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Hydrocolloids are becoming more and more associated with dietary fibre, not surprisingly and hydrocolloids are increasingly mentioned in various patents relating to dietary health. One patent this quarter describes dietary supplements including a calcium enriched product and the use of a mixture of hydrocolloids for a weight loss product (1660, 1661). I suspect with all these products that the wild and eclectic mixture of gums is irrelevant and, in this case, the 80% psyllium is creating the effect and the other gums contribute little. Another patent covers the use of fibres and emulsifiers to relieve constipation (1667).
An interesting patent on low molecular weight agar (1663) uses a free radical reduction of the molecular weight followed by alcohol precipitation to produce a cheap α-glucosidase inhibitor.
One of the big growth confectionery products of the past few years has been fruit leathers which are known by various tradenames. A patent describes the formation of a similar product where fruit is pulverised with an agar paste to form a gelled fruit paste (1666). A similar patent covers the manufacture of tomato flakes by roller drying tomato paste with alginate and treating with calcium, the idea here is to form a bake stable vegetable piece (1669). A similar concept is applied to pasta(1672), alginate is added to form a more stable form of pasta that can be sterilised.
Wound dressings continues to be a popular area for patents, the latest (1673) comprises of a foamed silver alginate based product for the treatment of ulcers and similar wounds. See also (1679) and another silver salt patent (1737). 1681 A patent from Korea describes the manufacture of micro beads based on either alginate, hyaluronic acid and/or chitosan which can be use post operatively to help prevent adhesion between dressings (1681). Xylos have a patent on wound dressings that use microbial cellulose (1726). Johnson and Johnson have a patent on the use of oxidised cellulose and chitosan in wound dressings (1740). See also (1820).
FMC have a patent on using low molecular weight PGA films for tablet coating, the claimed advantage is that the coating causes very little delay in the release of the product after swallowing (1680). FMC have an almost identical patent claiming carrageenan and microcrystalline cellulose for the same application (1694). In the area of low molecular weight, quick dissolving products, Kelco have a patent on a similar concept but based on pectin (1795).
Kraft have a patent on the use of ionic gums to enhance the structure in cream cheese (1674). The gum reinforces the curd structure of the cheese forming a firmer end product. A variety of gums are mentioned and we wonder if kappa carrageenan might not be a good candidate to operate at low dose rates as it is already known that it will increase the yield in cheese production when added to the milk prior to fermentation.
A patent on alginate covers the use of new mutant strains of pseudomonas fluorescens for the production of highly controlled forms of alginate including some control on the level of acetylation as well as M to G ratio (1675).
Coca Cola have a bizarre patent out on simulated frozen beverages. Essentially it involves suspending high density polyethylene particles in a PGA solution. I assume this is merely for display and they don't actually intend selling drinks with plastic particles in them! (1676). Another odd use for alginates is the use as a binder for charcoal in gas absorbing products, the odd thing here is that the addition of alginate is claimed to actually increase the gas absorption ability of the charcoal, I can only think that an agglomerated particle as a higher surface area than a compacted powder and the effect is largely physical (1684).
Kibun claim 1683 that bread made with propylene glycol alginate can be cut when still hot without it bending or breaking. I am not sure what the supposed mechanism for this is (1683).
A couple of patents on carob include the production of a degraded Carob flour for human consumption and the extraction of pinitol from carob (1686, 1687). Another patent on carob covers the manufacture of a degraded carob with cold soluble properties (1688). It is common sense that a well hydrated gum, preferably heated high enough to disrupt the structures that cause insolubility, when dried rapidly i.e. a flash dry grinder, will have some cold soluble properties. Also the patent mentions that when mixed with xanthan gum the degraded gum shows the same gel strength as the undegraded gum, once again this is common sense: they are measuring a modulus as opposed to a break strength and generally gums follow a cascade theory type relationship between gel strength and molecular weight, hence we would expect the modulus to be constant with molecular weight down to quite low levels. They might find the break strength does reduce with reducing molecular weight however.
