Sugar-enriched extract derived from tobacco

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9661876-B2
Application number	US-201313829086-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure describes methods of obtaining and/or deriving a sugar-enriched extract from plants of the Nicotiana species and methods for incorporation of such extracts into various tobacco compositions. One exemplary method for preparing a sugar-enriched extract comprises contacting Nicotiana plant material with a solvent and extracting sugars into the solvent to form a liquid sugar-containing extract; separating a solid extracted plant material from the liquid sugar-containing extract; clarifying the liquid sugar-containing extract to form a clarified sugar-containing extract and a solids fraction; and isolating the liquid sugar-containing extract to provide a sugar-enriched extract comprising a combined weight of fructose and glucose of at least about 10% by dry weight. In certain embodiments, the sugars of the extract comprise at least about 50% by weight fructose.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for preparing a sugar-enriched extract from a plant of the Nicotiana species or portion thereof, comprising:
receiving a plant material of the Nicotiana species;
contacting the plant material with a solvent for a time and under conditions sufficient to extract one or more sugars from the plant material into the solvent and form a liquid sugar-containing extract;
separating a solid extracted plant material from the liquid sugar-containing extract;
clarifying the liquid sugar-containing extract to form a clarified sugar-containing extract and a solids fraction;
adjusting the pH of the clarified sugar-containing extract to a pH of at least 8; and
isolating the clarified sugar-containing extract to give a sugar-enriched extract comprising at least 10% fructose and glucose by dry weight.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant material of the Nicotiana species comprises green plant material, yellowed plant material, cured plant material, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising concentrating the clarified sugar-containing extract to provide a concentrated sugar-enriched extract.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the concentrated sugar-enriched extract is in the form of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the concentrating step provides a concentrated sugar-enriched extract having a total solids content of at least 50%.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the concentrating is done using one or more of reverse osmosis, vacuum evaporation, and atmospheric heating.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding one or more components to remove color, odor, taste, alkaloids, metals, or a combination thereof, at any step of the process.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more components are selected from the group consisting of activated carbon, a resin, clay, a chelating agent, a molecularly imprinted polymer, a non-imprinted polymer, or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sugar-enriched extract comprises at least 20% fructose and glucose by dry weight.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises water.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the clarifying step comprises filtering the liquid sugar-containing extract.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the filtering comprises one or more of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least 10% fructose and glucose comprises at least 50% fructose by weight in the absence of any further treatment to convert any portion of glucose to fructose.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
treating the solids fraction obtained from the clarifying step to convert at least a portion of the starch contained therein to sugar to give a treated solids fraction; and
concentrating the treated solids fraction.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising combining the treated solids fraction with the sugar-enriched extract.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the treating step comprises one or both of heating the solids fraction at an acidic pH and adding one or more enzymes to the solids fraction.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the one or more enzymes are selected from the group consisting of α-amylase, amyloglucosidase, and xylose isomerase.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the heating comprises boiling.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising filtering the treated solids fraction prior to said concentrating.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the concentrating step provides a product in the form of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid.

21. A method for preparing a sugar-enriched extract from a plant of the Nicotiana species or portion thereof, comprising:
receiving a plant material of the Nicotiana species;
pressing the plant material in the absence of added liquid and collecting a liquid sugar-containing extract released from the pressed plant material;
separating a solid plant material from the liquid sugar-containing extract;
clarifying the liquid sugar-containing extract to form a clarified sugar-containing extract and a solids fraction;
adjusting the pH of the clarified sugar-containing extract to a pH of at least 8; and
isolating the clarified sugar-containing extract to give a sugar-enriched extract comprising at least 10% fructose and glucose by dry weight.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least 10% fructose and glucose comprises at least 30% fructose by weight in the absence of any further treatment to convert any portion of glucose to fructose.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least 10% fructose and glucose comprises at least 40% fructose by weight in the absence of any further treatment to convert any portion of glucose to fructose.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprise a buffer.

Assignees

• Reynolds Tobacco Co R

Inventors

• Mua John-Paul
• Bratcher Barry
• Ford Kyle
• Hagan Leigh
• Joyce Leigh Ann Blevins
• Morton Joshua D
• Debusk Samuel Mark
• Lovette Margarette Elisa

Classifications

• A61K8/9789

  Magnoliopsida [dicotyledons] · CPC title

• A23K20/163

  Sugars; Polysaccharides · CPC title

• A23L2/52

  Adding ingredients (adding preservatives A23B70/10) · CPC title

• A23L33/105

  Plant extracts, their artificial duplicates or their derivatives · CPC title

• A24B15/241 Primary

  Extraction of specific substances · CPC title