The present invention relates to a bamboo charcoal-mixed composition using adsorbability of bamboo charcoal and a carrier holding the composition and, furthermore, a method of using the same.
It has been well known that bamboo charcoal is excellent in adsorbability. This is because: bamboo charcoal is porous and has a large surface area of about 200 to 300 m2 per 1 g; and the surface of bamboo charcoal exhibits an satisfactory activity of adsorption. For instance, according to the results of the analysis called BET method, the adsorbability of bamboo charcoal is about 10 times as much as that of bincho-charcoal, a representative charcoal.
Due to the high safety and excellent adsorbability of bamboo charcoal as mentioned above, a number of products using bamboo charcoal have been proposed and commercialized such as a reodorant, a product for keeping food freshness, a building product, a bedding and a health product.
However, there has been a problem that any conventional products depend only on adsorbability of bamboo charcoal. This means the conventional products have limited effects of reodorizing and keeping food freshness. Therefore, products having an increased adsorbability have been expected. For some applications, also expected have been products having an excellent antibacterial action besides the reodorizing effect.
The present invention is intended to overcome the aforementioned problem. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved bamboo charcoal-mixed composition having increased adsorbability, with ensuring its safety, and a carrier holding the composition. It is another object of the invention to provide an improved bamboo charcoal-mixed composition having an excellent antibacterial action in addition to the adsorbability, and a carrier holding the composition.
According to the invention, bamboo charcoal powder and tourmaline powder are mixed and dispersed into a binder to compose a bamboo charcoal-mixed composition. The bamboo charcoal-mixed composition has an enhanced reodorizing effect in comparison with the conventional composition including only bamboo charcoal powder, because of the following reasons.
First of all, bamboo charcoal itself has sterilization, deodorization and humidity conditioning effects because of its excellent adsorbability as mentioned above. Moreover, it has been known that it can adsorb and decompose ethylene gas generated from vegetables and so on. These overall actions allow bamboo charcoal to have an effect of keeping food freshness. On the other hand, tourmaline is a silicate mineral and has pyroelectricity (i.e., it is charged with electricity by heat). It has been known that the pyroelectricity allows tourmaline to have effects including adsorbing and fixing heavy metal ions and adsorbing malodorous composition particles. Through a variety of experiments, the inventors found that mixing bamboo charcoal powder and tourmaline powder can give synergism in which the above-mentioned effects of each powder are enhanced. The inventors also found that a far infrared radiation effect of tourmaline can keep food from perishing and thereby the composition according to the present invention can be effectively used in particular for food preservation. In the present invention, bamboo charcoal is powdered in any manner to obtain the bamboo charcoal powder and tourmaline ore is powdered in any manner to obtain the tourmaline powder.
In order to obtain a satisfactory synergism, the mixing ratio of bamboo charcoal and tourmaline powders is preferably (1:0.2) to (1:5), more preferably (1:0.4) to (1:1.2) and further preferably (1:0.5) to (1:1). However, it is not limited thereto because it may be varied according to the application of the obtained composition.
The bamboo charcoal-mixed composition according to the present invention is preferably further include tannic acid, bamboo vinegar, chitosan, conker extract and/or the like, according to the application of the composition.
The inventors have studied about property of tannic acid and found that it is excellent particularly in absorbing ammonia gas. Accordingly, tannic acid is effectively added with the composition of present invention, especially in case of necessity of absorbing ammonia gas.
Bamboo vinegar is a material analogous to pyroligneous acid. It represents the upper part of the liquid obtained by cooling the gas generated in a process of dry distillation of bamboo or in a process of producing bamboo charcoal, as in pyroligneous acid (i.e., wood vinegar). It contains acetic acid and methyl alcohol in the main and, additionally, various kinds of chemical substances. The inventors found out that deodorization and mothproof actions of bamboo vinegar are extremely effective for the present invention. Moreover, when using bamboo vinegar for the present invention, the inventors found refined bamboo vinegar can exhibit deodorization and mothproof actions more efficiently, through bamboo vinegar per se can be used.
Chitosan is a material obtained from chitinous substance included in carapaces of conchostracan such as prawn and crab, and has an antibacterial action as is commonly known. Chitosan can exhibit an enhanced antibacterial action when it is combined with an acid. Therefore, in case of using for example the above-mentioned bamboo vinegar together with chitosan, the antibacterial effect of chitosan can increase by the aid of the acidity of the bamboo vinegar.
It is generally known that Conker extract, for example methanol extract of conker, exhibits a mothproof action, in particular acaricidal action. For instance, there is a data showing the survival rate of mites is below 15% after leaving the mites for 3 days on a sheet including the extract whose density of 32 xcexcm/cm2.
In addition, malachite green smoke powder may be added with the above-mentioned bamboo charcoal-mixed composition. The malachite green smoke powder is obtained by decocting powdery malachite green or by smoking powdery malachite green with the smoke generated in burning bamboo. The study by the inventors revealed that this malachite green smoke powder is excellent especially in adsorbing ammonia. Therefore,it may be added with the composition of the present invention instead of tannic acid. Alternatively, this malachite green smoke powder may be effectively used together with tannic acid.
As described above, by adding one or more of the above-mentioned components with the two essential components and then dispersing those components into the binder, obtained can be the bamboo charcoal-mixed composition having not only a higher adsorbability than bamboo charcoal itself but also an excellent adsorbability of ammonia gas, antibacterial property and/or the like.
In addition, the carrier according to the present invention includes a base material and the above-mentioned composition held by the base material. To prepare the bamboo charcoal-mixed composition, further components to be added with the above essential components (bamboo charcoal powder, tourmaline powder) and the respective content ratios of such components may be determined according to the application of the carrier. For example, when the carrier is a sheet mainly for food preservation, tannic acid, bamboo vinegar and/or chitosan are effectively added. Alternatively, when the carrier is a wall material or a building material sheet, especially conker extract is effectively added.
The carrier according to the present invention is not limited to such a sheet and a building material. It includes every solid material such as furniture, clothing, interior goods and toys.
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