Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Separating a starting material into plural different...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-27
2001-07-03
Pratt, Helen (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Separating a starting material into plural different...
C426S052000, C426S478000, C426S489000, C426S521000, C426S615000, C424S195110
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254913
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to dietary fiber obtained from the
Morinda citrifolia
plant and to the process of extracting and purifying the fiber.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Indian Mulberry plant, known scientifically as
Morinda citrifolia
L., is a shrub, or small or medium sized tree 3 to 10 meters high. It grows in tropical coastal regions around the world. The plant grows randomly in the wild, and it has been cultivated in plantations and small individual growing plots. The Indian mulberry plant has somewhat rounded branches and evergreen, opposite (or spuriously alternate), dark, glossy, wavy, prominently-veined leaves. The leaves are broadly elliptic to oblong, pointed at both ends, 10-30 cm in length and 5-15 cm wide.
The Indian mulberry flowers are small, white, 3 to 5 lobed, tubular, fragrant, and about 1.25 cm long. The flowers develop into compound fruits composed of many small drupes fused into an ovoid, ellipsoid or roundish, lumpy body, 5-10 cm long, 5-7 cm thick, with waxy, white or greenish-white or yellowish, semi-translucent skin. The fruit contains “eyes” on its surface, similar to a potato. The fruit is juicy, bitter, dull-yellow or yellowish-white, and contains numerous red-brown, hard, oblong-triangular, winged, 2-celled stones, each containing about 4 seeds.
When fully ripe, the fruit has a pronounced odor like rancid cheese. Although the fruit has been eaten by several nationalities as food, the most common use of the Indian mulberry plant was as a red and yellow dye source. Recently, there has been an interest in the nutritional and health benefits of the Indian mulberry plant.
It would be a significant advancement in the art to provide dietary fiber from the Indian mulberry plant and to provide a process for obtaining the dietary fiber extracted from the Indian mulberry plant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method of obtaining
Morinda citrifolia
dietary fiber and to products containing the fiber. In one currently preferred embodiment of the method, a quantity of
Morinda citrifolia
juice and pulp is obtained. The wet pulp is filtered from the juice, wherein the wet pulp has a fiber content of from 10% to 40%, by weight. The wet pulp is preferably pasteurized at a temperature of at least 181° F. (83° C.). The wet pulp can be dried or used wet. Drying is preferably accomplished using conventional drying techniques, such as freeze drying, drum drying, tray drying, sun drying, and spray drying. The dried
Morinda citrifolia
pulp preferably has a moisture content in the range from 0.1% to 15%, by weight and a fiber content in the range from 0.1% to 30%, by weight.
The
Morinda citrifolia
pulp can be further processed into a high fiber dietary product containing additional ingredients, such as a supplemental dietary fiber, a sweetener, a flavoring agent, coloring agent, and/or a nutritional ingredient.
In another preferred embodiment of the method, a quantity of
Morinda citrifolia
juice and pulp is obtained and pasteurized or enzymatically treated. The juice and pulp mixture is then dried to a moisture content less than about 20%, by weight. The dried juice and pulp contains protein from the
Morinda citrifolia
plant at a concentration typically from 0.1 to 15%, by weight, and fiber at a concentration from 0.1 to 20%, by weight. Additional ingredients are preferably mixed to the dried juice and pulp, such as a supplemental nutritional ingredient with the juice and pulp.
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Jensen C. Jarakae
Story Stephen P.
Wadsworth John J.
Kirton & McConkie
Krieger Michael F.
Morinda, Inc.
Pratt Helen
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