Chemistry: natural resins or derivatives; peptides or proteins; – Proteins – i.e. – more than 100 amino acid residues – Separation or purification
Patent
1991-07-15
1993-05-11
Griffin, Ronald W.
Chemistry: natural resins or derivatives; peptides or proteins;
Proteins, i.e., more than 100 amino acid residues
Separation or purification
530419, 530420, 426540, 8438, 8646, 536 20, 536124, 536127, 536128, C09B 6100, A23J 104
Patent
active
052101860
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention consists of a procedure for the production of astaxanthin and related carotenoids, astaxanthin esters, chitin, proteins and meat. Those products are recovered from plants, algae, bacteria, krill, shrimps and other crayfish and crustacea. The method comprises boiling the raw materials in a lye solution to form an alkaline extract and a residue which can be separated by filtration. Typically the alkaline extraction procedure is repeated and the extracts are combined. Upon cooling, the extracts separate into three phases, respectively having a lowest specific weight, an intermediate specific weight and a highest specific weight. The phase having the lowest specific weight upon neutralization yields two phases, the oily phase of which comprises astaxanthin esters. The phase with the highest specific weight upon neutralization yields solids consisting of astaxanthin and related carotenoids separable from the neutralized high specific weight phase by filtration. The alkaline extract phase having an intermediate specific weight contains protein components from the raw materials. That phase can be neutralized, treated to remove fluoride and heavy metal contaminants and thereafter acidified to precipitate extracted proteins. The residue obtained from the original lye solution extraction procedure is dried in concentration formic acid and thereafter dissolved in anhydride formic acid or another strong acid. The resulting acidic solution is filtered and diluted with water to precipitate chitin.
Astaxanthin and related carotenoids are used in the fish farming industry today as dies for colouring the fish meat of species which have red or pale red meat in natural habitats. During cultivation there is no feed that contains enough dye to give this colour flesh to such fish. These dyes are produced today by fermenting algae and synthesizing from a fermentation mixture. This approach is both expensive and time-consuming and necessitates the processing of large volumes of fermentation mixture.
So far there has been no product to meet the need for an inexpensive industrial process for producing astaxanthin and related carotenoids for the fish farming industry and other applications for the colouring of foodstuffs. The present invention describes a procedure which enables astaxanthin and related carotenoids to be produced on an industrial basis much cheaper than with present day technology. At the same time, the present invention is based on the exploitation of natural resources that are unexploitable or which represent a waste disposal problem. These include Antarctic krill; plants, bacteria and algae; and waste from the commercial processing of the meat in species such as shrimps, crayfish and crustacea. The present invention also helps to utilize the above-mentioned natural resources better, by using more of the raw material, either by improving the degree of utilization through the production of the required products, or by utilizing the same raw material to produce other types of products. Thus the present invention can for example be used to produce astaxanthin and related carotenoids astaxanthin esters, chitin, proteins and meat from Antarctic krill in a way that gives an extremely high degree of utilization of this raw material.
The shells of Antarctic krill are in addition the greatest unused source of protein in the world. However they cannot be used for feed or food because they contain too many toxic components such as fluorine and toxic heavy metals. With the means of production in the present invention, both the fluorine and the toxic heavy metals can be removed from the shells so that extensive use can be made of the proteins and chitin that can be produced from them.
These and other features of the invention become evident from the characterizing part of the Claims of Patent below.
The method in accordance with this invention will now be illustrated in greater detail by the following examples.
EXAMPLE 1
Krill
When the Antarctic krill is caught, the meat is squeezed out behind the ce
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Mikalsen, deceased Gunnar
Mikalsen, heiress by Ester
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