulation rate of casein protein by acid increases as the temperature increases, the casein protein coagulates quickly when the cotton tea bag, milk, and vinegar are boiled as described above.

After heating, cool to room temperature, wash the coagulated casein protein on the surface of the cotton tea bag with water, and then dry it. The coagulated milk casein protein fills the hollow of the cotton fiber of the tea bag. It prevents absorption into the fiber hollows, allowing the tea ingredients to pass completely out of the tea bag.

When tea ingredients are soaked in hot water, some of the coagulated casein protein in the hollow may be dissolved and eluted out of the cotton fiber, but casein protein is harmless to the human body and is not a problem, and the amount of eluted casein protein is absorbed into the cotton fiber by the tea water. If the cotton tea bag is used several times, this effect may be reduced, but since the cotton tea bag is used several times and then discarded, a slight elution is not a problem.

In addition, cotton fabrics have poor shape stability, such as wrinkles and shrinkage during washing and drying, but filling casein protein in the hollows of cotton fibers reduces shrinkage and prevents narrowing of the gaps between cotton yarns when reused. The problem of residual tea flavor and coloration of the tea bag is also eliminated.

Since milk contains about 80% of casein protein and about 20% of whey, the filling rate of casein protein in the hollow of the cotton fiber may be increased by repeating the process of filling the hollow of the cotton fiber with coagulated casein protein.

As a way to further suppress the elution of casein protein during use of the cotton tea bag, it is preferable to boil the cotton tea bag soaked in milk by adding calcium chloride when boiling in vinegar.

The calcium component of calcium chloride combines with casein to form calcium caseinate, and calcium caseinate is a substance used as a natural adhesive due to its strong adhesiveness, so it can be firmly adhered to the hollow of cotton fiber. Calcium chloride is one of the food additives and casein Calcium is also used as a nutrient, so it is harmless to the human body even if it flows into some tea water while using cotton tea bags.

Vinegar uses general vinegar products (total acidity of 5 to 10%) distributed on the market, and calcium chloride can be used in an amount of 5 to 10% by weight of vinegar.

In addition, in order to use the cotton tea bag repeatedly, it must be washed and dried after use, and yellowing is easy to occur during the drying process, and when the cotton tea bag turns yellow, it is visually undesirable and easily discarded.

There are many causes of yellowing of textile products, and most of them are often caused by a combination of various causes, and it is known that light and nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂ ), which is an air pollutant, have the greatest effect.

Nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant, is easily absorbed and adhered to the fabric when it is wet, causing yellowing. This also causes yellowing.

Therefore, a method for suppressing the absorption of nitrogen dioxide when the cotton tea bag is wet and a method for preventing yellowing caused by sunlight during drying are needed. It is preferable to dry it after use.

Citric acid contains citric acid, which lowers the pH of cotton fiber to acidity, and reduces yellowing of cotton fiber by reducing the effect of nitrogen dioxide in acidic pH 4-6. Citric acid is volatile among organic acids. Even if the cotton tea bag is used repeatedly, the residual amount remains in the cotton fiber, which can keep the cotton tea bag acidic for a certain period of time.

Citric acid is contained in tangerines, lemons, and limes, so it is preferable to use them, and the juice of these citrus fruits is used as a sweetener or aromatic agent in food, so it does not damage the taste and aroma of tea.

In addition, cellulosic fibers such as cotton fibers usually increase gloss and dyeability through mercerization, and metal ions of sodium hydroxide used in mercerization are involved in light yellowing of fibers. Light-induced yellowing can be reduced, but since metal ions coordinate with cellulose, a component of cotton fiber, to form a metal complex, it is not easily removed even when cotton tea bags are washed.

Citric acid has three carboxyl groups, and the carboxyl group coordinates with a metal ion to form a chelate. Therefore, when the cotton tea bag treated with citrus juice is washed with water as described above, the chelate is washed away and the metal is removed. Ionic components can be removed from cotton fibers.

When citric acid hydrate is heated at 80-100 ° C., it is converted into an anhydride form, and citric acid anhydride has higher reactivity than hydrate, so it can easily coordinate with metal ions.

As described above, the present invention can easily manufacture a reusable cotton tea bag at low cost, can completely include the components of the tea material in the tea water, and does not cause discoloration or yellowing even after repeated use of the cotton tea bag, and has a tea fragrance. This cotton does not remain in the tea bag, so there is no objection due to the mixed use of tea ingredients.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on the following examples and test examples.

However, the following examples are only for exemplifying the present invention, and the present invention is not limited by the following examples, and can be substituted and replaced by other equivalent examples without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be clear to those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs.

<Example 1>

Cotton fabric was cut to a size of 7 cm in width and 16.5 cm in length, and the top and bottom ends were overlocked, then folded up based on a distance of 7 cm from the lower end, and then folded down based on a distance of 2 cm from the upper end. It was made to be 0.5 cm apart from the fold line.

In this state, the left edge was overlocked, and the right edge was overlocked from the bottom to the top, and the backstitch thread was extended from the top end of the right edge without cutting, and the thread was stretched to a length of 12 cm (empty thread processing). A label was attached to the end of the thread to prepare a cotton tea bag (FIG. 3).

<Example 2>

In Example 1, the empty tea bag was immersed in milk for 1 hour, then taken out, put in a mixed solution of 93% by weight of vinegar (total acidity 6.5%) and 7% by weight of calcium chloride, and boiled for 30 minutes. A cotton tea bag was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1, except that it was cooled, washed with water, dried in the shade, and then labeled.

