Improvements in the Manufacture of Ferments, Peptones, and Peptonized Food Products.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Nov., 1890-Accepted, 7th Feb., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by THE MOSQUERA JULIA FOOD COMPANY, a
Corporation of Michigan, doing business at the City of Detroit, in the County
of Wayne and State of Michigan, United States of America.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Ferments, Peptones, and
Peptonized Food Products.
I, OLIVER IMRAY of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of London, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
I have discovered that the plants of the family of Bromeliaceas (of which the
pine-apple is the best known type) contain a ferment whose action upon albumen or
albumenoids is analogous to the action of the digestive ferment commonly called
pepsin and is capable of digesting albumen in substantially the same manner as it
is digested by pepsin. Upon some albumenoids the result of its action is even
better than that of pepsin. This ferment seems to be contained principally in the
juice of the fruit or plants and may be extracted therefrom in condition for use in
a variety of ways its preparation being not unlike that of pepsin from an animal's
stomach.
One way to prepare this new product is to take pine-apple, remove the rind,
comminute the fruit and then press out the juice. The juice is then preferably
filtered, to mechanically remove fibrous portions which have passed through the
press and any other impurities which it may contain and it is then condensed or
evaporated to drive off the water at a temperature too low to injure the ferment.
I prefer to conduct this operation in vacuo and to hold the temperature below
45 degrees Celsius. When the water is largely evaporated the ferment may be
purified, either by precipitation with salt, or it may be subjected to dialysis, by which
a large portion of inert saccharine matter is removed and it may be dried either in
the form of a paste, or a powder, or dried on plates and broken up into scales like
pepsin. The resulting product, whether in the form of a paste or powder or scales
has a sweet and slightly sour taste, is readily soluble in water without acid and has
the power of converting albuminous bodies into peptone in substantially the same
manner as peptone is formed by the action of pepsin.
I prefer to use the fruit as it contains a greater quantity of juice than any other
part of the plant.
By the use of this product peptonized food products, or peptones equal to, if not
better than, those manufactured by pepsin can be made and I herewith append a
description of the manufacture of a food product from meat, it being understood that
I do not confine myself to the application of this process to meat, but wish it to
include any albumen or albumenoid fit for human food.
In practically carrying out my invention I take four kilogrammes of lean meat
preferably finely chopped, and mix the same with about 450 cubic centimeters of
juice obtained from the common pine-apple which juice is diluted with about the
same quantity of distilled water. The meat and juice are subjected to a temperature
of from 45 degrees to 50 degrees Celsius for from three to four hours and continually
stirred during this time, after which the temperature is raised to about 60 degrees
Celsius at which temperature the whole mass becomes dissolved so as to form a
thick liquid or paste.
At this stage the meat has been perfectly digested by the juice of the pine-apple,
owing to the action of organic vegetable ferments contained in the same so that
the meat is entirely peptonized by the same. In place of the juice of the pine-apple

page_text: the juice of any other fruit of the Bromeliaceas family, or even the juice of the
leaves, may be employed, though the juice of the fruit is preferred.
From this liquid peptonized meat, pure peptones in liquid, pasty, or dry form, are
obtained in the following manner.
A quantity of the liquid peptonized meat is diluted with some warm water and
then filtered the liquid containing the pure peptone. This liquid peptone is then
evaporated at a temperature preferably not exceeding 60 degrees Celsius and
reduced either to a paste or to a dry state. The pure peptones thus obtained can
be mixed with other substances solid or liquid, so as to form different food products.
The characteristic of my pure peptones are first perfect solubility in water whether
cold or warm secondly, absolute freedom from foreign admixtures such as salt,
starch and the like; thirdly, a high percentage of nitrogen, to wit, about 11 per cent.,
being greater than that contained in the peptones obtained by other known
processes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven--
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1. The herein described ferment consisting of the juice of a plant of the
Bromeliaceas family partially freed from water and inert substances.
2. The herein described process of making peptones consisting in digesting
albumen or an albumenoid by the organic ferment of the juice of a plant of the
Bromeliaceas family.
3. As a new article of manufacture a food product consisting of albumen or an
albumenoid digested in the organic ferment of the juice of a plant of the Bromeliaceas
family.
4. The process herein described of making pure peptones, which consist in sub-
jecting meat to the action of organic vegetable ferment contained in the juice of a
plant of the Bromeliaceas family until peptonization takes place, then dissolving
the peptonized meat thus obtained in water and filtering it, so as to obtain pure
peptones, substantially as set forth.
5. The herein described peptonized meat, being free from foreign admixtures,
such as salt, starch and the like, containing all the digestible constituents and
fibrinous parts of the meat and obtained by treating meat with the juice of a plant
of the family of Bromeliaceas, and drying the same, substantially as set forth.
6. The process herein described of making peptonized meat, which consists in
subjecting meat to the action of the organic vegetable ferments contained in the
juice expressed from the plants belonging to the family of Bromeliaceas until
peptonization takes place, then evaporating and drying the thus obtained liquid
peptonized meat and finally grinding it into powder substantially as set forth.
Dated this 25th day of November 1890.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.