Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
Description
The GovPrnment of the United States has rights in this
invention pursuant to Grant No. 04-3-158-30 with the Depart-
ment of COmmerce.
This invention relates to extenders and filters for
tobaccog e.g. cigarette,c~igar and pipe -tobacco. Tobacco
substitutes, diluents and extenders have long been sough~
.. for eeasons of economy, smoking characteristics or health,
but no wholly sa~is~actory agent has been developed. Diffi-
culties encountered have in~luded sueh ~actors as mixing
problems, rate and continuîty burning ~ temperature of the
smoke, retention of the ash, as well as the more subtle
problems of aroma, ~lavor and irritation o~ the mouth and
:~ throat. Cellulose and modified celluloses, although closely
i allied to portions of tobacco itself 9 have ~ound lit~le
' commercial application.
-. ` It is an object of t~is invention to provide tobacco
mixture~ that produce lower ni~otine and tar on burning
while ~aintaining desirable s~oking characteri~tics.
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A further object is to pxovide an extender for tobacco
that can be blended with it satisfactorily to give a mixture
with good packing characteristics, burning rate, and holding
of fire and ash while ret~ining such organoleptic properties ;~
as aroma, taste and smoothness.
Still another object is to provide the tobacco industry,
particularly that segment involved in cigarette, cigar and
smoking (pipe) tobacco manufacture, which utilizes extensive
blending of many types of tobacco to attain a balance of
properties desired for a particular brand, with a superior
extender ~hat can be employed in such blends with advantages
of economy and reduced hazard to health without impairing
materially either their physical or organoleptic properties.
An additional object of the invention i5 to provide
novel compositions to accomplish the foregoing objectives.
In accordance with one broad aspect, the invention
relates to a mixture comprising tobacco and chitin which is
insoluble in dilute acetic acid, said chitin being present
in amounts of 5% to 75~ by w~ight of said mixture and said
tobacco b~ing present in amounts of 95% to 25% by weight of
said mixture.
It has been found th~t chitin in admixture with a
variety of tobacco blends yields surprisingly smooth smoking
compositions with good burning characteristics. In the - -
preferred ranges the blends are quite satisfactory, sometimes
pre~erred and are frequently almost indistinguishable from
the parent tobacco. Furthermore, such blends are useful as
filters for the tobacco smoke, either in a separate compartment
or as the unburned portion of a cigaret~e.
Chitin is an aminocellulose derivative that occurs
widely in nature, for example, in ~he cell walls of fungi,
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and the shell o~ insects and crustaceans. The waste from
shrimp, lobster and crab seafood industries contains 10-13
per cent chitin. The innocuous nature of chitin is indicated
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by the use of ground seafood wastes, such as crab meal, as
animal feed ~nd th~ human consumption of soft-shell ~rabs
as a seafood delicacy.
More specifically, chitin is a mucopoly~accharide,
believed to be poly-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, with an
empirical formula of tC8H1305N) n in which n may be any
number into the ~housand range, but is commonly in the
area of 100-1000. ¢hitin is prepared, for example, by
the hydrolysis o~ crab-meal alternately with mild acid and
alkali to remove calcareous and protein constituents. The
substantially complete removal o~ prote~n is important to
avoid deleterious odors on burning. A typ~cal chitin
sample would show upon anal~sis a moisture content o~ --
5-10%, ash below 1~, and n~trogen in the range of 6.0-7.5%.
The use of the term "chitin" herein and ~n the claims
refers to those compounds ~hich are ~nsoluble in dilute
acetic acid as distingu~shed ~rom ch~tosan that ~s soluble
in dilute acetic acid.
Attention is called to U.S. 3,421,519, p~tented
January 14, 1969, which covers a reconstituted tobacco
sheet using a minor proportion o~ deacetylated chitin as
a binder. Deace~ylat~d chi~tin, usually called chitosan,
is prepared by hydrolys~s of chitin with strong alkali at
the boil for a few hours and subsequent neutralization, :
filtration, washing and drying. Chltosan is eharacte~z-ed
by its solubility in dilute acetic acid, ~hereas chitin is
insoluble. In the patent cited the words "chitin" and
'Ichitosan'l are somet~me~ used interohangabl~, bu* ~ is
clear from the disdlosure and claims *hat only the
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deacetyla-ted chi-tin, that is, chitosan soluble in dilute
acetic acid, is con-templated. There is no example and no
teaching of a method for employing the parent chitin as a
binder.
