Suntory Holdings Limited

Yukihiro Aoshima

Masaaki Nakai

Kenji Katano

Shuji Endo

Asako Okada

An object of the invention is to provide compositions containing lignan-class compounds as dissolved at high concentrations. The compositions having lignan-class compounds such as sesamin and episesamin dissolved in solvent oils or fats that contain triglycerides of middle-chain fatty acids having 8-12 carbon atoms, preferably triglycerides of caprylic acid and/or capric acid and/or lauric acid can contain the lignan-class compounds stably at higher concentrations than when other solvents are used and, hence, have high enough value as foods and pharmaceuticals.

Compositions containing lignan-class compounds

There is disclosed an episesamin refining method in which a mixture of sesamin components that contains sesamin, episesamin and the like is brought into contact with an aqueous medium to form a slurried mixture, and thereafter the solids are separated from the mixture or the slurried mixture is dissolved in a suitable aqueous medium under heating and, thereafter, the solution is slowly cooled to recrystallize, thereby yielding an episesamin-enriched composition with an increased relative episesamin content. By the present invention, episesamin can be conveniently and efficiently refined from a mixture of sesamin components that mainly comprises sesamin and episesamin.

Method of refining episesamin

To provide a process and an apparatus by means of which a composition that contains episesamin in a concentration greater than 50 wt % on the basis of the sum weight of sesamin and episesamin can be produced conveniently and at high yield. There are provided a process and an apparatus which comprise the step of applying epimerization to sesamin or a sesamin-containing composition so that at least part of the sesamin is converted to episesamin and the step of selectively crystallizing episesamin by recrystallization and by means of which a composition that contains episesamin in a concentration greater than 50 wt % can be produced conveniently and at high yield.

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Osaka, Japan

Yukihiro Aoshima