RP Scherer continues patenting various gelatin replacement capsules, this time we have an Austrian patent covering the use of iota carrageenan and starch (1690). A more peculiar use of carrageenan describes the combined process of grinding eucheuma seaweed to extract the juice, this will have auxin and cytokinin growth hormones, prior to using the weed for carrageenan processing. The juice can then be sold as a liquid feed for horticulture. I find it a little odd that when both parts of this process already exist separately that you can patent the idea of running one into the other (1692). An interesting variant on the encapsulation theme is a patent that covers the encapsulation of cells in an aldehyde crosslinked chitosan matrix (1710).
For anyone stuck for an idea for their next children's party you can take note of a recent Shin Etsu patent (1695) which describes the formation of a very evenly substituted HPMC that can be filtered without clogging the filter. The patent goes on to describe how it can be used with surfactants to make ?unbreakable bubbles?. The patent is a bit vague on end use applications and I am not sure whether to believe the purported use of selling it into kiddies bubble blowing pots or not. I suspect the comment about very even, thin and coherent films may be hinting at the real application. Another patent from China describes the manufacture of high viscosity HEC by a controlled reaction at relatively low temperatures (1697). Shin Etsu also have a patent on preparing low substitution cellulose ethers by reacting propylene oxide with alkali treated cellulose to form a solution, the cellulosic is then recovered by neutralisation which induces precipitation. The process is claimed to produce a very fine particle sized product (1703). Wolff have patent on the production of crosslinked cellulose ethers to form modified rheology products (1719). A Russian patent covers the improved method of CMC manufacture by hydropulping the cellulose first prior to squeezing the water back to about 50% solids prior to addition of the monochloroacteic acid and caustic in a high intensity mixer in a slurry containing polyethers. Essentially it appears to mimic the standard alcohol processes without the use of flammable solvents (1724). A further patent on HPMS manufacture covers the use of ultrafiltration techniques to enhance the recovery of cellulose ethers from the wash waters (1727). BKI Holdings have a patent on the preparation of enhanced viscosity CMC by a two stage mercerisation process. This does make some sense as it is known that the crystalline form of cellulose that has been alkali treated and recovered is different compared to the native state (1734). Wolff also have a patent on using a combined acid and RF frequency heating method to form low viscosity HPMC polymers for the tablet coating industry (1735). Samsung have a patent on the improved preparation of HPMC pthalate by firstly agglomerating the HPMC to make a product that flows well and after treatment with pthalic anhydride the residuals can be removed more effectively (1739). Dow have another in a series of patents on HPMC preparation (1744) that covers modifying the reaction conditions to alter the position of the methylation. Because the hydroxyalkylation can react with itself, unlike the methylation reaction, there are two extremes of possible polymer that can be formed during the manufacture of HPMC. In one case the hydroxypropyl groups are allowed to react with all the positions along the the main chain. This tends to very short propylene ether sidechains, the presence of methyl chloride will also tend to cap the side chains. The other extreme is when the main chain positions are largely blocked and the only option for the propylene oxide is to build long chains upon itself. Clearly the two different polymers will have different properties. Another cellulose ether patent describes another variant of delayed solubility products by reacting with aldehydes (1749). Novozyme have an interesting patent that describes the treatment of pulp with a special hemicellulose prior to reaction, the claim is an improved filterability in the finished product (1747).
A patent on the preparation of NMMO solutions of cellulose takes the unusual approach of preparing a swollen cellulose suspension and then concentrating the NMMO/water mixture to a higher NMMO concentration where the cellulose would normally dissolve. Typically at low temperatures such a mixture would also solidify. However in this case a supercooled NMMO/water mixture is formed and the cellulose can go into solution to form very homogeneous solutions at low temperatures (1699).
