JP5770461B2 - Cyanobacteria powder for coloring and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a coloring cyanobacteria powder suitable for coloring foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and the like, and a method for producing the same.

  Conventionally, food coloring agents such as chemically synthesized copper chlorophyll have been used for the purpose of stably maintaining the green color of vegetables and green tea containing chlorophyll (chlorophyll) over time. Along with the tendency to focus on, there is a movement to use natural food powder for coloring purposes. However, green powders such as matcha, spinach, peppers and broccoli tend to be brown and discolored during processing, resulting in low product value. Thus, green algae such as chlorella containing abundant chlorophyll are sometimes used to enhance the effect of stabilizing and maintaining green color.

  In addition, cyanobacteria have attracted attention in recent years as one of functional foods. Spirulina, for example, includes photosynthetic pigments with antioxidant activity such as phycocyanin (a chromoprotein containing phycocyanobiline), chlorophylls (eg chlorophyll a), carotenoids (eg zeaxanthin), various amino acids, vitamins and minerals, It is rich in nutrients such as dietary fiber, polysaccharides, linoleic acid, γ-linolenic acid, inositol, SOD (superoxide dismutase), and nucleic acids. Powders obtained by drying algal bodies of this Spirulina (dried powder) are formed into granules or tablets, and are distributed in the market as supplements (nutritional supplements) or food materials.

Patent Document 1 describes a health drink composition in which matcha tea containing a large amount of vitamin C and a dry powder of cyanobacteria containing nutrients other than vitamin C are combined.
In Patent Document 2, spirulina is suspended in distilled water or purified water, and the cell membrane of spirulina is destroyed by osmotic pressure to cause phycocyanin to flow out of the cell membrane. Then, the spirulina is denatured by heating, concentrated, concentrated under reduced pressure, or Denatured spirulina obtained by lyophilization, which removes unpleasant odors of spirulina and does not destroy nutrients, has a characteristic that unpleasant dark blue indigo is changed from light blue to light red and easily suspended in water Has been.

JP 60-199344 A JP 2005-520544 A

Chlorophyll is oxidized or demetalized by heat or light and fades, so the fastness to light (light resistance) is not sufficient as a pigment, and it tends to be brownish and lose its green color.
Patent Document 1 states that spirulina has a vivid green color due to chlorophyll and phycocyanin, and that the color of green tea becomes more beautiful, but the actual spirulina dry powder has a bluish green color due to the high amount of phycocyanin. Bluish compared to matcha. For this reason, when mix | blending with matcha, the difference in a color tone will be conspicuous. It goes without saying that it is desirable that the difference in color is not noticeable.
According to Patent Document 2, spirulina's dark blue indigo color may make the person who drinks spirulina look awkward, and it is not preferred to drink spirulina in water or milk, which is beneficial to the human body. There is a description that it is a hindrance to popularizing the use of spirulina, but for that purpose, the phycocyanin blue pigment is eluted and decolorized by denaturation, so obtain a powder suitable for coloring I can't.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can be added to foods and beverages, and has a small color change with respect to light. It is an issue to provide.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a dry heat treatment of a cyanobacterial dry powder selected from the species belonging to the genus Arthrospira or Spirulina , so that the total carotenoid content of the powder is 50 to 200 mg / 100 g, and the chlorophyll content. Is provided, and a phycocyanin content is set to 800 to 3200 mg / 100 g.
Further, the present invention is a cyanobacteria powder selected from species belonging to the genus Arthrospira or Spirulina, wherein the total carotenoid content is 50 to 200 mg / 100 g, the chlorophyll content is 250 to 1000 mg / 100 g, and the phycocyanin content Is a cyanobacteria powder for coloring, characterized in that is 800 to 3200 mg / 100 g.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to produce a green-colored green algae powder for coloring, which can be added to foods and beverages and has a small color change with respect to light.

It is an example of the microscope picture of the residue which extracted the phycocyanin from the cyanobacteria powder for coloring of this invention. It is an example of the microscope picture of the residue which extracted the phycocyanin from the cyanobacteria powder before dry heat processing.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on preferred embodiments.
The cyanobacteria powder for coloring of the present invention is a photosynthetic pigment (phycocyanin (PC), chlorophyll (Chl)) in cyanobacterial powder composed of alga bodies collected from naturally occurring cyanobacteria or artificially cultured cyanobacteria. The content of carotenoids (TC) such as zeaxanthin) is adjusted.

