JP4296575B2 - Method for collecting plant cell tissue components - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for easily collecting useful components contained in plant cells, particularly cell walls, by decomposing plant tissues.

  Plants contain many useful ingredients. Especially for mushrooms, wildflowers, fruits and vegetables, not only intracellular components, but also useful components such as antioxidants and cytoprotective substances on the cell walls of plant epidermis exposed directly to sunlight, air, rainwater, etc. Is known to contain a particularly large amount. However, just because we eat mushrooms, wild grasses, fruits and vegetables containing these useful ingredients, the useful ingredients contained in these epidermis are not immediately ingested by the human body.

In order to extract these useful components from plants and to be able to take them as nutrients for the human body, it is necessary to hydrolyze plant cells to reduce their molecular weight. In the past, various attempts have been made to utilize the decomposition action of microorganisms as a method for hydrolyzing plant cells, a method using a chemical, a method using a supercritical fluid, etc. These useful components have not been extracted from plant cells with high purity.

  The inventor first heated the plant raw material directly, evaporated the moisture of the plant raw material itself under saturated water vapor pressure, and exposed the plant raw material to the atmosphere of the water vapor for a certain period of time. A method was developed for disruption and extraction by incorporating cellular tissue components into water vapor. It has been found that this method is effective not only for extracting intracellular components but also for extracting antioxidant components and cytoprotective substances contained in cell walls.

  In short, this method is based on the idea of utilizing the hydrolysis action of water vapor, and the decomposition reaction caused by the reaction of water vapor and solute must be included in the category of hydrolysis. Whether the “hydrolysis used” is equivalent to the generally understood meaning of hydrolysis, for example, “reaction of salt and water to decompose into acid and base” (see Maruzen, Science Dictionary) It has not necessarily been clarified until now how the energy of the substance physically acts on the degradation of plant cells.

The inventor aimed at the development of utilization technology of “hydrolysis using water vapor”, and also the problems of equipment costs and running costs for practical use, as well as problems of post-treatment such as safety and drainage. Added consideration. In the present invention, the action of decomposing the energy of water vapor by causing it to act on plant cells is defined as “water vapor decomposition action” in distinction from the general meaning of “hydrolysis”.
JP 2006-328304 A JP 2006-340623 A

  The problem to be solved is the development of a new method above utilizing the steam cracking action.

  In the present invention, after pulverizing plant tissue by utilizing the pressure caused by the evaporation of water present in the plant tissue, the energy of water vapor is applied to decompose the plant cell, and the useful component is taken out from the cell tissue, particularly the cell wall. The biggest feature.

  The method for decomposing plant tissue according to the present invention comprises performing a blasting process prior to the decomposing process of the plant tissue with the energy of water vapor, and in the blasting process, the water contained in the plant tissue is rapidly expanded as water vapor, thereby In the subsequent decomposition treatment, water vapor energy can be effectively applied to the plant cells, whereby the decomposition of the plant cells proceeds in a relatively short time, and the cell tissue, particularly the cell wall. Various useful components including antioxidant components contained in can be easily and efficiently extracted. Among the extracted useful components, the gas component can be condensed and recovered as a liquid component, and the liquid component can be eluted and taken out in the solution. Furthermore, the fibers remaining as solid components can be dried and used as foods, feeds, soil improvement materials, and the like.

  The present invention has realized the purpose of extracting useful components from plant cell tissues, particularly from the wall, by carrying out the plant tissue explosion treatment prior to the steam decomposition treatment of the plant cells.

  Examples of the present invention are shown below. The present invention sequentially performs a blasting process, a steam cracking process, and a product recovery process, and collects useful components extracted from the plant tissue by the decomposition of the plant tissue.

  The blasting process is a process of causing the plant tissue to self-destruct by the expansion pressure of water vapor. In plant tissue, there are countless fine tubes for transporting moisture to each part, such as between pipes and sieves, and these tubes are filled with water unless the plant tissue is completely dry. For this reason, the plant is confined in a sealed space, the temperature in the space is kept at 100 ° C. to 140 ° C., and the saturated water vapor pressure in the space is kept at least 1 atm to 3.6 atm for a certain period of time. When released, the water contained in the plant tissue evaporates and vaporizes, so that the volume rapidly expands, resulting in the tissue self-destructing.

