Tobacco – Smoke separator or treater – By adding constituent to smoke stream
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-14
2004-06-15
Walls, Dionne A. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Smoke separator or treater
By adding constituent to smoke stream
C131S336000, C131S270000, C131S331000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06748956
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cigarette filter containing an extract of Vernonia Cinerea (L.) Less and a cigarette attached with the cigarette filter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A great number of smokers desire to give up smoking. Major reasons for this desire include: (1) tobacco is generally known to be harmful to health and, particularly, known to have carcinogenicity causing lung cancer and like cancers; (2) smoke (secondhand smoke) or smell of tobacco makes people around the smoker unpleasant, and what is more, it is said to be carcinogenic to such people.
Many such smokers desiring to give up smoking have taken some action to give up smoking more than once. However, there is a less number of smokers who have successfully given up smoking in spite of considerable intention and effort to give up their favorite in the life habit. Some of those who are unsuccessful in giving up smoking lose confidence or become or revert to heavy smokers far from reducing the number of cigarettes smoked. For this reason, smokers buy cigarettes including the phrase “mild” or “light” against their will and keep on smoking while justifying their smoking claiming that such cigarettes contain reduced amount of nicotine or tar. Though there are some smokers who try to give up smoking by the use of nicotine-containing chewing gum or chewing tobacco, it does not mean that they are relieved from addiction to nicotine and, hence, they are likely to resume smoking at any time. Further, such smokers experience such frustration as derived from “inhibition to light a cigarette”, “deprivation of the pleasure of smoking due to giving up smoking”, or the like during the stop smoking period, and, hence, feel additional stresses. This is because problems related to smoking include not only nicotinism. Any one of smokers, whether or not they desire to give up smoking, may unintentionally (a) want to put his or her finger about his or her mouth; (b) want to bring something into contact with his or her lips; (c) want to light a cigarette; (d) want to take breath and enjoy smoking while appreciating smoke; and after all, (e) yield to nicotinism. Smokers protect themselves from stresses by following these steps (a) to (e).
On the other hand, there are a number of smokers who are particular to their own tastes and are sensitive to scents and tastes of cigarettes of different brands. Herb-mixed cigarette imitations or cigarettes flavored with the scent of a fruit or the like for helping smokers' suppressing smoking or giving up smoking, which are called “health-oriented cigarettes” or “cigarettes for controlling smoking”, do not meet the taste of such a smoker and hence the smoker may feel such products “not tasty”. For this reason, it is a reality that such a smoker resumes smoking his or her favorite cigarette eventually.
Alternatively, there are some smokers who positively enjoy smoking and intentionally avoid giving up smoking notwithstanding the aforementioned facts (1) and (2). For this reason, tobacco companies may try to improve the scent and taste of cigarettes, but may never try to produce and sell products with degraded scent and taste for supporting smokers' giving up smoking.
Accordingly, it has been earnestly desired that a novel cigarette filter and a cigarette be provided which enable smokers to suppress smoking or give up smoking for health to realize their desire efficiently with no stress exerted thereto without the likelihood that nonsmokers feel smoke or scent of the cigarette unpleasant. Heretofore, however, almost absolutely no study has been made from such a point of view.
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing circumstances. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel cigarette filter which is capable of providing a desired effect of facilitating smokers' suppressing smoking or giving up smoking while sufficiently satisfying the desire of such smokers to smoke and meeting their smoking habit without changing the cigarette's own flavor thereby allowing the smokers to readily reduce the number of cigarettes smoked without the necessity of interrupting smoking, and a novel cigarette provided with such a filter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cigarette filter containing an extract of Vernonia Cinerea (L.) Less.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a cigarette comprising the cigarette filter as recited above.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention will now be described in detail.
In order to provide a cigarette for allowing smokers to suppress smoking or give up smoking which satisfies all the aforementioned conditions, the inventors of the present invention have made research for and study of various substances which may allow smokers to suppress smoking or give up smoking in order to develop a cigarette filter containing some substance which facilitates smokers' suppressing smoking or giving up smoking thereby to provide an effect of allowing such smokers to suppress smoking or give up smoking without degrading the scent or taste of a cigarette so that the cigarette satisfies the taste of any smoker, whether he or she desires to give up smoking or not. The inventors have discovered the fact that among such substances, an extract of Vernonia Cinerea (L.) Less, in particular, satisfies the foregoing conditions, and have made further study thereof. As a result, they have reached a discovery that the use of a cigarette filter containing the Vernonia Cinerea Less extract can provide desired effects, and have completed the present invention.
Vernonia Cinerea (L.) Less is one of native Thai herbs, belongs to the chrysanthemum family, and is called “little ironweed”. Heretofore, Vernonia Cinerea Less has been utilized as a food or drink by being wholly boiled with hot water for eating or by being wholly dried to prepare a tea (Vernonia Cinerea Less tea) for drinking. Vernonia Cinerea Less has also been utilized for medical purposes because it is expected to be efficacious in treating skin injuries of diabetics, in lowering a blood sugar value, or in like medical treatments.
Further, the Vernonia Cinerea Less tea is known to exhibit an action of facilitating smokers' giving up smoking. For example, it has been reported that more than about 80% of smokers who had drunk one to three cups of Vernonia Cinerea Less tea a day for about two to threeconsecutive weeks could reduce the number of cigarettes smoked to about a half, and could be relieved of nerve-racking state.
In such a case, however, a smoker has to drink the Vernonia Cinerea Less tea separately from smoking. Since each person has his or her own taste concerning drinks such as coffee and tea, smokers, if forced to take another kind of drink (Vernonia Cinerea Less tea) in addition to such drinks for the purpose of only giving up smoking, become subject to another stress. Particularly, smokers often enjoy smoking together with a drink and, in such a case the Vernonia Cinerea Less tea does not necessarily meet the taste of such smokers. Further, the stress becomes more considerably heavy because such smokers may take actions full of contradiction: that is, enjoying smoking at the same time with drinking of the Vernonia Cinerea Less tea for giving up smoking.
In view of the above, the inventors of the present invention changed the way of thinking and conceived the idea of applying Vernonia Cinerea Less to a cigarette instead of drinking Vernonia Cinerea Less as a tea. They thought that the application of Vernonia Cinerea Less to a cigarette would not force smokers to drink tea prepared for a specific purpose and hence would provide a desired effect of allowing smokers to suppress smoking or give up smoking readily while enjoying smoking as usual (that is, without any change of their life habit). Heretofore, such a change in the way of thinking has not been known at all and,
Walls Dionne A.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
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