Typically crustacean chitin is obtained as a mixture
of flaky and short fibrous material, which aids its blending
properties and promotes the clinging o~ coal and ash to a
burning cigarette, for example. Considering that chitin is
predominately a cellulose derivative, however, it was
unexpected that chitin upon burning in to~acco blends would
afford a smoke acceptable i~ aroma, taste and smoothness as
well as physical properties~
Toasting of chitin may be advant~geous ~or some
blends and may be carried out ~ exposing it ~or a ~ew
minutes a distance o~ several inchas ~rom a heating uni~
heated just below a dull red. The time-temperature-dis-
tance exposure from the heater is chosen by trial and as
am~atter of convenience. The toasted products are light
brown and have a ~int, pleasant odor, but do not carameli~e
or become sticky. The products blend weIl ~ith tobacco
and in such blends make a satis~actor~ cigarette,
More~e~ective filters ~or cigarette and other tobaccos
are also needed as requirements for reductîon in tar,
nicotine and other volatiles in tobacco smoke become more
stringent. The chitin modi~ied tobaccos are themselves
good filters for the smoke, the unbu~ned mix~re acts as
a filter, or a cigarette containin~ the mixture may be used
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in a pipe or cigarette holder designed to hold such a filter.
The chitin mixtures have special aptitu~e ~or absorbing
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phenolic, a~idie and other organic compounds of types ~:
found in tobacco smoke and hence make effective ~ilter
compositions alone, or as filter tips or other filter
elements.
In the practice of the invention it is usually
advantageous ~o carry out the blending o~ the chitin in
the normal tobacco blending state, which may then be fol-
lowed by "casing" or impregnation of the mixture with the
cus~omary inver-~ or other sugars, licorice, chocolate~ or
other flavors and spices~ and ~lycerol or other humectants.
If additional color i9 needed to stain the chit~nous
fraction, the colo~ing matter may be add~d at thîs stage.
It is recognized that chitin is not in itsel~ a
:tobacco substitute; it finds its place in blends with
toabacco. Hence the tobacco blend used will normally be
adjusted to compensate and give a final mixture of the
desired quality. Thus chit~n contains no nicotine or pec-
tin and is very low in reducing sugars, alcohol-soluble
resins and ash~ while having a high content of crude fiber 9
20 as compared with most tobaccos. The chitin therefore pro- :
vides considerable latitude for bIending to the desired
composition of a smoking mixture~
In the practice o~ the invention, compositions may
be utilized ranging ~rom 5 parts of chitin or chitosan and ;
95 parts of tobacco to those co~pris~ng 75 p~rts of chitin ~.
to 25 parts o~ tobacco. However, the most su~table ranges ~. :
of eompositions are those contain~ng 10-35 percent o
chitin~ since th~ give the best balance o~ ph~sical and
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organoleptic properties. Examples of several of the
useful compositions follow.
Example I
A commercial flaky, fairly strong smoking tobacco of
bulk density about 0.2 g. per cc. was intimately mixed in
several proportions by volume with chitin having both flake
and fibrous particles, and a bulk density also of about
0.2 g. per cc. The mixtures were rolled into cigarettes
and smoked. As the proportion of chitin increased, the
physical properties of the cigarettes decrea~ed somewhat,
but sensory factors of taste, mildness and coolness were
maintained well. B;te was relatively the same in the group,
although throat îrri~ation increased somewhat with increas-
ing chitin content. The tests are tabulated below:
Tobaccc Chitin, Smoking
Darts parts Characteristics
100 0 Taste sati~factory, mild,
trace of bite, some throat
irritation, cool
About same as above, some
throat irritation, slightly
more smoke, but cool
Mild, cool, taste satis-
~actory, trace of bite,
somewhat more throat i~ri-
tation
Smoke weIl, self-propagating,
milder than tobacco alone,
slight bltter note
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Tobaeco, Chitin, Smoking
parts parts Characteris-tics
Draws easily, self-propa-
gating, milder than tobacco
alone, bitter no-te
Poor draw, marginal ~ire~
holding capacity, mild taste
Example II
A medium strong blended Turkish and domes-tic cigarette
tobacco, aromatic and shredded t~pe w~th a ~ulk density of
about 0.3 g. per cc. was intimately mixed with a flake and ~:
fibrous chitin, the chitin being at the lO percent and 20
percent b~ volume levels ~or comparison with the whole
tobacco. The modified products smokad well, had an aro- -
matic odor, faîrly strong flavor, taste a~out the sa~e as
the unmodified tobacco. The smoke was cool în the mod~fied ~-:
products as well as w~h the stra~ght tobaco~, All'had a
trace of bi~e. At the 20 percent ch;tin level the smoke
when inhaled irritated the throat somewha* more than that ~:
from the lO percent chitin mixture,
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Example III
A 50:50 mixture by volume af a mild shredded cigarette :
tobacco and toasted chitin wasi~ntimately blended and made
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into a menthol-tip ~ilter cigarette, Upon smoking there
was abundant smoke. The odor was good and the taste was
neutral except ~or a faint menthol ~lavor from the .~ilter.
