Flavored vegetarian cellulose capsule and methods for producing said capsule.
OwnerJonathan Gilinskiinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flavored vegetable starch capsule and the method of manufacture of the flavored capsule is provided. The capsule may comprise (a) from about 95% to about 100% parts by weight of cellulose, such as hydroxymethylcellulose; (b) from about 0.5% to about 5.5% by weight of a suitable hydrogenated saccharide, such as sorbitol; (c) from about 0.2 to about 2.5% of a lubricant, such as silicon dioxide; (d) up to about 10% purified water; to which is added about 1/10 parts by weight of liquid flavoring.
Claims20
A flavored vegetarian cellulose capsule suitable for encapsulating a dose, said capsule comprised of a cellulose, present in an amount ranging from about 95% to about 98% by dry weight, a hyrogenated saccharide, present in an amount ranging from about 0.5% to about 5.5% by dry weight, a lubricant, present in an amount ranging from about 0.2% to about 2.5% by dry weight;
- purified water present in an amount ranging from about 1:10 to about 1:20 of the dry weight of the capsule and a flavoring solution, wherein said flavoring solution is present in said flavored cellulose capsule in a concentration which is in the range between about 2% and about 20% of the total weight of said vegetarian cellulose capsule.
A method for manufacturing the flavored vegetarian cellulose capsule comprising the steps of:
- (a) a flavorless vegetarian cellulose composition is prepared as follows:
- (1) the primary ingredient, cellulose, is weighed (or the weight verified) to an amount ranging from about 95% to about 98% of the dry weight of a composition;
- (2) the cellulose is added to a water, at about 10 parts cellulose to 1 part water, in stainless steel jacketed melt tanks. There are written procedures available for the weighing and manufacture of HPMC solution, and the sanitation of the equipment used;
- (3) a hydrogenated saccharide is weighed to about 0.5 to about 5.5% of the dry weight of the composition;
- (4) a lubricant is weighed to about 0.2% to about 2.5% of the dry weight of the composition;
- (5) the hydrogenated saccharide and lubricant are added to the cellulose and water in said stainless steel jacketed melt tanks;
- (b) a flavoring solution is prepared with food-grade flavor powder and cold water, or alternatively a flavored liquid base is weighed, to about 1 part flavoring to 49 parts vegetarian cellulose solution to about 1 part flavoring to 4 parts vegetarian cellulose solution by liquid weight;
- (c) the flavoring solution or liquid base is added to the flavorless vegetarian cellulose solution;
- (d) the flavored vegetarian cellulose solution is melted and de-bubbled at a temperature of about 10 degrees centigrade to about 20 degrees centigrade;
- (e) additional water and lubricant are added to achieve a specific gravity of about 1 gm/cm3;
- (f) the flavored vegetarian cellulose solution is transported to the machine that produces vegetable capsules;
- (g) hot molds, specifically pins, are dipped into the solution to form the capsule parts of cap and body;
- (h) after the flavored vegetarian cellulose solution is adhered to the mold and submitted to a drying process with heat and dry air;
- (i) the formed parts (cap and body) are stripped from the molds using additional lubricant;
- (j) the cap and body are joined.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.