Safe and Effective Extraction Process for Contaminated Foods

描述(申请人提供)：霉菌毒素和棉酚等食源性毒素继续以各种方式影响人类健康，包括对生殖、神经功能、发育生物学、肾脏和呼吸功能、传染病易感性和癌症发展的负面影响。对人类和动物健康的最终影响取决于通过食物急性或慢性接触的频率和数量。棉籽可能提供世界上营养不良和饥饿猖獗地区5亿人的蛋白质需求；然而，棉籽粕中棉酚和黄曲霉毒素的协同作用特别令人担忧，因为它对肝脏、生殖系统和其他器官系统产生急性影响，以及低水平黄曲霉毒素暴露对肝细胞癌和免疫功能受损的慢性影响。最近分别在2004年和2005年因人和狗急性接触黄曲霉毒素而爆发的疫情重申了这些化学污染物在食物中的持久性，以及长期接触对人类癌症风险可能产生的广泛影响。重要的是，Lynntech的方法还可以在不使用己烷的情况下进行提取，己烷是一种有毒且受到严格监管的溶剂。Lynntech开发了一种基于溶剂的技术方法，用于从任何谷物或油籽中分离黄曲霉毒素，成功的基础是毒素的极性和溶剂将黄曲霉毒素分配到液体中的能力。此外，在研究过程中，我们发现该工艺也可以应用于棉籽产品中有毒棉酚的去除。工业标准溶剂(正己烷)对提取植物油有很好的效果；然而，正己烷不能有效地从高值蛋白质/淀粉组分(粕)中去除黄曲霉毒素，在固体食品和饲料成分中留下100%的黄曲霉毒素。Lynntech的方法对于从谷物和油籽中提取植物油也是有效的，另外还有从膳食中去除黄曲霉毒素的好处。重要的是，黄曲霉毒素进入液体油/溶剂胶束，在那里它可以进一步分离成非食品成分，并且毒素可以使用臭氧气体进行积极的解毒。 与公共健康相关：黄曲霉毒素是天然存在的致癌物，尽管在各种食品和饲料中受到监管，但在美国和世界各地仍对人类和动物的健康构成危害。目前还没有实用的方法来分离和销毁受污染的生农产品中的这些毒素，迫使食品生产商和加工商在与现有的清洁商品混合或销毁受污染的谷物或油籽之间做出选择。拟议的创新利用一种新的两阶段流程，整合在现有的全球工业基础设施中，用于油籽提取，以净化大宗商品，从而实现安全、具有市场竞争力的食品馏分，并降低癌症风险。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Food-borne toxins such as mycotoxins and gossypol continue to impact human health in diverse ways, including negative effects on reproduction, neurological function, developmental biology, renal and respiratory function, susceptibility to infectious disease, and development of cancer. The eventual impact on human and animal health depends on the frequency and amount of either acute or chronic exposure through foods. Cottonseed could potentially provide the protein requirements of half a billion people in areas of the world where malnutrition and starvation are rampant; however, the synergistic combination of gossypol and aflatoxins in cottonseed meal are of particular concern because of the acute effects on the liver, the reproduction system, and other organ systems and the chronic impact of low-level aflatoxin exposure on development of hepatocellular carcinoma and impaired immune function. Recent outbreaks due to acute exposure of humans and dogs to aflatoxin in 2004 and 2005, respectively, have reiterated the persistence of these chemical contaminants in food and the probable broad impact of chronic exposure on cancer risk in humans. Importantly, Lynntech's approach also enables extraction without the use of hexane - a toxic and heavily regulated solvent. Lynntech has developed a solvent-based technical approach for isolation of aflatoxins from any grain or oilseed, with successes based on polarity of the toxin and the ability of the solvent to partition aflatoxin into the liquid phase. Additionally during the course of our research we discovered that this process can also be applied to the removal of toxic gossypol from cottonseed product. The industry standard solvent (hexane) does a very good job at extracting vegetable oil; however, hexane is ineffective at removing aflatoxin from the high value protein/starch fraction (meal) leaving behind 100% of the aflatoxin in the solid food and feed component. Lynntech's approach is also effective for extraction of vegetable oil from grains and oilseeds with the added benefit of removing aflatoxin from the meal. Importantly, the aflatoxin partitions into the liquid oil/solvent micelle where it can be further isolated into a non-food component and where the toxin can be aggressively detoxified using ozone gas. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Aflatoxins are naturally occurring carcinogens that, despite regulation in diverse foods and feedstuffs, remain a health hazard to humans and animals both in the US and worldwide. There are no practical methods to isolate and destroy these toxins in contaminated raw agricultural commodities, forcing food producers and processors to choose between blending with available clean commodities or destroying the contaminated grains or oilseeds. The proposed innovation utilizes a new two-stage process integrated within the existing global industrial infrastructure in oilseed extraction to decontaminate commodities, allowing for safe, market- competitive food fractions and reduced cancer risk.