Tobacco – Method or apparatus for making tobacco substitute
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-08
2002-12-31
Fiorilla, Christopher A. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Method or apparatus for making tobacco substitute
C131S370000, C131S372000, C131S274000, C131S275000, C426S089000, C426S103000, C424S490000, C424S493000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06499490
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for producing a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet, and more particularly to a method for producing a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet which contains a leaf tobacco extract and can be used as a substitute for a tobacco. The present invention also relates to a method for producing a tobacco flavor-generating medium using the heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet obtained by this method.
International Publications PCT WO95/20329 and PCT WO95/20330 disclose a flavor-generating material wherein a flavor component is held within a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan such as curdlan. This flavor-generating material is said to be excellent in stability of holding the flavor component therein, easily emit the flavor component upon burning or heating, and does not generate any flavor-interfering materials, such as an unpleasant stimulus, pungent or fibrous odor substances upon burning or heating.
To produce the flavor-generating material noted above, powder of a heat-irreversibly coagulating glucan is firstly added to a large amount of water and is dispersed under high speed stirring to obtain an aqueous glucan dispersion (slurry) having a high viscosity. Next, a small amount of a flavor component is incorporated into this aqueous glucan dispersion, and the mixture is stirred in the same manner as above. Subsequently, the obtained glucan slurry is cast into a sheet, which is then thermally coagulated (gelled) to obtain a heat-irreversibly coagulated/gelled glucan gel sheet. This glucan gel sheet is cut or pulverized to be used as a flavor-generating material in various flavor-tasting or smoking products.
Incidentally, in recent years, a substitute for a tobacco, containing a leaf tobacco extract as a flavor component has been demanded.
To produce such a tobacco substitute by utilizing the technique of producing the flavor-generating glucan gel sheet noted above, it may suffice to add the leaf tobacco extract as a flavor component to the above-noted aqueous glucan dispersion.
However, the present inventors have found that it is almost impossible to cause a large amount of the leaf tobacco extract to be incorporated within the flavor-generating glucan gel sheet due to problems such as dispersion interference against the aqueous glucan dispersion. Thus, to release sufficient tobacco flavor from final flavor-tasting articles, it is necessary to use a relatively large amount of glucan containing the leaf tobacco extract obtained by the prior art methods.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet, which makes it possible to produce a glucan gel sheet containing a relatively large amount (content) of a leaf tobacco extract.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet, comprising the steps of:
(a) preparing a mixture containing a leaf tobacco extract or a concentrate thereof, as a dispersion medium, a dispersion interference-preventing agent comprising an organic acid, and powder of heat-irreversibly coagulating glucan;
(b) stirring the mixture to disperse the powder of the glucan into the dispersion medium, thereby forming a slurry having an increased viscosity;
(c) forming the slurry into a sheet-like form; and
(d) heating and coagulating the resultant sheet-like formed body.
In the present invention, the dispersion interference-preventing agent preferably comprises an organic carboxylic acid. In particular, malic acid, a citric acid, a tartaric acid, succinic acid, lactic acid and mixtures thereof are more preferable.
In the present invention, preferably, the glucan is curdlan.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing a tobacco flavor-generating medium, comprising the steps of cutting or pulverizing the heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet prepared by the above method according to the present invention to obtain a tobacco flavor-generating material; mixing the tobacco flavor-generating material with sheet tobacco materials; forming the resultant mixture into a sheet-like form; and cutting or pulverizing the resultant sheet-like formed body.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present inventors have attempted, following the prior art methods for producing a glucan gel sheet mentioned above, to add a larger amount of a leaf tobacco extract than the amount used in the prior art methods to an aqueous glucan dispersion prepared in advance, and to coagulate or gel the sheet. As a result, it was found that at most about 20% by weight of the leaf tobacco extract was held within the obtained glucan gel.
Then, the present inventors thought that, in order that a larger amount of the leaf tobacco extract would be contained and held within the glucan gel sheet, it was sufficient to use the leaf tobacco extract, instead of water, as a dispersion medium for the glucan, in preparing the glucan dispersion; thus, the inventors attempted to disperse powder of glucan into a large amount of the leaf tobacco extract under high speed stirring.
Unexpectedly, however, it was found that a dispersion interference phenomenon occurred that the viscosity of the glucan dispersion (slurry) was not increased to a viscosity sufficient to form a sheet due to poor dispersion of gulcan in the medium, or a gelation interference phenomenon occurred that when this dispersion was cast into a sheet and thermally coagulated or gelled, the strength of the resultant gel was insufficient as a result of the dispersion interference phenomenon.
Investigating causes for the above, the present inventors found that the dispersion and gelation of the glucan were interfered by hydrophilic materials dissolved in the leaf tobacco extract, hydrophobic materials present in a form of oils or solids which are not dissolved in the extract, fibrous dust present as fine particles in the extract, and the like materials. When the dispersion of the glucan is interfered, the viscosity of the slurry is not increased sufficiently, resulting in flowing-out of the slurry, casting-failure or scattering of the slurry and the like in the step of forming a sheet, and further resulting in reduction in gel strength in a subsequent thermal gelation step, leading to the interference of the formation of the gel. When the formation of the gel is interfered, sheet physical properties such as strength remarkably deteriorate and the stable sheet formation becomes difficult. In addition, the effect of incorporating the leaf tobacco extract within the glucan gel is decreased, and stability of holding the leaf tobacco extract and duration property of release thereof are remarkably deteriorated.
To overcome these problems, the present inventors have conducted extensive studies to find that the dispersion interference can be prevented if at least one organic acid is added in dispersing powder of the glucan into the leaf tobacco extract (or a concentrate thereof as a dispersion medium for glucan, making it possible to produce a heat-irreversibly coagulated glucan sheet holding the leaf tobacco extract at a higher content and with good stability and a satisfactory strength.
The present invention will be described in detail below.
In the present invention, firstly, a mixture is prepared which contains a leaf tobacco extract or a concentrate thereof as a dispersion medium, a dispersion interference-preventing agent comprising an organic acid, and powder of a heat-irreversibly coagulating glucan.
In the present invention, the leaf tobacco extract which is used as a dispersion medium for the heat-irreversibly coagulating glucan can be obtained by a conventional method. For example, 20 to 200 parts by weight of a leaf tobacco can be added to 1000 parts by weight of water, and then this mixture is stirred, while being heated at, for example, 10° C.-90° C., so as to extract a leaf tobacco extract. The mixture is filtered using a filter havi
Anzai Yuriko
Saito Yutaka
Fiorilla Christopher A.
Halpern Mark
Japan Tobacco Inc.
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