<Example 3>

In Example 1, the empty tea bag was put in lemon juice of pH 5 and heated at 90 ° C. for 30 minutes, naturally cooled to room temperature, dried in the shade, and then labeled. Cotton tea bags were prepared in the same manner.

<Test Example 1> Dissolution test

Green tea (variety: Ujeon) was put inside the cotton tea bag prepared in Examples 1 to 3 and eluted in drinking water at 60 ° C for 15 minutes to prepare green tea tea, total phenol compound content and theanine of the tea (theanine) content was measured to proceed with the dissolution test of tea water.

The content of total phenolic compounds was measured by the Folin-Denis method. 1 ml of distilled water and 100 μl of phenol reagent were added to 100 μl of tea water, left at room temperature for 6 minutes, and 2 ml of 10% sodium carbonate and 2 ml of distilled water were added and mixed. It was left at room temperature for 60 minutes, and the total phenolic compound content was measured at 725 nm using a spectrophotometer (UV-VIS spectro photometer, UV-MINI 1240, Shimadzu, Japan).

The calibration curve of the standard material was measured using chlorogenic acid, and the results are shown in Table 1 below.

Measurement result of total phenolic compound content Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 measurement result 133.25 146.36 135.43 Total phenol content=mg chlorogenic acid equivalents (CAE)/g dry weight

Theanine is a kind of amino acid contained in tea and is a component that affects the umami of tea. al. method was used.

After putting 50 μl of the tea water in a test tube and drying under reduced pressure at 30 ° C, 2 mL of 1% sodium bicarbonate and 0.1 mL of FDNB (1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene) were added and mixed, and then reacted in a dark place at 40 ° C for 3 hours. and 2 ml of ethyl acetate was added to remove excess FDNB.

After adding 0.5 ml of 0.5 N hydrochloric acid, 1 ml of ethyl acetate was added for extraction, and this process was repeated 5 times to dry the collected DNP-amino acid solution under reduced pressure at 30 ° C. 2 ml of 80% ethanol was added to the residue remaining after drying After adding and dissolving, the mixture was centrifuged at 15000 rpm for 2 minutes, and the supernatant was injected into HPLC to measure the theanine content, and the results are shown in Table 2 below.

Theanine content measurement result Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 measurement result 38.16 40.52 38.44

Referring to Tables 1 and 2, the total phenolic compounds and theanine contents were the highest in Example 2. When a cotton tea bag is immersed in milk, the milk is filled in the hollow cotton fiber of the tea bag, and a solution of vinegar and calcium chloride is mixed. When boiled in milk, the casein protein contained in milk is coagulated by the acid and heat of vinegar and combined with calcium chloride to form adhesive calcium caseinate, which is fixed in the hollow of cotton fiber. As a result, the coagulum of casein protein or calcium caseinate Due to this filling, it is determined that the components of the tea material are eluted into water in the cotton tea bag and then absorbed into the cotton fiber hollows while exiting the cotton tea bag.

Example 3 did not show a significant difference from Example 1, so it was judged that the method of heating the tea bag in lemon juice had no effect on the elution of the tea. It can be seen that by suppressing the absorption of the tea water, the tea component content of the tea water flowing out of the tea bag can be increased as much as possible.

<Test Example 2> Yellowing measurement

After soaking the cotton tea bags prepared in Examples 1 to 3 in water and repeating the process of drying for 5 hours in a sunny place three times, the degree of yellowing was observed with the naked eye, and the degree of yellowing was judged as 0 to 5 and shown in Table 3 below. showed up

Yellowing measurement result Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 measurement result 3 3 to 4 One 0↔5 (0: No yellowing, 5: Severe yellowing)

The degree of yellowing in Example 1 was observed as 3, but Example 3, in which the tea bag was put in lemon juice and heat-treated, was 1, and fine yellowing occurred.

The citric acid contained in the lemon juice lowers the pH of the cotton tea bag to acidity to suppress yellowing caused by nitrogen dioxide, and also suppresses yellowing caused by light as the carboxyl group of citric acid binds to the metal ion of the cotton tea bag and is removed from the cotton fiber. judged by

In the case of Example 2, it is estimated that the yellowing phenomenon slightly increased due to the inclusion of milk components.

As described above, in order to repeatedly use the cotton tea bag, it is believed that using the tea bag after treating it with citrus juice will prevent the tea bag from turning yellow and reduce visual discomfort.

1: fabric, 2: lower fabric, 3: upper fabric, 4: overlock, 5: connection line, 6: tea bag body, 7: label, 8: passage

Claims (7)

Cutting the fabric of cotton material;
Folding the lower part 2 of the cut fabric 1 in an upward direction to form a non-overlapping portion 3 of the fabric 1 on a portion of the upper portion;
folding the upper non-overlapping fabric portion (3) over the lower (2) folded fabric portion;
Overlocking the left and right edges of the folded fabric and extending one side of the backstitch thread from the end so that the thread hangs down from the fabric 1;
immersing the fabric (1) treated with the overlock (4) in milk, taking it out, putting it in calcium chloride-added vinegar, boiling it, cooling it to room temperature, washing it with water, and drying it;
immersing the dried fabric (1) in citrus juice, heating to 80 to 100 ° C, and then drying; and
Attaching a label (7) to the end of the thread extending from the fabric (1); manufacturing method of a reusable cotton tea bag comprising the. delete delete delete The method of claim 1,
The citrus juice is a method for producing a reusable cotton tea bag, characterized in that pH 4 ~ 6. The method of claim 1,
The method of manufacturing a reusable cotton tea bag, characterized in that the citrus is tangerine, lemon or lime. delete

Images