An interesting analysis technique is described for identifying the origin of cellulose and other plant based fibres. The technique involves the acid treatment of the fibre followed by alcohol precipitation and high pH anion exchange chromatography of the oligomeric fragments which yields a characteristic pattern depending on the source of the material (1705). I wonder if this technique would be useful for the differentiation of other hydrocolloids such as galactomannans? Certainly you can distinguish between the main galactomannans by enzyme hydrolysis and analysis of the fragments. One of the problems of the broad use of hydrolysis techniques is the vast difference in hydrolysis rates between acid labile polymers such as carrageenan and acid stable polymers such as alginate, maybe a more homogeneous degradation, such as by free radicals would be more useful.
An interesting variant on the nano particle theme comes from China where they claim particulate cellulose between the sizes of 6.5nm and 500? (which just about covers everything!) which has been surface treated with acetate (1712). Not surprisingly someone else (Rhone Polulenc, 1736) have claimed the exact same product but with a different surface chemistry.
A more typical cellulose nano particle prepared by precipitation is described in another patent (1713). Patent (1718) describes the preparation of microfibrillated cellulose. I have always thought there should be a bigger role for products modified by physical processes one of which is microfibrillar cellulose maybe we could also have microfibrillated fruit peel to form a cheap alternative to pectin, just an idea if anyone knows of such a product please send me a sample. FMC have a patent on the production of MCC by a high shear and active oxygen process rather than the usual acid treatment (1729). FMC have also been recently publishing patents on carrageenan treatment with high shear from an extruder, it appears they are making good use of their investment in an extruder! FMC have another patent which covers the use of various modified cellulosics including microfibrillated cellulose in fat reduced foods (1732). For other patents on particulates see (1812, 1832).
A patent from the USA describes the modification of organisms, presumably yeasts, that ferment sugar with genes that allow them to also express polysaccharide degrading enzymes. The advantage is an organism that can simultaneously degrade and ferment polysaccharides (1725).
Kimberly Clark have a patent on the use of cyclodextrins bound to cellulose fibres to from odour absorbing fibres for (1733). Another patent covers the use of cyclodextrins in foodstuffs (1743).
Aloe vera is an interesting product which seems to have a large amount of research being dedicated to it at present (hence our cover picture). Previous patents have talked about an immuno stimulating polysaccharide (208), a negatively charged polysaccharide (1280) and now, what claims to be a gelatin derived from Aloe vera (1773). However although details are a bit scant for this one it appears they mean a polysaccharide gel rather than some sort of protein gel derived from Aloe. Also see (1812).
Kelco have a patent on the production of high molecular weight, low ester pectins where the pectin is initially de-esterified with an enzyme and then chemically treated afterwards, the claimed advantage is that the enzyme treatment allows the production of high gel strength low methoxy and low methoxy amidated pectins (1788). Another Kelco patent on the theme of improving gel strength describes the reduction of the pH of plant material during storage and transport to minimise enzyme activity prior to processing (1797).
The technical University of Berlin also as a patent on the use of enzymes in pectin manufacture (1792). An interesting patent claims the use of low molecular weight pectins in a novel and functional dietary fibre (1789). I found this interesting because it actually gave a mechanism for improved gut health based on the interesting fact that low molecular weight pectin can interfere with the binding mechanism of pathogens to mammalian cells and thus prevent them infecting the cells.
Akzo have a patent on the production of low molecular weight polysaccharides, particularly CMC, using an alkaline oxidising agent such as sodium perborate or percarbonate (1804). However I clearly remember seeing low molecular weight CMC being produced on an industrial scale with alkaline perborate and persulphate about twenty years ago, without a co solvent, so I don't think this is novel. On top of that every one who has ever been involved in bleaching knows full well that these products are good free radical generators and any free radicals can be used to break up polysaccharides, so I would ague the patent is also obvious.
Fuji oil have a patent on the removal of starch haze from polysaccharides using amylase. This could be particularly useful for konjac and similar gums that tend to have a residual starch component (1815).
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