NO130622B - - Google Patents

Description

Smoking products based on reconstituted tobacco,

possibly in a mixture with tobacco substitutes

funds.

A number of compositions are described in the art

stand in the area as suitable substitutes for tobacco in smoking products such as e.g. cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, etc. A material that is just widely commercially accepted is two-

ground reconditioned by a "dry process", a film of tobacco dust held together by a smaller amount, e.g. 5%, of a suitable binder.

In general, these synthetic replacement substances consist of a combustible substrate in which combustion modifiers are incorporated, usually inorganic compounds that cause

cases that the combustible substrate burns at a rate similar to that of tobacco leaves.

Norwegian patent 122,827 describes particularly preferred tobacco substitutes which have combustible substrates selected from starch, and starch and cellulose derivatives including salts thereof containing the repeating anhydroglucose unit:

where at least one R is selected from among lower alkyl, hydroxy-lower alkyl, carboxy-lower alkyl groups and mixtures thereof, and the remaining R denote hydrogen atoms. Preferably, R is selected from the group CH2COOM, CH2CH2OH and CH3; where M is a non-toxic cation or

hydrogen and preferably selected from the group consisting of alkali metal and alkaline earth metals, aluminium, iron and hydrogen. Compounds of the nature indicated above usually have an average degree of substitution of 0.2 to 3 R groups per unit, and preferably from 0.4 to 1.2

groups per unit. Mixtures of these compounds are also described as suitable.

Combustible substrates which are considered to be particularly suitable are carboxymethylcellulose, carboxyethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose, carboxymethylhydroxyethylcellulose, methylcellulose, carboxymethylated starch, analogous compounds such as e.g. ethylcellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, carboxyethyl starch and salts thereof.

Numerous combustion modifying substances are described as being suitable for modifying the combustion rate of the combustible substrates according to the state of the art in the field. In general, the preferred combustion modifiers are inorganic compounds of a non-toxic nature, i.e. pharmacologically inactive with regard to substantially worsened effects in a causal relationship by oral intake of the substance itself or its combustion products.

Combustion modifiers which are preferably used with the combustible substrates according to N.P. 127,827, and suitable with the other substrates indicated above, preferably comprise a cation selected from sodium, potassium, zinc, titanium, magnesium, calcium, aluminium, silicon and iron. Preferably, these cations are associated with an anion selected from the oxides, carbonates and hydroxides. Inorganic compounds in their naturally occurring state are also suitable, e.g. dolomite, diatomaceous earth, perlite, magnesite, vermiculite, etc. Usually these combustion modifiers are combined with the combustible substrate in a ratio of from 85:15 to 15:85, and preferably in a ratio of from 75:25 to 25:75.

"Smoking goods" used in the present description as a collective term comprising tdr process reconditioned tobacco and possibly tobacco substitutes, in addition to showing varying degrees of use, have also been shown to have certain disadvantages. Of primary importance is that these materials, when used to replace tobacco completely or in significant percentages in smoking articles, tend to produce a smoke that has a taste and smell that irritates the smoker. Furthermore, it is desirable to add significant amounts of nicotine, usually in the form of nicotine salts, to the smoking product in order to provide sufficient nicotine effect for the smoking product, so that it is satisfactory for the smoker. Many of these smoking products also tend to burn at a faster rate than tobacco when smoked in a similar way. The use of these smoking products would greatly increase if these disadvantages could be removed.

From US patent no. 2,576,021, it is known to add glycine, alanine and aspartic acid to tobacco products based on bagasse, in order to improve taste and aroma. It has now been found that the same amino acids as well as urea and guanidine carbonate added to the smoking product, based on reconditioned tobacco, surprisingly accentuate the effect of nicotine. Thus, it is possible to achieve satisfactory roke products with approx. half the nicotine content of what is normally found in smoking products based on reconditioned tobacco.

With the present invention, smoking products are provided which, when burned, produce a smoke that is less irritating to the smoker, and which contain significantly smaller amounts of nicotine than that found in tobacco, but which will produce a smoke that is comparable in terms of nicotine effect to tobacco smoke .

Compounds that distil before splitting are also undesirable because these are carried by the smoke stream into the smoker's mouth and thus cause irritation.

Preferably, the compound cleaves within a temperature range

those of 100 - 500°C, preferably 125 - 300°C, so that the advancing combustion zone in the cigarette produces a uniform decomposition of the additive in an area near the flame front,

but before this one.

Up to 5% urea, guanidine carbonate or an amino acid with 2-5 carbon atoms is used, calculated on the total weight of the smoke product composition, with 0.5 - 3.0% being preferred. No significant modification of the smoke stream is noted when amounts less than 0.5% are used, and amounts greater than 5% tend to produce compositions with undesirably low burning rates.

