Decaffeination of vegetable material
AssigneeSociete d'Assistance Technique pour Produits Nestle S.A.
InventorsGeoffrey Margolis, Dean Frederick Rushmore, Richard Tien-Szu Liu
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Abstract
A process is disclosed wherein the decaffeination of aqueous extracts of vegetable material with non-ionic, hydrophobic resin may be performed in a continuous manner. In accordance therewith, extract is contacted with resin to effect decaffeination, exhausted resin containing adherent caffeine and non-caffeine water solubles is bleached with water to remove the caffeine, the caffeine-free resin is then washed with a solution comprising water and an organic solvent to elute non-caffeine water solubles and then the resin is rinsed with water to permit its reuse in the further decaffeination of vegetable material extracts.
Claims16
A process for the decaffeination of aqueous extract of a vegetable material selected from the group consisting of tea and coffee comprising:
- a. contacting said extract with non-ionic, hydrophobic polymer resin having a dipole moment of less than about 2.0 debye whereby sufficient caffeine and non-caffeine solubles are adsorbed by the resin to exhaust its activity;
- b. separating the exhausted resin and decaffeinated extract;
- c. leaching said exhausted resin and adherent caffeine and non-caffeine solubles with water to selectively remove caffeine;
- d. eluting the caffeine-free resin with a wash solution comprising water and organic solvent to remove non-caffeine solubles;
- e. removing said solvent from said resin by rinsing with water;
- and
- f. contacting the rinsed resin with aqueous extract of vegetable material further to absorb caffeine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.