Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series – Organic compounds – Carbohydrates or derivatives
Patent
1994-05-13
1996-06-25
Nutter, Nathan M.
Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series
Organic compounds
Carbohydrates or derivatives
536127, 536128, 424488, C08B 3714, C08L 514, A61L 2500, A61L 2700
Patent
active
055301126
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention is concerned with the production of gels from plant matter and the resulting gels.
Large numbers of plant sources contain hemicelluloses, which are composed of various arrangements of pentoses (such as xylose and arabinose), hexoses (such as mannose, glucose and galactose) and/or uronic acids (such as glucuronic and galacturonic acid). Examples of hemicellulosic materials include xylans (such as arabinoxylan), mannans and galactans, which may be substituted by phenolic acid residues such as ferulic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid), coumaric acid (p-hydroxycinnamic acid) or vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyl benzoic acid). Such materials occur naturally in cereals such as maize, barley (including malted barley), wheat, oats and rice; pulses, such as soya; legumes and fruit.
French patent specification 2545101 is concerned with modification of sugar beet pectins by reacting an oxidising system comprising an enzyme (such as peroxidase) and an oxidising agent (such as hydrogen peroxide) with pectins which have been isolated from sugar beet. The isolation of pectin comprises subjecting the sugar beet to acidic extraction and heat treatment.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of producing a gel material, which method comprises: substantially free of glucans and is obtainable from testaceous plant material; least one peroxide, together with at least one oxygenase (such as a peroxidase).
The soluble hemicellulosic starting medium is typically prepared from waste testaceous plant material containing a significant quantity (such as at least about 10%, such as about 20%) of arabinoxylan or glucuronoarabinoxylan, which is present in nature primarily in the cell wall regions. Examples of preferred such sources include waste materials which are rich in cell walls, such as cereal husk or bran, or legumes (pulses). Typical cereal husk or bran includes maize, barley, wheat, rice or oats, or malt or malt culms (dried germinated barley rootlets).
In a preferred embodiment, the hemicellulosic starting medium is in a substantially ground form having a particle size of not more than about 100 microns. The plant material is therefore typically ground, either in dry or wet form (such as milling or wet grinding known as maceration) to the required particle size. The ground material is typically air classified or sieved to remove starch. The method may comprise starch removal by suitable enzyme treatment, for example, with diatase (alpha and/or beta-amylase).
The glucans are preferably removed from the plant material by enzyme digestion with carbohydrase enzymes such as glucanase.
The insoluble enzyme treated material may then be dried (in air) before further processing. The plant material may have been pre-treated so as to remove the glucans prior to application of the present method, but it is preferred that the method according to the invention involves enzyme treatment so as to remove glucans following the above described grinding of the plant material.
Suitable glucanases for use according to the invention are commercially available under the trade marks Viscozyme, Biofeed and Biofeed Plus which typically also have hemicellulase, cellulase, arabinase and xylanase activity. Viscozyme is currently preferred.
The non-acidic extraction preferably comprises treatment with hot water or weak alkali typically of less than 0.5% by weight of the aqueous reagent. Preferred alkalies are NaOH and KOH. The alkali is preferably used in an amount of 0.1 to 10% (typically 0.5 to 2.5%) by weight of the aqueous reagent, for times of from 20 minutes to 5 hours (typically about 2 hours) Alternatively, gel may be produced from wheat bran and barley dust or culms by using hot water in place of alkali.
The alkaline extraction may be at a temperature of from 30.degree. to 100.degree. C. and is typically at a temperature of 60.degree. to 90.degree. C. generally for 10 minutes to 5 hours. For strong gels, temperatures of 60.degree. to 75.degree. C. are preferably used for 0.5 to 1.5 hours; for we
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Greenshields Roderick
Rees Artis L.
GB R&D, C Limited
Nutter Nathan M.
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