  Examples of cyanobacteria include the genus Arthrospira, the genus Spirulina, the genus Aphanothece and the like. The fine unicellular microorganisms belonging to the genus Arthrospira and Spirulina, which have been collectively referred to as Spirulina in the past, are commonly referred to as “Spirulina”. As a specific example thereof, Arthrospira platinsis, Arthrospira maxima, Arthrospira geitleri, Arthrospira siames, Spirulina sirina, Spirulina samir Of these, Arthrospira platensis, Arthrospira maxima, Arturospira gaytreri, Arthrospira siameise are preferred because they can be cultured artificially and are easily available.

Spirulina and other dry algae (dry powder) are harvested from naturally-grown wet algal bodies and wet algal bodies cultured and produced in outdoor artificial culture ponds, and concentrated and washed as necessary. It can be obtained by a drying process such as a freeze drying process or a spray drying process. The freeze-drying treatment is preferable because it does not heat the algal bodies and can suppress degradation of the photosynthetic pigments that algae have. In the case of a drying process involving heating such as a spray drying process, it is preferable to suppress the decomposition of the photosynthetic pigment by setting the exhaust air temperature of the spray dryer to a range of 70 to 100 ° C. The pigment component content of the dried spirulina powder produced by the above process is as follows.
Total carotenoids 200mg / 100g
Chlorophyll a 1000mg / 100g
Phycocyanin 5000mg / 100g

The dry heat treatment of the dry bulk powder can be performed by heat-treating the dry bulk powder in a dry state. The dry bulk powder of cyanobacteria such as Spirulina has a high content of photosynthetic pigments, especially a rich blue-green color because it contains abundant blue pigment, phycocyanin. However, by dry heat treatment, the cell wall and cell membrane are destroyed. Without reducing the color component amount, the color tone can be improved and the color can be changed to a preferable green color. Further, even when the water content of the food or beverage to be colored is high, there is an advantage that the elution of the pigment component is suppressed and the color change (color fading, color transfer) is difficult to occur.
The content of each pigment component in the cyanobacterial powder after dry heat treatment is such that the total carotenoid content is 50 to 200 mg / 100 g, the chlorophyll content is 250 to 1000 mg / 100 g, and the phycocyanin content is 800 to 3200 mg / 100 g. Is preferred. Here, each content is a value per 100 g of the powder.

According to the dry heat treatment, since the reduction rate of phycocyanin is particularly high compared to other pigments (carotenoids and chlorophyll), the lightness (L ^* ) tends to increase.
In addition, the cyanobacterial powder after dry heat treatment obtained by the present invention surprisingly has the property that it is difficult to discolor under exposure to light containing ultraviolet rays and has excellent light resistance. Compared to a green powder mainly containing chlorophyll as a pigment, phycocyanin may reinforce blueness and suppress increase in yellowness. In addition, even when added to articles with a high amount of moisture, the pigments are difficult to elute, maintain a beautiful blue-green color, are less likely to lose color, and are less susceptible to color migration and blurring. This is because phycocyanin, which is a water-soluble blue chromoprotein, is modified by phycocyanobilin (blue pigment part), which is a non-protein part. ), It may be difficult to elute phycocyanobilin into water, or other proteins constituting the cell may be denatured to strengthen the cell structure. .

  Since the coloring cyanobacteria powder for coloring of the present invention has a light blue-green color, confectionery and breads such as ice cream, soft cream, cake, bavaroa, sheepskin, jelly, and gum; noodles such as buckwheat, udon, and noodles; tofu Suitable for addition to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics such as tablets; various foods such as candy, candy, hampen, etc .; beverages such as green tea drinks, green tea drinks, milk drinks, soy milk drinks, vegetable drinks, fruit drinks, and soft drinks. In addition, it is suitable for green coloring alone, but in addition to green tea and green tea, it is combined with green powder such as young barley leaves, kale, mulberry, persimmon, moroheiya, chlorella, blue perilla, broccoli, spinach, peppers, tomorrow, etc. The composition can also be used as a coloring powder.

  The dry heat treatment of the dried cyanobacterial powder is performed by spreading the dried powder into a container such as a bat made of a material having sufficient thermal conductivity, such as stainless steel, in order to uniformly and quickly raise the temperature by heating. A method of heating is preferred.

  EXAMPLES Next, although an Example demonstrates this invention further in detail, this invention is not limited by these examples.

<Component analysis and color tone measurement of dry bulk powder and dry heat treatment powder>
Spread 100 g of Spirulin dry powder uniformly on a stainless steel round bat (φ140 mm) and place the bat on a hot air dryer (manufactured by Tokyo Rika Kikai Co., Ltd. (EYELA), model WFO-600ND). Dry heat treatment was performed at the temperature and time indicated in. In Table 1, "Control" indicates the dry bulk powder of Spirulina that is not subjected to dry heat treatment.

