Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Preparations characterized by special physical form – Matrices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-04
2001-01-16
Nutter, Nathan M. (Department: 1711)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Preparations characterized by special physical form
Matrices
C536S123100, C536S127000, C536S128000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174549
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is concerned with the production of gels from plant matter and gels produced from various plant source materials.
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 oxidizing 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.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
By processing testaceous plant material according to the invention, a gel material with advantageous properties can be produced. The method comprises:
(a) providing a hemicellulosic starting medium which is substantially free of glucans and is obtainable from testaceous plant material;
(b) extracting aqueous soluble material from said starting medium by means of a non-acidic aqueous reagent; and
(c) reacting the extracted material with an oxidizing system comprising at least one peroxide, together with at least one oxygenase (such as a peroxidase).
The soluble hemicellulosic starting medium is typically prepared from testaceous plant material which would otherwise be waste, the 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).
The gel material according to the invention may have a wide variety of uses, of which the following are exemplary:
1. In medicinal compositions for example as a topical formulation or wound dressing (such as for treatment of burns) or debriding agent, as a carrier for iron or zinc, as a lubricant, or a thickener for parenteral compositions, or as an encapsulating agent, or as a slow release vehicle for drug delivery (either for oral, parenteral or anal delivery), or for use for implants and prosthesis purposes for orthopedic purposes (such as pressure-relief gels), for ocular purposes or suppository uses.
A particularly preferred medicinal application of the gel is for use as a wound dressing, and there is further provided by the present invention a wound dressing having a surface contact region comprising a gel as hereinbefore described. Advantageously, the wound dressing consists essentially of a gel material substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. In foodstuffs or animal feeds, for example, as a cold setting gel for use as a stabiliser for ice cream or the like, as a suspending agent for particles such as coconut, as a glazing agent for meat or the like, as a setting agent for jams, or a thickening agent for gravies, purees, sweets, soups or the like, as a soluble fiber, as a food lubricant, as a viscosity agent for flavors, as a canning gel, functional food or fish bait.
3. In the oil industry, for example, for sealing strata above oil deposits, as an oil drilling sealing agent, as an additive to drilling muds or the like, and for recovery of oil from oil-bearing strata.
4. In the microbiological industry, for example as a gelling agent, a spore biocontainer or a culture biocontainer.
5. In the agricultural industry, as a slow release pesticide biocontainer, a plant culture medium, an anti-drying agent, a silage pit sealing material, or the like.
Gels obtained according to the invention may be prepared such that they eventually break down to the sol form.
The present invention is further illustrated by reference to the following Examples and accompanying drawings which do not limit the scope of the invention in any way.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4262024 (1981-04-01), Mathason
patent: 4831127 (1989-05-01), Weibel
patent: 5099009 (1992-03-01), Thibault et al.
patent: 5174998 (1992-12-01), Ijitsu et al.
patent: 5530112 (1996-06-01), Greenshields et al.
patent: 2545101 (1983-04-01), None
patent: 91/06323 (1991-05-01), None
Geissmann, T., et al., “On the Composition of the Water Soluble Wheat Flour Pentosans and Their Oxidative Gelation”,Lebensm.-Wiss. U. Technol., 6, 59-62, (1973).
Geissmann, T., et al., “Vernetzung von Phenolcarbonsaureestern von Polysacchariden durch Oxydative Phenolische Kupplung”,Helvetica Chimica Acta, 54, 1108-1112, (1971).
Izydorczyk, M., et al., “Comparison of the Structure and Composition of Water-Soluble Pentosans from Different Wheat Varieties”,Cereal Chemistry, 68, 139-144, (1991).
Michniewicz, J., et al., “Water-Insoluble Pentosans of Wheat: Composition and Some Physical Properties”,Cereal Chemistry, 67, 434-439, (1990).
Neukon, H., et al., “Oxidative Gelation of Wheat Flour Pentosans: A New Way of Cross-Linking Polymers”,Cereal Foods World, 23, 374-376, (Jul. 1978).
Greenshields Roderick
Rees Artis L.
EI Du Pont De Nemours and Company
Heslin & Rothenberg, P.C.
Nutter Nathan M.
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