Patent Application
20130115346
Applicant claims foreign priority under Paris Convention to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0114371 filed Nov. 4, 2011, with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, where the entire contents are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preparing a purified beverage for renal failure patients, which contains fewer components harmful to the renal failure patients, and to a purified beverage for renal failure patients prepared by the method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers and the like, and peoples are recommended to abstain from meat and eat fresh fruits and vegetables often. Particularly, potassium is easily excreted through the kidneys, has blood pressure-lowering effects and is harmless to normal people.
However, renal failure patients cannot excrete specific ions with urine from the body due to renal function impairment. Particularly, when potassium accumulates in renal failure patients, it can cause acute fatal complications such as heart attack, leading to death. Indeed, it was reported that hyperkalemia is the leading cause of death in renal failure patients. Significant increases in serum potassium levels cause cardiac arrest, even leading to death in severe cases. Also, phosphorus is a typical uremic toxin that, when accumulates continuously in the body, binds to calcium and accumulates in the endothelium of vascular wall or skin, thus causing chronic complications, including obstructive vascular complications and skin itching.
Currently, renal failure is often a complication of diabetes, and thus excessive intake of fruit-sugars can adversely affect on diabetic control. In addition, vitamin C when taken in excessive amounts forms calcium oxalate in vivo, which is a cause of urinary stone, and for this reason, the daily intake of vitamin C should be limited to 100 mg or less in renal failure patients.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for preparing a purified beverage for renal failure patients, in which potassium and phosphorus are removed from the beverage such that the beverage can be taken by renal failure patients, and also in which the glucose or vitamin content of the beverage is controlled such that it is suitable for renal failure patient, and a purified beverage for renal failure patients prepared by the method.
To achieve the above object, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for preparing a purified beverage for renal failure patients, the method comprising: introducing a raw beverage containing a high concentration of phosphorus or potassium into a filter unit such that the raw beverage flows through inner side of hollow fibers in a first direction; and introducing a perfusion into the filter unit such that the perfusion flows through outside of hollow fibers in a second direction, whereby phosphorus or potassium in the raw beverage moves to the perfusion fluid(dialysate), thereby preparing a purified beverage containing a low concentration of phosphorus or potassium.
In one embodiment, the filter unit of dialyzer is a bundle of hundreds of hollow fibers which are made of porous semi-permeable membrane, and the raw beverage containing a high concentration of phosphorus or potassium is introduced into the filter unit in a first direction such that it flows through inner side of hollow fibers.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the semi-permeable membrane has pores permeable to molecules having a size of 500 dalton or less.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the first direction is opposite to the second direction.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the raw beverage containing a high concentration of phosphorus or potassium may be introduced into the inner side of filter unit in a first direction at a flow rate of 150-300 ml/min.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the perfusion may be introduced into the outside of filter unit in a second direction at a flow rate of 500-700 ml/min.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the perfusion may be pure water only.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the perfusion may contain ion exchange resin. The ion exchange resin may be calcium polystyrene sulfonate.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the perfusion may contain the same concentration of glucose as that of the raw beverage, and citric acid or calcium can be added if necessary.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the raw beverage may include one of fruit juice, vegetable juice, milk, and soy milk.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a purified beverage for renal failure patients prepared by the above-described method of the present invention.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:
Hereinafter, a method for preparing a purified beverage for renal failure patients according to the present invention and a purified beverage for renal failure patients prepared by the method will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The beverage purification filter 100 comprises a raw beverage inlet 112, a beverage outlet 114, a perfusion inlet 116, and a perfusion outlet 118. A beverage 111 introduced through the beverage inlet 112 and a perfusion 115 introduced through the perfusion inlet 116 are allowed to flow in opposite directions along both sides of semi-permeable membrane of each hollow fiber (corresponding to a filter unit; 120 in
The perfusion tank 200 is disposed to operate with the fusion pump 600 and serves to supply the perfusion 115 to the beverage purification filter 100. Herein, the perfusion 115 may be a solution of calcium polystyrene sulfonate (ion exchange resin) in drinkable clean water. Alternatively, the perfusion 115 may also be pure water or glucose-containing water.
The raw beverage tank 400 is disposed to operate with the raw beverage pump 500 and serves to supply the raw beverage 111 to the beverage purification filter 100. The raw beverage 111 may be fruit juice, vegetable juice or the like.