The pigment component content of the dry bulk powder and dry heat-treated powder is determined according to the “Quantification of total carotenoids” described in “Spirulina Food Quality Standards” (revised on March 6, 2009), “Japan Health and Nutrition Food Association” The analysis was performed according to “Chlorophyll a analysis method” and “Phycocyanin analysis method”.
The surface color of the dry bulk powder and the dry heat-treated powder was evaluated based on the lightness L ^* and color coordinates a ^* and b ^* according to the L ^* a ^* b ^* color system (CIE 1976) according to JIS Z 8729. . The values of L ^* , a ^* and b ^* were determined by placing 2 g of sample in a round cell for measurement with a diameter of 30 mm and tapping several times so that there was no unevenness. SE-2000).
Incidentally, in the L ^* a ^* b ^* color system, as schematically, L ^* indicates that more high brightness large number (bright), a ^* is the positive side the higher the degree of red large numbers On the negative side, the larger the value, the higher the degree of green, and the b ^* value is higher on the positive side, the higher the degree of yellow, and on the negative side, the higher the value, the more blue Indicates a high degree.
As shown in Table 1, as the dry heat treatment progresses and the photosynthetic pigments (phycocyanin, chlorophyll, carotenoid) decrease, the value of L ^* increases, the value of a ^* decreases, and b ^* decreases ^. It can be seen that the value of tended to decrease.

<Sensory inspection of dry powder and dry heat treatment powder>
According to the method shown in Table 2, the flavor of the above dry bulk powder (Control) and dry heat treated powder (Example 2: 115 ° C., 16 hours dry heat treated product) was evaluated in 7 stages. In the sensory test, 15 panels compared each sample with the spirulina powder used as a reference, the evaluation items when the reference was set to 0 were evaluated from −3 to +3, and the scores of each panel were averaged. The results are shown in Table 3. It was found that the dry heat treatment significantly reduced the odor and improved the taste quality compared to the dry bulk powder.

<Light resistance comparison by dry heat treatment>
The changes in color tone of Spirulina dry powder and dry heat treated powder (115 ° C., 16 hours dry heat treated product) when exposed to fluorescent light were compared as follows.
Test conditions are as follows: 5 g of each sample is put in a glass petri dish of φ9 cm, exposed at 25 ° C. and 3000 lx under a white fluorescent lamp, 2 g of the light-exposed sample is put in a round cell for measurement of φ30 mm, and tapping is performed so that there is no unevenness. The values of L ^* , a ^* and b ^* were measured using a spectroscopic colorimeter (manufactured by Nippon Denshoku Industries Co., Ltd., model SE-2000). Further, the color difference ΔE was calculated from the difference between the values of L ^* , a ^*, and b ^* before and after light exposure (ΔL ^* , Δa ^*, and Δb ^* ) by the following formula. The results are shown in Tables 4 and 5.

  The color difference ΔE was evaluated according to the criteria shown in Table 6. The Spirulina dry bulk powder showed discoloration from the 4th week of light exposure, whereas the Spirulina heat-treated product showed only a slight color difference that was not easily discernable even after 8 weeks of light exposure.

<Comparison of heat resistance by dry heat treatment>
The color tone changes when heat-treated spirulina dry bulk powder and dry heat treated powder (115 ° C., 16 hours dry heat treated product) were compared as follows.
Test conditions are as follows: 2 g of each sample is put in a φ5 cm aluminum cup, heated with a hot air dryer at 105 ° C. for 8 hours, and the values of L ^* , a ^* and b ^* before and after the heat treatment are the above <Comparison of light resistance by dry heat treatment> The color difference ΔE was calculated in the same manner. The results are shown in Table 7 and Table 8.

  The color difference ΔE was evaluated according to the criteria shown in Table 6 above. Although the color difference of the dry bulk powder was small, no slight discoloration was observed in the dry heat-treated powder.

<Matcha composition with Spirulina dry heat treatment powder>
When blended with the above Spirulina dry heat-treated product (115 ° C, 16 hr) in green tea, the blending ratio becomes green with a similar appearance to Matcha N-2 for food processing (manufactured by Sumi Seisaku Co., Ltd.) and Matcha N with Chlorella (the company). Asked.
Table 9 shows the blending ratios of the Spirulina heat-treated products mixed with matcha at a rate of 0 to 50% at intervals of 5%, and eight or more of the 15 panels were equivalent. From this result, it is considered that 10-30% is appropriate for the ratio of the spirulina dry heat-treated product in the matcha tea composition.

