Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Poultry egg is basic ingredient
Reexamination Certificate
1997-01-30
2002-08-13
Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Poultry egg is basic ingredient
C426S601000, C426S608000, C426S002000, C554S008000, C435S134000, C435S243000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06432468
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to domestic fowl eggs having a high content of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid, and a process for production thereof from egg-laying domestic fowls raised by feeding &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acid and optionally &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acid, as well as lipid having a high content of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid, obtained from said domestic fowl eggs, a process for production thereof, and their use.
BACKGROUND ART
Although eggs having a high degree of nutritional value and are excellent foods that contain a good balance of nutrients, due to their high cholesterol content, their consumption must be restricted. In recent years, research has therefore been conducted to introduce various drugs into eggs to inhibit increases in blood cholesterol levels, and numerous research has been reported.
On the other hand, after it was reported that &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acids contained in fish oil have an effect of lowering blood cholesterol (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 54-154533), a technology was developed in which large amounts of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid are introduced into the egg yolks of domestic fowl eggs by raising egg-laying domestic fowls on feed to which was added fish oil containing &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-36493).
However, reports of substances having the effect of lowering blood cholesterol were not limited to &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acid. This effect is also observed in &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids such as &ggr;-linolenic acid (Agric. Biol. Chem., 50, 2483-2491 (1986)), dihomo-&ggr;-linolenic acid and arachidonic acid (“Lipid Metabolism of Liver Disease”, Chugai Medical Co., Ltd., 1994, pp. 127-130). However, a method of for increasing amounts of &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids, and particularly arachidonic acid, in eggs has not yet been developed. Moreover, in recent years, questions have been raised regarding the ratio of &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids and &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acids. Consequently, instead of the conventional technology for increasing amount of eicosapentaenoic acid or docosahexaenoic acid in egg yolks, there has been a strong desire for a method of containing &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acid and &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acid in egg yolks in a favorable balance.
In view of these circumstances, it is stated for the amounts of ingested fatty acids in the section concerning ingestion of fatty acids in the Nutritional Requirements of the Japanese (5th Revision) that, “Consistent opinions have not yet been obtained regarding the ratio of ingestion of n-6 (&ohgr;6) fatty acids and n-3 (&ohgr;3) fatty acids. The results of a nutritional survey of Japanese showed that many of those surveyed fatty acids are ingested in the ratio of roughly 4:1, and this ratio is considered to be suitable at the present stage.” (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Health Service Bureau, Health Promotion and Nutrition Dept. ed.: “Nutritional Requirements of the Japanese, 5th Revision”, 1st edition, 1994, pp. 56-58).
In addition, it has also been recently reported that arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid are contained in mother's milk, and that they are useful in the growth and development of infants (“Advances in Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Research”, Elsevier Science Publishers, 1993, pp 261-264). Moreover, their importance has also been reported in the height and brain development of the fetus (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90, 1073-1077 (1993), Lancet, 344, 1319-1322 (1994)).
With this in mind, attempts were made to add arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, for which there are large differences in the fatty acid composition between mother's milk and infant formula, to infant formula. Although infant formula containing fish oil is currently available on the market for the purpose of adding docosahexaenoic acid to a infant formula, eicosapentaenoic acid contained in fish oil is inherently hardly contained at all in mother's milk. According to the results of recent research, this substance is not always favorable for the growth and development of premature infants (“Advances in Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Research”, Elsevier Science Publishers, 1993, pp. 261-264). U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,657 describes an invention relating to an oil to be added to milk product for infants, which oil blend comprises an edible oil in microbial cells containing docosahexaenoic acid and an edible oil in microbial cells containing arachidonic acid, but a small amount of eicosapentaenoic acid. However, since this involves direct administration of microbiological oil to premature infants and nursing infants, considerable cautions are required in terms of safety.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,285 discloses an amount of fatty acids such as arachidonic acid required by infants, and a blend of egg yolk oil and vegetable oil as an edible fat product for incorporation into an infant formula for providing these fatty acids. The egg yolk lipid used here can be said to have a lower amount of eicosapentaenoic acid and be an extremely safe raw material in comparison with the above-mentioned fish oil and microbial oil. However, since this egg yolk lipid contains only small amounts of arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (roughly 1.5% arachidonic acid and roughly 1.7% docosahexaenoic acid per the total fatty acids in the egg yolk lipid), it is uneconomical.
&ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acids have an abundant supply source, namely fish oil which have no problems whatsoever in terms of safety. However, there are surprisingly few supply sources of &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid. For example, although it is known that large amount of arachidonic acid are contained in liver, there are few opportunities for its consumption as a food. In addition, it is present only in small amounts in other meats (roasts or filet portions).
Therefore, extensive efforts were made to seek a supply source of &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acid in the microbial world. A technology was developed relating to the production of &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids by microorganisms represented by molds belonging to genus Mortierella, subgenus Mortierella (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-044891). However, although this technology was considered to have a high degree of safety, it did not expand significantly due to the problem of being of microbial origin.
Thus, there was a strong desire for the development of domestic fowl eggs fortified with arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid, as well as a lipid having a high content of arachidonic acid, and optionally docosahexaenoic acid extracted from those domestic fowl eggs for use as safe sources of arachidonic acid.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Thus, the present invention provides domestic fowl eggs having a high content of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid, and a process for production thereof, as well as a lipid having a high content of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid obtained from said domestic fowl eggs, a process for production thereof and its use.
As a result of various research to achieve the above-mentioned object, the inventors of the present invention found that domestic fowl eggs obtained by feeding egg-laying domestic fowls with &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acids and optionally &ohgr;3 highly unsaturated fatty acids have a high contents of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid, that are at least 2%, respectively, of the total amount of fatty acids in the egg yolk, thereby leading to completion of the present invention.
Thus, the present invention provides domestic fowl eggs having a high content of arachidonic acid and optionally docosahexaenoic acid obtained by feeding egg-laying domestic fowls with &ohgr;6 highly unsaturated fatty acid and optional
Akimoto Kengo
Arai Motoharu
Higashiyama Kenichi
Ishihara Takafumi
Kanada Teruyuki
Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis L.L.P.
Suntory Limited
Weier Anthony J.
LandOfFree
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