The purified beverage-preparing apparatus 1000 has a structure in which the raw beverage 111 stored in the raw beverage tank 400 is introduced into the beverage purification filter 100 through the raw beverage inlet 112 by operation of the raw beverage pump 500, and the perfusion 115 is introduced from the perfusion tank 200 through the perfusion inlet 116 into the beverage purification filter 100 by operation of the perfusion pump 600 and the raw beverage and the perfusion are circulating through inner and outside of the semi-permeable membrane of the filter unit 100 in opposite directions. The concrete construction and operation of the purified beverage-preparing apparatus 1000 will be described with reference to
As shown in
The filter unit 120 is a bundle of several hundred hollow fibers made of semi-permeable membrane. The semi-permeable membrane 120 may be made of kinds of semi-permeable materials. Also, the filter unit 120 is supported by tube sheets 117 at the top and bottom of the housing 110.
The raw beverage 111 containing a high concentration of phosphorus or potassium to be filtered out is introduced into the raw beverage inlet 112, and the perfusion 115 is introduced through the perfusion inlet 116 into the housing 110 including the filter unit made of semi-permeable membrane 120.
The housing 110 is made of polycarbonate, such that it should not be deformed in, for example, a sterilization process after preparation of the purified beverage.
The raw beverage inlet 112 and the beverage outlet 114 need to be specifically managed, because they come into direct contact with the raw beverage 111, unlike the housing 110. The raw beverage inlet 111 and the beverage outlet 114 may be inserted with an 0-ring of silicone or fixed to the housing 110 by, for example, ultrasonic welding, in order to prevent leakage there from. The gap between the housing 110 and the raw beverage inlet 112 and the gap between the housing 110 and the beverage outlet 114 are hermetically sealed by a potting process, thereby completing the sealing of the beverage purification filter 100.
Referring to
The effects of the embodiment of the present invention, which has the above-described construction, will be described with reference to the following table.
As described above, for the filtration of the raw beverage, the flow rate was set at 600 ml/min for the perfusion 115 and 160 ml/min for the raw beverage, and the filtration process was carried out for 30 minutes. Herein, the perfusion was a solution of 200 mg/l of glucose, 2.2 mg/l of calcium and 1.9 mEq/L of potassium in drinkable clean water.
2.84 liters of orange juice was dialyzed, and then the concentrations of potassium, calcium, phosphorus and glucose in the juice were measured at 5 minute-intervals. The results of the measurement are shown in Table 1 below.
The phosphorus, calcium and potassium concentrations of the perfusion 115 are shown in Table 2 below.
As can be seen from the results in the Tables, the rate of removal of potassium from the orange juice was 55.8% at 10 min, 74.6% at 20 min, and 84% at 30 min. Also, the rate of calcium from the orange juice was 14.5% at 10 min, 27.2% at 20 min, and 31.8% at 30 min. The reason why the removal rate of calcium from the orange juice was relatively low as described above is that calcium is added into the perfusion 115 at concentration of 2.2 mg/dl at which the diffusion rate of calcium was slow. This indicates that, if it is not desired to remove calcium, the concentration of calcium in the perfusion is increased. Thus, the amounts of components to be kept and components to be removed can be controlled by controlling the concentrations of components in the perfusion. Also, glucose harmful to diabetic patients can be removed according to this principle. Moreover, for patients other than diabetic patients, a purified beverage having the same glucose content as that of a raw beverage can be prepared by adding glucose to a perfusion to the same glucose concentration as that of the raw beverage.
The above-described method of the present invention can be applied to a wide range of applications, including powder-form juice, low-potassium vegetable porridge, low-phosphorus yogurt, low-phosphorus cheese, jelly, jam, pudding, etc. In addition, because processes for preparing raw beverages do not require specific conditions, the method of the present invention can be applied to a variety of beverage products.
According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, potassium and phosphorus harmful to renal failure patients can be removed from fruit juice, vegetable juice, etc., thereby providing beverages safe for renal failure patients. When the technology of the present invention is applied, raw materials for preparing beverages or processed foods from which certain materials harmful to groups of patients were removed can be prepared by controlling the components of the perfusion 115. Also, raw materials prepared according to the present invention can be used to prepare a wide range of processed foods, including powder-form juice, low-potassium vegetable porridge, low-phosphorus yogurt, low- phosphorus cheese, jelly, jam, pudding, etc. In addition, because processes for preparing raw juice do not require specific conditions, the method of the present invention can be applied to a variety of beverage products. Moreover, the method of the present invention is time-saving and cost-effective, because it can achieve the purification of raw beverages within a short time of about 30 minutes and can continuously prepare large amounts of purified beverages.
Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2009-0114371 | Nov 2011 | KR | national |