  Steam decomposition treatment is a process of confining a plant whose tissue has been destroyed by blasting treatment in a sealed space, sending water vapor into the space, and increasing the water vapor pressure and temperature in the space at 2 to 5 atm. If the temperature is kept at 120 ° C. to 150 ° C. for 2 to 5 hours, not only the intracellular tissue but also the cell wall is completely decomposed, and useful components of the cell tissue contained in the cell and the cell wall are exposed to the outside. To do.

  The product recovery process is a process of recovering useful components exposed from the cell tissue. That is, among the useful components exposed from the cell tissue, those that have become liquid are eluted and collected in the solution, and those that have become gas are condensed by cooling, so that they can be recovered as liquid components. The remaining residue is recovered as a solid. The solids are utilized for foods, feeds, soil improvement materials, etc. by drying, but further, as a boiling water extraction process, the solid components recovered as a recovery process for the product are boiled and eluted to obtain a residue. The useful components remaining in can be easily extracted.

  In FIG. 1, an example of the decomposition processing apparatus used for decomposition | disassembly of a plant tissue is shown. In FIG. 1, the decomposition processing apparatus is configured by a combination of a can body 1, a boiler 2, and a water tank 3. The can body 1 is a plant material processing chamber, and a cooling coil 4 is piped therein. The plant to be treated is accommodated in the treated basket 5 and mounted on the tray 6, the hatch of the can body 1 is opened, and the can body 1 is carried into the can body 1.

  The boiler 2 is for feeding steam heated to a temperature necessary for the explosion and steam decomposition treatment of the plant material into the can body 1. Furthermore, after the steam decomposition treatment, the cooling water pump 7 is operated to send the cooling water in the water tank 3 to the cooling coil 4 of the can body 1 and cool the useful components exposed from the cell tissue by the steam decomposition treatment. is there. In FIG. 1, 3a is a cooling tower for cooling the cooling water returned to the water tank 3 through the cooling coil 4 of the can body 1, and 8 condenses water vapor of useful components generated in the can body 1 by the steam decomposition action. It is a cooler to collect. Further, the can body 1 is provided with a silencer 9 that silences explosion sound generated by the explosion process. Reference numeral 10 denotes a surface condenser for stably feeding cooling water to the cooling coil 4, and 11 denotes a drain tank for recovering the distillate produced in the can body.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a system for monitoring the progress of the blasting process and the steam decomposition reaction that proceed in the can body. In the central monitoring room 12, a computer is installed as a blasting and steam decomposition control device 13. From the computer, the power of the boiler is set, the processing time is set, the valve opening / closing control of the piping, the control of the operation of the cooling water pump, etc. are performed. In addition, a function for performing all the control and setting information management necessary for the explosion treatment T1, the steam decomposition treatment T2, and the product recovery process T3 to be advanced in the can body 1, monitoring the progress of the decomposition reaction, and products In addition to monitoring the state of the generated product and the state of the produced product, the computer further has a function of sampling these.

  In the present invention, the explosion treatment T1, the steam decomposition treatment T2, and the output recovery process T3 are sequentially performed using the above-described apparatus. The procedure will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a preparation procedure until the explosion process is executed. In FIG. 3, all valves connected to the can body including the water vapor supply / discharge valve, the cooling water supply / drain valve, and the drain valve are closed (step S <b> 1). In this state, the hatch of the can body is opened (step S2), the processed product basket containing the plant raw material is carried therein (step S3), and the hatch of the can body is closed (step S4).

  After step S4, in preparation for the steam decomposition treatment T2, the upper limit of the steam decomposition temperature in the can body is set to 120 ° C. to 150 ° C., the upper limit of the pressure is set to 2 to 5 atm, and the processing time is set by a timer (step S5). ). After setting the above conditions, water vapor generated in the boiler 5 is pressed into the can body (step S6).