There was little after-taste. When înhaled, the smoke was
som~wha~ irritating, but not bitter. ~ -
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Example IV
A series of blends of toasted chitin with a light
cigarette tobacco was prepared containing 5, 10, 20, 35,
and 50 percent by weight of the toasted chitin. They were
made into filterccigarettes and test smoked b~ several
persons inccomparison with a 100 percent tobacco con-trol.
The data were scattered with considerable variation among
evaluators because of sex, non-smokers, cigarette, pîpe or
cigar smokers, order and interval o~ testing, etc. However,
the following conclusions and indications emerged :
1. There wa~ uni~orm agreement that the extende~
tobaceo mixture c~garettes were cool, slow-
burning and held ash well over the 5-50 percent
toasted chit~n range.
2. The aroma of the smoke was a m~nor con~deration;
none of the mixtures was ob~ectionable,
although some thought the smoke slIghtly pungent,
as they did the straight tobacco
3. Surprisingly, there was little change ~n mildness
with increasing c~ntent o~ toasted ch~tin; i.e.
some smokers considered the mixtures mild, but
nevertheless a trace o~ bite was noted by sev~ral
evaluators and hal~ o~ the gropp considered the
control tobacco to have a bite.
4. In preference of the control tobacco ~ersus the
m~xtures, opinion was about evenl~ divlded and
hal~ of the smokers did n~t dlstinguish ~etween
them; thus 75 percent of the group e~ther preferred
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the toasted chitin modificat1on or had no prefer-
ence. Again, increasing concen~rations of the
toast~d chitin did not appear to have much effect
on choice.
Ex~3~
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Chitîn was impregnated with an ~queous æolution of
glucose over night, the excess solution remov~d and the ~:
product dried. Twenty percent by volume of the material
was blended with a ~ilter blend cigarette tobacco and
made .into the ~ilter-tip cigarettes. Both the ~odi~ied
and 100~ tobaceo cigarettes were cool, ~low burning and
held ash well. The smoke was somewhat aromatic, and had a
slight bite and after taste as did the tobacco control.
The tobacco control wa~ judged slightly milder~ but there
was no preference between t~e two.
Examp~e YI .
A chitin sample9 bleached w~th 3 percent hyd~ogen
peroxide solution, wa~ ~lended at the 20 percent by :
volume level with a very aromatic, V~rgin~a, ~ully r~pe
smoking tobacco and the mIxture smoked in a pipe. There
was no noticeable dif~erence ~n the taste or burnin~ as
compared with the control tobacco~
Example V~I
Chitin at the 20 and 33 percent by volume level was
blended with a l~ght, shredded cigarette tobaeco having a
bulk density of about 0.2 g. per cc,, and the mixture
made into filt~r tip cigarettes. Compar~sons were made
versus each other and versus a 100 percent tobacco control.
At both levels the modofîed cigarettes are cool, have good
fire-holding capacity and hold ash well. At the 20 percent
chitin level aroma was pleasant to slightly pungent, with
a trace of bite and after taste, but compara~le to the
tobacco control and with no preference between them. At
the 33 percent chitin level the cigarette seemed sllghtly
stronger, b~t there was no preference between the 20 and 33
percent chitin cigarettes.
Ex ~
A cigarette made ~olly o~ chitin is placed in a
cigarette holder containing a filter chamher accommodating
a cigarette-sized ~ilter; upon smoking a commercial ~igarette
in this holder, the smoke is cooler, milder and less irritat-
ing. Similarly, a chitin cigarette inserted in the filter
chamber of a smoking pipe cools and decreases the bite of
the smoking tobacco; it also handles the condensed moisture
well.
While particular examples of t~e present invention
have been shown and d~scri~e~, it is apparent that changes
and modification may be made here~n without departing from
the invention in its broadest aspects. The aim of the
appended claims, therefore, is to cover all such changes
and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope
of the invention~