As previously indicated, the presence of the aforementioned additives in the smoking product promotes the effect of nicotine in the rdkdrum. To illustrate this, ordinary tobacco leaves contain from 1.5 to

2.0% nicotine in the form of nicotine salts. According to the present invention, it is only necessary that the smoking product contains up to 0.6%, and usually only 0.1 - 0.2%, of nicotine salt: calculated on the basis of the total weight of the smoking product, in order to produce a smoke that has a comparable nicotine effect with the one for tobacco rdk. The possibility of achieving satisfactory results with this lower amount of nicotine obviously not only provides an economic saving, but results in a smaller amount of nicotine being consumed by the user. As noted, nicotine-

is incorporated into the composition in the form of a salt. Suitable salts include e.g. citrate, tartrate and acetate salts of nicotine.

The following examples are given to illustrate the present invention.

Example 1

A tobacco substitute material was produced by homogeneous

to mix the following ingredients in water and form a film from it:

6.0 g sodium carboxymethyl cellulose

12.0 g dolomite limestone

10.0 g diatomaceous earth

8.0 g of reconstituted burley tobacco dust

4.0 g reconstituted light tobacco stdv

0.18 g coloring agents

1.0 g humectant

0.3 g of tobacco coating

The film was then torn into strips and rolled into cigarettes.

The cigarettes thus produced were smoked on a mechanical smoking machine which took puffs of 35 ml over a 2 second period in a 60 second cycle. The pressure loss, i.e. the flow resistance that occurs when air is pushed through the soil at the speed of

17.5 ml per minute, was determined. The weight of the tar was obtained by drawing the cigarette smoke through a Cambridge filter cartridge which removed 99.9% of the solid particulate matter, and by weighing the cartridge before and after smoking. The number of puffs corresponds to the number of puffs needed to smoke a cigarette into a cigarette butt with a length of 30 mm. The cigarettes were also made from the same formulation which additionally contained 0.5 g of urea, i.e. 1.22% urea. The results obtained when examining the two formulations are shown in table I.

A four-member arbitration panel unanimously agreed

me in that cigarettes made from the formulation containing urea produced a higher nicotine effect and were less irritating than those that did not contain urea. These results show that similar compositions containing a lower concentration of added nicotine must provide a rok in the mainstream with a suitable physiological nicotine effect when urea is used as an additive.

Example 2

A reconditioned tobacco in shredded form as described in example 1 was placed in a suitable container so that the material could be suitably drum mixed on ball mill rollers; A 10% aqueous solution of urea was used to feed the tobacco in the form of a shower 2 .5% addition of urea The treated strips were formed into cigarettes and tested in the same manner as described in Example 1. The results are shown in Table II.

Five out of seven members of the test panel indicated that the reconstituted tobacco containing 2.5% urea as an additive was less irritating than that without urea.

Example 3

Strips of natural tobacco were treated in the same manner as described in Example 2 and formed into cigarettes and examined in the same manner as in Example 1. The results obtained are set forth in Table III.

Three out of seven members of the test panel indicated that tobacco cigarettes which had been thus treated with urea. was less irritating than the untreated tobacco, while the majority of the panel preferred the lOO% tobacco cigarette, indicating that urea does not improve pure tobacco.

Example 4

Films were produced, as well as cigarettes thereof, in the same manner as described in example 1, with the exception that either guanidine carbonate, aspartic acid, glycine or β-alanine were used instead of urea. Cigarettes containing the above-mentioned additives also showed improved taste characteristics compared to a control sample.

Example 5

A material suitable as a tobacco substitute was prepared by mixing the following ingredients in 120 ml of water:

12.0 g sodium carboxymethyl cellulose

12.0 g of dolomite limestone

15.0 g diatomaceous earth 0.4 g carbon dust

3.0 g humectant

1.2 g wet strength resin

1.0 g urea

The mixture was rolled into a film and torn. This tobacco substitute was mixed with an equivalent amount of shredded, reconstituted

pea tobacco, as described in example 1, and mixed in a ball mill.

Part of this mixture was added with 2.5% urea in the form of a 10% aqueous solution. The two mixtures thus obtained were converted into cigarettes and examined as described in example 1. The results appear in the following table:

A five-member panel all agreed that cigarettes made from the mixture with additional urea added, produced a higher nicotine effect and were less irritating than the mixture that did not

ke further urea was added.

Claims (1)

Smoking product containing at least one nicotine salt, including dry progress, reconditioned tobacco, possibly mixed with tobacco substitutes and/or combustion modifying ingredients, characterized in that it contains up to 5% by weight of urea, guanidine carbonate or an amino acid with 2-5 carbon atoms, and that the nicotine salt is present in an amount that does not exceed 0.6% by weight of the smoking product .