  In FIG. 4, water vapor is supplied, and when the pressure reaches a specified value, the exhaust valve leading to the outside of the can body is opened to rapidly depressurize the inside of the can body. Thereby, the explosion process T1 with respect to a plant raw material is performed (step S7). After execution of the blasting process T1, a timer is started in preparation for the steam decomposition process T2, the exhaust valve is closed (step S8), the air supply valve is opened, and the steam generated in the boiler is pressed into the can body, While controlling the temperature and pressure in the can body 1 with a computer in the central monitoring room, the inside of the can body is kept at 120 ° C. to 150 ° C., and the steam decomposition treatment T2 is performed under 2 to 5 atm for 2 to 5 hours. (Step S9). In the steam decomposition treatment, when the temperature and pressure in the can body 1 are controlled, the steam pressure is increased in the temperature / pressure range along the saturated steam pressure curve shown in FIG.

  By the way, when one-component gas-liquid phases coexist at a certain temperature and pressure, the state in which the vapor forming the gas phase reaches saturation is called saturated vapor, and the pressure at that time is the saturated vapor pressure. . Around a substance liquid, when the partial pressure of the substance is equal to the vapor pressure of the liquid, the liquid is in vapor-liquid equilibrium. When the temperature is lowered, the vapor condenses into a liquid. On the other hand, when the temperature is raised, the liquid vaporizes (becomes vapor). Also, the same equilibrium is maintained between the solid phase and the gas phase, and this transition is called sublimation.

  In the steam decomposition treatment T2, the steam pressure as the partial pressure in the can body 1 is controlled along the saturated steam pressure curve. At this time, since the partial pressure ratio of the component liquid of the cell tissue is very low, the water vapor pressure is dominant. In the temperature / pressure range of the vapor containing cell tissue components, carbonization occurs if the temperature is slightly higher than the saturated water vapor pressure, and if it is low, there is a risk of liquefaction and contamination of impurities due to incomplete decomposition. Therefore, the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere in the can body are passed through a delicate reaction region by computer control.

The active component of the cell tissue is exposed in the can body from the cell wall and the cell wall by the steam decomposition treatment T2. After completion of the steam treatment, the water supply valve is opened, the cooling water pump is operated, the cooling water in the water tank is sent to the cooling coil of the can body (step S10), and the effective gas components exposed from the cells are cooled by the steam decomposition treatment. Condensate. Steam pressure shown in FIG. 6 even on cooling along the saturated steam pressure curve, it Yuku lowering the water vapor pressure at a temperature and pressure range is important in order to ensure the purity of the cellular components.

  In FIG. 5, after the steam decomposition process T2, the product recovery process T3 is executed. When collecting the product, first, the drain valve is opened, cooling water is sent into the inside of the can body from the cooling coil 4, the water vapor in the can body is cooled and condensed, and the distillate generated by the condensation is drain tank 11. (Step S11).

  Subsequently, the hatch of the can body 1 is opened, the eluate generated in the tray 6 in the can body is recovered by the steam decomposition process, and the processed basket 5 is taken out of the can body and solid from the processed basket 5. Collect items.

(Experimental example)
In order to confirm the steam decomposition effect according to the present invention, the following experiment was conducted.

(Experimental example 1)
The experiment tried to extract β-glucan from shimeji mushrooms by steam treatment for the purpose of effective utilization of shimeji mushrooms (fungiform).

(1) Outline of Experiment (Experiment 1) About 150 g of shimeji shiizuki (bacterial pattern) provided by producer J of Ina City is put in a container, subjected to explosion treatment at 120 ° C. and 2 atm, and then the container is sealed. Then, it was exposed to saturated steam at 140 ° C. and about 3.6 atm for 5 hours for steam decomposition treatment. In the production process, the steam generated in the container was extracted using 100 ml of pure water so as not to escape the steam, and 154 ml of extract was obtained.

(Reference Experiment 1) 50 g of the steamed shimeji mushroom (fungus pattern) obtained in Experiment 1 was boiled in 150 ml of hot water for 2 hours to obtain 156 ml of an extract.
(Comparative Experiment 1) 50 mg of untreated shimeji mushroom (fungiform) that was neither subjected to blasting treatment nor steam decomposition treatment was boiled and distilled for 2 hours in 150 ml of hot water to obtain 150 ml of extract.

