Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Extraction utilizing liquid as extracting medium
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-03
2004-11-23
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Extraction utilizing liquid as extracting medium
C426S433000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06821541
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to container apparatuses and methods for steeping tea, especially green tea, in generally anaerobic conditions. Tea steeped in the ways and means described in conjunction with this invention can be rich in antioxidants.
BACKGROUND
Aqueous extract of the dried leaves of tea trees,
Camellia sinensis
, which is generally referred to as tea, has been used as a favorite beverage in certain societies for about 5,000 years for its soothing taste and for its potential health benefits to human beings. Only in the past few decades has scientific data clearly demonstrated a positive relationship between regular tea drinking and the prevention of certain human diseases. Recently numerous medical and scientific reports have indicated that tea drinking may be associated with a wide range of health benefits, including lowering the total blood cholesterol and the low-density-lipid cholesterol level, increasing the high-density-lipid blood cholesterol level, reducing blood pressure, acting as blood thinner, reducing the risk of heart attack, decreasing the risk of stroke, reducing the risk of cancer, enhancing the immune system of the body and preventing dental cavities.
Results from studies in rats, mice and hamsters showed that tea consumption protects against lung, forestomach, esophasus, duodenum, pancreas, liver, breast, colon, and skin cancers induced by chemical carcinogens. Regular consumption of green tea has a preventive effect against atherosclerosis, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension (Hasan Mukhtar and Hihal Ahmad, Am J Nutr 71:1698S-1702S, 2000). The growth of certain types of high-grade human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells can be inhibited by green tea extracts in animal models. Green tea extracts were found to be more effective than the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide in preventing lymphoma recurrence (Bertolini F et al. Leukemia 14: 1477-1482, 2000). Tea extracts also appear to have antiviral effects by interference with virus adsorption to target cells (Nakayama M et al. Letters in Applied Microbiology 11:38-40, 1990; Mykoyama A et al. Japan J Med Sci Biol.44: 181-186, 1991).
The published research data indicated that the health-promoting active ingredients in the tea leaves belong to a family of chemicals, functionally referred to as “antioxidants” which also exist in many plant foods loosely labeled as “flavonoids”. Most researchers have identified the health-beneficial antioxidants in tea leaves to be polyphenols, known in chemical terms as (−) epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (−) epigallocatechin (EGC), (−) epicatechin gallate (ECG), and (−) epicatechin (EC) (referred hereafter generally as catechins). These active polyphenolic compounds may account for 30-40% of the extractable solids of green tea leaves (Brown Md., Altem Med Rev. 4:360-370, 1999) although it is possible that other important ingredients of tea beneficial to human health are as yet to be identified (Ohe T. et al. Mutat. Res. 496:75-81, 2001).
One of the most important discoveries in medical research of recent years is the finding of the toxic effects of the so-called free radicals in human body. Free radicals, which are often reactive oxygen species, are highly reactive molecules that can damage the cells of the human body and contribute to many diseases and to the aging process. A free radical takes an electron from another molecule, turning the latter molecule into an electron-deficient free radical that will rob an electron from yet another molecule. In such a chain reaction, some of normal cellular structures reacting with the free radicals may be damaged. These damages may be apparent immediately or may be latent.
The harmful effects of free radicals on the human cells include causing oxidation of the fats and proteins of the cell membranes, damaging the mitochondria, interference with normal cellular functions by inactivating enzymes and hormones and damaging the DNA code leading to irreversible mutation and development of cancer.
Free radicals are being created constantly in the human body as part of the normal living process, or can be introduced from the environment in the form of nitrogen dioxide and other potentially harmful chemicals in the air pollutants, toxic wastes and pesticides. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun, cigarette smoking (active or passive), various medications, etc. all introduce free radicals into the human body. Therefore, there is no way to avoid free radicals completely in life. However, some nutrient supplements are known to help the body to minimize the harmful effects of free radicals. For example, the flavonoids can prevent the formation of free radicals, and protect vitamin C which can neutralize free radicals in the extracellular and intracellular fluids. Vitamin E can protect the cell membranes from the oxidation damage induced by free radicals. The carotenoids can scavenge singlet oxygen molecules and prevent the oxidation of fats which are essential components of cell membranes.
The tea polyphenols as antioxidants in the flavonoid family are capable of preventing the formation of free radicals or interrupting the chain reaction of free radical formation by donating their loosely attached electrons to the free radicals, making the latter inactive and harmless without becoming free radicals themselves. Therefore, tea polyphenols are ready electron donors and their antioxidant function must be maintained or preserved in the dried tea leaves and in the tea extracts for the latter to be effective as a health-promoting herbal beverage.
Exposure to oxygen may reduce the contents of tea polyphenols. For example, the process of fermentation which is actually an oxidation treatment of the tea leaves for 60 to 120 minutes in preparing black tea has been shown to cause more than 80% degradation of the tea catechins in the tea leaves with no decrease in caffeine contents (Astill C et al. J. Agric. Food Chem. 49:5340-5347, 2001). Therefore, most medical and scientific data have been based on studies using the unfermented green tea extracts as the active substance.
The antioxidant activities of tea catechins, especially EGCG, the most abundant and most active catechin in tea extracts, are influenced by the pH and metal ions in the aqueous extracts remaining high and constant at pH 6-12, but decreasing in acidic and strong alkaline solutions. While copper ions increase the antioxidant activity of EGCG, ferrous ions inhibit the activity (Kumamoto M et al. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 65:126-132, 2001).
The EGCG contents in the dried tea leaves vary greatly not only with the types of dried tea leaves processed with different methods, but are also known to vary between leaves plucked from different parts of the same tea tree. The first young leaf has been shown to have the highest concentration of EGCG, and the concentration of EGCG decreases with aging of the leaf (Sakata I et al. Yakugaku Zasshi 111:790-793, 1991).
Khokhar and Magnusdottir (Khokhar S. and Magnusdottir S. G. M. J. Agric. Food Chem. 50:565-570, 2002) studied the efficiency of aqueous extraction of tea catechins from dried tea leaves. The results showed that a high temperature of 100° C. for 5 minutes is necessary for the most efficient extraction of tea catechins. At a lower temperature, for example, at 80° C., the extraction efficiency for EGCG is reduced by more than one third (⅓).
Degradation of the green tea catechins in tea drinks has also been studied (Chen Z. et al. J. Agric. Food Chem. 49:477-482, 2001). The results showed that the green tea catechins, namely (−) epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (−) epigallocatechin (EGC), (−) epicatechin gallate (ECG) and (−) epicatechin (EC) are generally stable at room temperature. However, at high temperature in the presence of oxygen, especially during autoclaving at 120° C. with addition of sucrose, citric acid, and ascorbic acid, unpredictable degradation of the tea catechins will take place. As a result, a person will ingest 400-500 mg of green tea cat
Alexander Reginald L.
Nash and Titus LLC
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