The Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives

Masayuki Tsukada

Hiroyuki Takeda

Tetsuhiro Hidano

Norio Maeda

Takuji Fujisawa

Yasunori Fukumori

Atsushi Inoue

Shuichi Onodera

Kazuo Yamamoto

Norio Shiomi

This invention relates an .alpha.-glucosidase inhibitor mildly inhibiting .alpha.-glucosidase locally present in the micro-villus of small intestine, a composition principally comprising sugar and containing the inhibitor, a food, a sweetener and a feed. The inhibitor delays the digestion of starch, starch-derived oligosaccharides and sucrose, so that the inhibitor has an action of suppressing rapid increase in blood glucose level and an action of suppressing insulin secretion at a lower level. Thus, the inhibitor is useful for the prophylaxis of obesity and diabetes mellitus. The .alpha.-glucosidase inhibitor of the present invention is composed of nucleotide, nucleoside, or base as the structural component of nucleic acid and one or two or more digestible sugars selected from sucrose, starch and starch-derived oligosaccharide. The .alpha.-glucosidase inhibitor mildly inhibits the action of .alpha.-glucosidase as a digestive enzyme in small intestine, and has effects of suppressing rapid increase in blood glucose level and suppressing insulin secretion at a lower level. In combination with digestible sugars, the .alpha.-glucosidase inhibitor is applicable as foods, sweeteners and feeds.

.alpha.-glucosidase inhibitor, composition principally comprising sugar

The present invention relates to crystals of 1-kestose which is a fructooligosaccharide, and it is an object of the present invention to provide high-purity 1-kestose crystals having no hygroscopicity and a method of producing the crystals. Methanol is added to an aqueous solution containing as a main ingredient 1-kestose with a purity of 80% or more, and the mixture is then dried. Methanol is further added to the mixture to obtain 1-kestose crystals with a purity of 90% or more. An aqueous solution with a purity of 70% or more is concentrated, and 1-kestose microcrystals are added to the concentrate obtained to separate 1-kestose crystals with a purity of 94 to 99.9%.

Method of producing kestose crystals

Growing community of inventors

Hokkaido, Japan

Masayuki Tsukada