(2) The analysis of the amount of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained as a result of (Experiment 1), (Reference Experiment 1), and (Comparative Experiment 1) was requested to the Japan Food Analysis Center.
(Measurement result)
The results of analysis by the Japan Food Analysis Center are as follows.
Ratio of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained in Experiment 1 0.280%
Percentage of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained in Reference Experiment 1 0.038%
Ratio of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained in Comparative Experiment 1 0.018%
(Analysis is by oxygen method)

The amount of β-glucan contained in each extract is converted into β-glucan extract per 100 g of shimeji sushi (fungus) as follows.
Extracted amount per 100 g of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained in Experiment 1 154 ml × 0.280% × 100 g / 150 g = 0.2875 g
Extracted amount per 100 g of β-glucan contained in the extract obtained in Reference Experiment 1 156 ml × 0.038% × 100 g / 150 g = 0.1186 g
Extracted amount per 100 g of β-glucan contained in the extract according to Comparative Experiment 1 150 ml × 0.018% × 100 g / 150 g = 0.0540 g

(Consideration of results)
As is clear from the above experimental results, according to Experiment 1, the extraction amount of β-glucan was about 5.3 times that of Comparative Experiment 1. Further, as is clear from the results of Reference Experiment 1, the plant tissue that was destroyed by blasting treatment was heated from the residue even after extracting useful components of the cell tissue by steam decomposition treatment. It was found that the extraction of β-glucan 2.2 times as much as the extraction amount in Comparative Example 1 was possible by extraction. From this result, it is possible to extract β-glucan 7.5 times more than normal hot water extraction by boiling the residue after steam decomposition treatment together with extraction of cellular tissue components by explosion treatment and steam decomposition treatment. It became the result.

  According to the present invention, the plant tissue is self-destructed by performing the explosion treatment prior to the steam decomposition treatment of the plant raw material, and the cell tissue components by the steam decomposition treatment, in particular, the antioxidant components contained in the cell walls, the cell protective substances It is possible to easily extract components useful for the human body, and the use of these components can greatly be expected to have an effect on improving the health of the human body and healing diseases.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the decomposition processing apparatus used for decomposition | disassembly of the plant tissue by this invention. It is a block diagram of the system which implements the method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of this invention method. It is a figure which shows the flow of this invention method. It is a figure which shows the flow of this invention method. It is a graph which shows a saturated water vapor pressure curve.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Can body 2 Boiler 3 Water tank 3a Cooling tower 4 Cooling coil 5 Treatment basket 6 Tray 7 Pump 8 Cooler 9 Silencer 10 Surface capacitor 11 Drain tank 12 Central monitoring room 13 Explosion and steam decomposition control device 14 Monitor T1 Explosion treatment T2 Steam decomposition treatment T3 output collection process

Claims (3)

A method for collecting cellular tissue components of a plant having a blasting process, a steam decomposition process, and a recovery process for a product,
In the blasting treatment, the plant is confined in a sealed space, the temperature in the space is kept at 100 ° C. to 140 ° C., and the saturated water vapor pressure in the space is kept at least 1 atm to 3.6 atm for a certain period of time. The plant tissue is destroyed by the expansion pressure of water vapor,
In the steam decomposition treatment, plants that have destroyed their tissues by blasting treatment are still confined in a sealed space, water vapor is sent into the space, and the water vapor pressure as a partial pressure in the space is controlled along the saturated water vapor pressure curve. While maintaining the water vapor pressure and temperature inside, maintaining the temperature at 120 to 150 ° C. for 2 to 5 hours at 2 to 5 atm. It is a process of exposing the water vapor pressure to the outside and then reducing the water vapor pressure in the temperature / pressure range along the saturated water vapor pressure curve .
The method for collecting plant cell tissue components is characterized in that the recovery process of the output product is a process of collecting active ingredients exposed from the cell tissue.   In the recovery process of the product, among the active ingredients exposed from the cell tissue by the steam decomposition process, those that become liquid are eluted and recovered in the solution, and those that become gas are recovered as liquid components by cooling. The method for collecting plant cell tissue components according to claim 1, wherein the residue remaining as a solid is a process of recovering by drying. It further has a hot water extraction process,
The hot water extraction process is a process of boiling a plant residue recovered as a solid by a recovery process of a product with hot water and extracting cellular tissue components remaining in the plant residue. 2. A method for collecting cellular tissue components of a plant according to 1.

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