The present invention relates to a novel inositol glycoside or, more particularly, to an inositol glycoside extractable from tea leaves designated 2-O-beta-L-arabinopyranosylmyo-myo-inositol, referred to hereinbelow as the novel inositol glycoside.
As an important product in the agriculture and food industry, tea leaves have been extensively analyzed and various kinds of chemical compounds have been reported as the characteristic constituents thereof. The present invention resulted from studies to determine constituents of tea leaves. The novel inositol glycoside which is the present invention was first discovered as a result of these studies and was determined to have certain unique properties making it particularly valuble in the beverage industry.
The novel inositol glycoside of the present invention is a crystal white substance without noticeable taste. It is neither sweet nor bitter. However, an aqueous solution at beverage concentrations imparts the same "mouthing" or "mouthfeel" to the palate as does sugar and when sugar is used at usual beverage or "soft drink" concentrations. This allows one to formulate a "soft drink" beverage to give the "feel" o "mouth" of sugar without sweetness: that is, it gives a certain anticipated mouthfeel such as one expects from sugar (without sweetness) and it is not sticky or glutinous as is usual with other sugar substituting saccharides. Moreover this new glycoside is believed to be essentially indigestible in humans since it is unassimilable by many microorganisms.
The properties of this new glycoside give it wide applicability in the food beverage and pharmaceutical industries. For example, sugar decays the teeth and increases cholesterol. To avoid these disadvantages, sugarless beverage formulation are usual, for example sugarless cola. But consumers are not happy without sweetness and expected "mouthfeel". Adding a sugarless artificial sweeter would solve the problem of sweetness; however artificial sweetness does not give the right "mouthfeel". This deficiency can be solved with the inositol glycoside of the invention. The result is healthy teeth and moderate cholesterol level with satisfactory drinks. Many confectioneries have the same problem. The same is true for pharmaceutical formulations. The invention is therefore useful in many fields.
Commercially, syrups of various fruit flavors, teas, and coffees are prepared for vending and catering trade. Their sugar or inverted sugar content is at least about 60% by weight to avoid yeast or bacterial growth. They are then diluted 6-7 times at the consuming end to give products with acceptable mouthfeel. The problem is that even with 7 times dilution with water modern consumers feel that the flavor is too sweet. Again there is no suitable saccharides. In this case sweetness is reduced by substituting the inositol glycoside for sugar, keeping both the "mouthfeel" and yeast preventive level of water activity as it was.
Because it does not promote tooth decay, the novel inositol glycosides of the invention also have applicability in oral care products such as "mouthwashes" or "rinses". Pleasant "mouthfeel" can be imparted to these products without the ill effects of sugar.