Enzyme-decomposed materials of laver and uses thereof

Details Enzyme-decomposed materials of laver and uses thereof Enzyme-decomposed materials of laver and uses thereof

1999-09-15

2001-04-17

Tate, Christopher R. (Department: 1651)

Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions

Antigen, epitope, or other immunospecific immunoeffector

Conjugate or complex

C514S002600

Reexamination Certificate

active

06217879

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel enzyme-decomposed materials from laver (a seaweed) which have a wide variety of effective pharmacological actions, as well as uses thereof.
2. Discussion of the Background
Heretofore, laver has been used exclusively as food, but the present inventors have focused their attention on the functions and components of laver and extensively studied decomposed materials from laver to utilize them in other fields. For example, the present inventors have decomposed laver with pepsin to obtain a peptide mixture as a substance having a wide variety of effective functions including antihypertensive action, and previously filed this substance for a patent (JP-A 10-175997).
The peptide mixture described above can be used in a pharmaceutical preparation as an antihypertensive agent or in health food having an inhibitory action on calcium precipitation, an anti-mutagenic activity, a plasma and hepatic cholesterol-reducing action, an effect of reducing blood sugar levels, an effect of improving hepatic functions, an anti-oxidant effect and a SOD-like activity, but the enzyme-decomposed product when used as a pharmaceutical preparation should further be purified to increase its action. Further, when it is used as food that does not require such high biological activity as in a pharmaceutical preparation, polysaccharides remain in the enzyme-decomposed material to make it highly viscous when dissolved in an aqueous solvent, so there is the problem that unless it is purified to certain degrees, its use is limited. Further, the enzyme-decomposed material tastes bitter or unfavorable smells, thus making its use limited.
The object of the present invention is to provide enzyme-decomposed materials from laver which are improved so as to be further readily usable in a wide variety of uses such as pharmaceutical preparation, food etc., thus solving the problems described above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
That is, the present invention relates to enzyme-decomposed materials (A) from laver, comprising a peptide mixture obtained by boiling laver as the starting material for 1 hour or more, then removing the broth and adding water and pepsin to decompose the laver with pepsin, as well as to enzyme-decomposed materials (B) from laver, comprising a peptide mixture obtained by decomposing laver with pepsin in the method described above and further decomposing it with an enzyme having a peptidase activity.
Further, the present invention relates to use of enzyme-decomposed materials (A) and (B) from laver, to an antihypertensive agent comprising these enzyme-decomposed materials, and to health food and low salt food comprising these enzyme-decomposed materials added to food. Further, the present invention relates to a seasoning comprising the latter, that is, the enzyme-decomposed materials (B) as a major ingredient.
For production of the enzyme-decomposed materials from laver according to the present invention, the starting material laver is boiled for 1 hour or more, and before enzyme decomposition, its broth is removed so that components other than proteins that are the starting material of peptides are removed, thereby raising the degree of enzyme decomposition and promoting formation of peptides having an antihypertensive action, an inhibitory action on calcium precipitation, an antimutagenic activity against mutagens, a plasma cholesterol-reducing action, a cerebral apoplexy preventing effect, hepatic cholesterol-reducing action, an effect of improving hepatic functions, a SOD-like activity, an anti-oxidant effect and an effect of reducing blood sugar levels.
In the above-mentioned prior art invention, the boiling treatment and broth-removing treatment described above are not conducted before enzyme decomposition, and thus components other than desired peptides are contained in large amounts in the enzyme-decomposed materials, or the degree of enzyme decomposition itself is low, and as a result, it cannot be said that the antihypertensive action is satisfactory.
Because the boiling treatment and broth-removing treatment are conducted in the present invention, the inhibitory action of the product on angiotensin I converting enzyme, which is an indication of the ability to reduce blood pressure, was confirmed to be raised to 3- to 5-fold or more. The boiling treatment should be conducted using hot water from the start whereby water-soluble proteins in laver as the starting material are instantaneously heated and coagulated thereby preventing the proteins from being eluted into the broth.
As described above, the enzyme-decomposed materials from laver according to the present invention have a high inhibitory activity on angiotensin I converting enzyme, and even in a non-purified form, have an equivalent antihypertensive action to that of purified materials from said peptide mixture from laver in the above-mentioned prior art invention, so these can be easily applied to pharmaceutical preparations requiring high activity. For the field of food, unpleasant smell peculiar to laver can be removed by boiling treatment and subsequent broth-removing treatment, so the product can be added to food without any adverse effect on the flavor of the food. Accordingly, it can impart various functions without adversely affecting the flavor of the food, to provide more preferable health food.
Further, after the pepsin decomposition described above, secondary decomposition reaction with an enzyme having a peptidase activity is conducted so that free amino acid levels can be raised to 10% or more, whereby enzyme-decomposed materials from laver given tastes while maintaining an antihypertensive action can be obtained. Accordingly, the secondary decomposition reaction with an enzyme having a peptidase activity is preferably conducted if it is necessary to prepare enzyme-decomposed materials with good tastes where bitter tastes peculiar to proteins have been reduced. The enzyme having a peptidase activity used in secondary decomposition is preferably that having an activity for increasing free amino acid levels while keeping an inhibitory action on angiotensin I converting enzyme, and for example, mention can be made of Flavorzyme and Sumizyme.
By broth-removing treatment after boiling, the majority of impurities other than peptides have been removed from the enzyme-decomposed materials derived from laver according to the present invention, but other peptides and components other than active peptides are still present in very small amounts in the hydrolyzate. Accordingly, if the enzyme-decomposed materials of the present invention are purified for use, the materials with a higher antihypertensive action can be obtained. As a matter of course, the mixture after hydrolysis may be used as such in various uses. In the case of purification, ultrafiltration, absorbent treatment or other suitable techniques are adopted for removal of components other than peptides.
By a suitable means such as spray-drying and lyophilization, the enzyme-decomposed materials of the present invention may be dried alone or in combination with fillers such as starch and dextrin or with other food materials or food additives as necessary.
As described above, the enzyme-decomposed materials from laver according to the present invention exhibit an antihypertensive action, so these materials can be used as an antihypertensive agent. Further, the enzyme-decomposed materials from laver according to the present invention have an inhibitory action on calcium precipitation, an anti-mutagenic activity against mutagens such as Trp-P-1 and AF-2, a plasma and hepatic cholesterol-reducing action, a cerebral apoplexy preventing effect, an effect of improving hepatic functions, a SOD-like activity, an anti-oxidant effect and an effect of reducing blood sugar levels, so these materials can be added to food in order to form health food based on these actions.
Further, it was found that the enzyme-decomposed materials from laver according to the present invention have the effect of raisi

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