Small grape seeds squeeze out the "big essence"

In the production workshop of Hebei Handan Chenguang Biotechnology Group Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as "Chenguang Biotechnology"), a tens of meters long energy chain leacher, leaching tank, compression tank.
.
.
A whole set of equipment is constantly running: "eat" the grape seed, "spit out" the proanthocyanidins, and then squeeze the grapeseed oil
from the scraps.
Grape seeds are full of treasures
.
While allowing grape seeds to achieve comprehensive utilization, Chenguang Biology has also achieved a new breakthrough
in the plant extraction industry "from 0 to 1".

Grapeseed oil is a small molecule oil rich in beneficial ingredients such as linoleic acid and vitamin E, and in addition to being used as a cooking oil, it is also an important raw material
for cosmetics and medicines.

In 2010, Lu Qingguo, the founder of Chenguang Biotechnology, went to a winery in Xinjiang to investigate and saw a large number of grape seeds
piled up in the factory area.
He asked the factory staff what it was used for, and after hearing that it was used as fertilizer, Lu Qingguo, who had been engaged in the extraction of pepper red pigment for more than ten years, felt that he saw an opportunity
.
"The wine industry produces millions of tonnes of dried grapeseeds every year, and it's
a shame that these industrial by-products are thrown away.
" Since then, Lu Qingguo led the research team to embark on the road
of exploration of "eating dry and pressing" grape seeds.

At that time, the research on grape seeds was still relatively isolated, and the difficulty lay in new breakthroughs
in scientific research.
Under the exploration of Lu Qingguo's team, the polyphenolic compound proanthocyanidins and grape seed oil were extracted
together.

Small-scale exploration of parameters, pilot exploration process, large-scale pilot verification of process parameters, mass production and improvement of process according to market feedback, and finally realization of specialized large-scale production, this is the "five-step" scientific and technological innovation model
of Chenguang Biotechnology.
"Let's start with a small trial, and then enter the pilot test
when the road is gone.
" Lu Qingguo said that the process from crushed grape seeds to whole seeds is very difficult and has experienced many process innovations
.

Crushing the material is a routine process for plant extraction, but the filter is often clogged
due to the high oil content of the grape kernels.
So the team changed the production process, pressing the grape seeds and extracting the oil first, and then the proanthocyanidins
.
However, it was soon discovered that the proanthocyanidin content loss rate was as much as 20% during the evaporation and drying of the blank, which was obviously not feasible
.
After nearly two years of scientific research, the team finally developed a whole seed extraction process, so that grape seeds can be directly extracted from proanthocyanidins without crushing, and grapeseed oil
can be extracted after removing the dissolved residual compact.
At the same time, the team encountered a new puzzle - the color of grapeseed oil turned blue
.
The team found through research that there is a magnesium-containing chlorophyll in grape seeds after extracting proanthocyanidins, which is more stable than ordinary chlorophyll and the color is difficult to remove
.

Lu Qingguo's team started from the decolorizing principle of decolorizing agents and tested hundreds of decolorizing agent ratios
.
After the comparative analysis of the change law of the decolorizing agent, combined with the compounding technology, the color of grapeseed oil finally changed to light yellow
.

In order to improve the efficiency of grape seed extraction, the team also developed e-chain® extraction equipment and grafted counter-current extraction process, which enabled the transformation of results to achieve large-scale production, which is nearly 10 times
higher than the traditional tank extraction capacity.
The team also explored a gradient extraction process to increase the yield of grape seed extract to more than
10% through film concentration, spray drying and other innovations.

On the road of plant extraction, Chenguang Biology has established a scientific research system from ingredient mining, process development, efficacy verification, applied research to intellectual property protection, driving China's plant extraction industry to realize the transformation
from "following" to "leading".

(Chen Rujian)

China Food News(Version 06, December 26, 2022)

(Responsible editor: Yang Xiaojing)