Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or...
Patent
1980-11-26
1982-11-30
Wyse, Thomas G.
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or...
435 22, 435 23, 23230M, C12Q 100, G01N 3100
Patent
active
043616461
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining both water-insoluble and water-soluble plant fibre components in plant material.
Dietary fibre or fibres are defined as those constituents of vegetable foodstuffs which withstand digestion by enzymes produced in the human oral cavity, stomach and small intestine and therefore pass in an unchanged state into the large intestine. During the 1970's, an ever increasing interest was devoted to dietary fibres in terms of research and discussion of the importance of diet to health. Hypotheses have been put forth to the effect that a low intake of dietary fibres would imply a considerable risk factor for being inflicted with various diseases usual in affluent societies.
From a chemical aspect, dietary fibres include water-insoluble substances (such as cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) and water-soluble substances (such as pectin, inulin, certain hemicellulose). Additives to plant-based food products, such as alginates, carrageenans, vegetable gums and carboxymethyl cellulose, are also included in the dietary fibre concept.
Of fundamental importance to research and development work concerning dietary fibres is to have the use of a suitable routine method of analysis for determining the dietary fibre contents in raw materials, ready-to-consume foodstuffs, and mixed food samples from investigations of food habits. The routine methods of analysis hitherto published are all based on the sample being pretreated such that the other components are solubilized by chemical degradation ("crude fibre", Official Methods of AOAC, 1975, 136), or by treatment with wetting agents ("neutral detergent fiber/acid detergent fiber", van Soest and Wine, J. AOAC, 1967, 50, 50), or by enzymatic degradation (Weinstock and Benham, J. Cereal Chem., 1951, 28, 490; Hellendoorn et al., J. Sci, Food Agric., 1975, 26, 1461).
Dietary fibres are then separated by filtration of the sample through a glass filter. As glass filters have large pores, water-soluble dietary fibre components will obviously get lost, for which reason all of the aforementioned methods yield dietary fibre values which only comprise water insoluble components.
The object of the invention is to provide a method and an apparatus which permit determining both water-insoluble and water-soluble plant fibre components, particularly dietary fibre components in plant material, and which as a consequence give a more correct total fibre value than the prior art techniques outlined above.
This object is attained according to the present invention by a method and an apparatus having the characteristic features defined in the appended claims.
In short, the invention aims at solubilizing the water soluble fibre components of the plant fibre material and degrading and solubilizing the non-fibre components of the plant material, whereupon said material is filtered through a filter, such as a glass filter, which retains the water-insoluble fibre components, and then through an ultrafilter or membrane filter which retains the water-soluble fibre components but passes the decomposed non-fibre components.
An embodiment of the invention will be described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawing illustrating an apparatus according to the invention in section.
To the plant-based sample, such as a sample of a vegetable food product, whose water soluble and water insoluble plant fibre or dietary fibre components shall be determined, there are supplied substances or organisms capable of degrading or splitting large-molecular organic non-fibre components, such as protein and starch, into smaller fragments or molecules, such as amino acids and sugar, respectively, said non-fibre components thus constituting the nutritively available constituents of vegetable diet. For the purpose of degradation, use is advantageously made of enzymes of the type conventionally utilized for dietary fibre determination by enzymatic degradation, i.e. amylase for starch degradation and proteinase for protein degradation, and said enzy
REFERENCES:
patent: 1808593 (1931-06-01), Clark
patent: 2046940 (1936-07-01), Fitger et al.
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Wyse Thomas G.
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