<Light resistance comparison of Matcha composition>
Change in color tone when a matcha composition containing 20 parts of Matcha N-2 for food processing, Matcha N with chlorella, and 20 parts of Spirulina dry heat-treated product (115 ° C., 16 hr) and 80 parts of Matcha is exposed to fluorescent light. Were compared as follows.
The test condition is that 10 g of each sample is put in a glass petri dish of φ9 cm, exposed at 25 ° C. and 3000 lx under a white fluorescent lamp, 2 g of the light exposed sample is put in a round cell for measurement of φ30 mm, and tapping is performed so that there is no unevenness. The values of L ^* , a ^* and b ^* were measured using a spectroscopic colorimeter (Nippon Denshoku Industries Co., Ltd., model SE-2000), and the color difference ΔE was calculated by the above formula. The results are shown in Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12.

  At 3 days after exposure to light, a color difference was felt in green tea for food processing and green tea with chlorella, but almost no discoloration was observed in the spirulina dry heat-treated product (20%).

<Light resistance comparison with 3% added fresh cream>
Matcha green tea for food processing N-2, green tea N containing chlorella, and 20 parts of spirulina dry heat-treated product (115 ° C., 16 hr) mixed with 80 parts of green tea are added to each fresh cream, and light from a fluorescent lamp. The change in color tone when exposed to was compared as follows.
The test sample was prepared by adding 100 mL of commercially available fresh cream, 25 g of sugar and 3 g of the above-mentioned various powders to a ball cooled with ice water, and squeezing each whipped cream prepared by whipping into a transparent plastic container (PP). This was produced.
As test conditions, a container containing each cream molded body was exposed to light at 10 ° C. and 3000 lx under a white fluorescent lamp for 0 to 20 hours. The color tone of the shade-preserved product was compared.
The comparison method was carried out by a five-step scoring method shown in Table 13 by 15 panelists.

  As shown in Table 14, it was confirmed that the spirulina dry heat-treated product (20%) containing green tea composition was less likely to fade than the green tea N-2 for food processing and the green tea N containing chlorella.

<Water resistance comparison>
The changes in the state of the powder when phycocyanin of the dried spirulina powder and the dry heat-treated powder (dry heat-treated product at 115 ° C. for 16 hours) were extracted with a phosphate buffer were compared as follows.
Spirulina dry bulk powder and dry heat-treated product were each extracted in a 10 mM phosphate buffer at 30 ° C. for 16 hours.
As shown by the arrow A in the micrograph of FIG. 1, the dry heat-treated powder which is an example of the present invention has a high pigment concentration after the water extraction treatment and maintains the shape of each particle (cell). Since FIG. 1 is a color photograph converted to a gray scale, the color tone is unknown, but according to the color photograph, it can be confirmed that the blue-green color is maintained.
On the other hand, as shown by the arrow B in the photomicrograph of FIG. 2, the dry bulk powder that is not subjected to the dry heat treatment loses phycocyanin after the water extraction treatment, resulting in a significant color loss.
This is because in the dry heat-treated product, proteins (including phycocyanin protein) in the cell walls of Spirulina have been denatured by dry heat treatment, but the blue group phycocyanobilin remains in the dry heat-treated powder. Show.
Therefore, the powder obtained by the dry heat treatment is characterized by being excellent in water resistance as a naturally-derived coloring powder, unlike other methods in which the phycocyanin content is reduced, for example, modified spirulina described in Patent Document 2. .

Claims (4)

A dry powder of cyanobacteria selected from species belonging to the genus Arthrospira or Spirulina is dry-heat-treated, and the total carotenoid content of the powder is 50 to 200 mg / 100 g, the chlorophyll content is 250 to 1000 mg / 100 g, and the phycocyanin content The manufacturing method of the cyanobacteria powder for coloring characterized by making 800-3200mg / 100g.   The method for producing a coloring cyanobacteria powder according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the dry heat treatment is 105 to 180 ° C. Cyanobacteria powder selected from species belonging to the genus Arthrospira or Spirulina, having a total carotenoid content of 50-200 mg / 100 g, a chlorophyll content of 250-1000 mg / 100 g, and a phycocyanin content of 800-3200 mg / 100 g A cyanobacterial powder for coloring, characterized in that The cyanobacteria powder for coloring according to claim 3 , which is used for coloring green tea or green tea.