Smoking Material Including Expanded Tobacco Leaves, Method of Preparing the Same, and Smoking Article Including the Same

The present disclosure relates to a smoking material including expanded tobacco leaves, a method of preparing the smoking material, and a smoking article including the smoking material.

Since tobacco, which is used as a material for smoking products, is a high-value-added crop that is difficult to grow, efforts have been made to reduce the amount of tobacco to be used per cigarette by treating cut tobacco leaves and improve the flavor of smoking materials.

As part of these efforts, various methods of expanding tobacco raw materials, such as ligules, stems, and the like, are being developed and used, and currently commonly used methods of expanding cut tobacco leaves may be divided into methods by expanding agents and methods by freeze-drying.

As technology related to expansion methods by expanding agents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,524,452 and 3,753,440 disclose methods of performing a treatment using an organic solvent, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,771,533 and 4,235,250 disclose methods of expanding cut tobacco leaves using carbon dioxide gas, and German Patent No. 2,903,330 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,146 disclose methods of expanding cut tobacco leaves using argon (Ar) and nitrogen (N), respectively. In addition to the above methods, methods of expanding cut tobacco leaves using various types of gases or solvents have been developed and used.

However, when expansion processing is performed on cut tobacco leaves as in the above-described methods, there is an issue in that the unique flavor of the cut tobacco leaves is rather reduced.

For such reasons, the present disclosure provides a smoking material including 50% by weight (wt %) or greater of expanded tobacco leaves that are prepared by a low temperature expansion process and that have excellent flavor, provides a method of preparing the smoking material, and a smoking article including the smoking material.

However, goals obtainable from the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned goal, and other unmentioned goals can be clearly understood from the following description by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains.

The present disclosure provides a smoking material including expanded tobacco leaves,

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the low temperature expansion process may be performed at a temperature of 200° C. to 230° C.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may be included in an amount of 60 wt % or greater in the smoking material.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may include at least one selected from a group consisting of flue-cured tobacco, burley tobacco, oriental tobacco, and cigar leaves.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may include 30 to 70 wt % of flue-cured tobacco, 10 to 50 wt % of burley tobacco, and 0 to 50 wt % of oriental tobacco.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may be flavored with at least one moisturizer selected from a group consisting of propylene glycol and glycerin.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, with respect to 100 parts by weight of the expanded tobacco leaves, the expanded tobacco leaves may be flavored with 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of propylene glycol and flavored with 0.01 to 5 parts by weight of glycerin.

In addition, the present disclosure provides a method of preparing a smoking material, wherein the material includes step Sof preparing raw leaves;

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, after step S, a step of performing flavoring with a moisturizer may be further included.

In addition, the present disclosure provides a smoking article including the smoking material according to the present disclosure.

Conventional expanded tobacco leaves had a problem in that the original taste of a cigarette was lost due to a reduction in the flavor because an expansion process was performed at a high temperature. However, in the present disclosure, a low temperature expansion process may be performed at a temperature of 230° C. or less, and thus, it is possible to provide a smoking material with excellent flavor with a clean aftertaste due to a reduction in irritation without losing the original taste of the cigarette.

In addition, expanded tobacco leaves according to the present disclosure may have excellent expansion properties, to reduce an amount of cut tobacco leaves to be used, thereby reducing manufacturing costs and improving a combustibility.

Furthermore, the expanded tobacco leaves may be prepared at an optimum expansion temperature of 200° C. to 230° C. in which it is easy to control a moisture content, to minimize a change in moisture, and thus, it is possible to manufacture a smoking product with a stable quality.

It should be understood that the effects of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-described effects, but are construed as including all effects that can be inferred from the configurations and features described in the following description or claims of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, various alterations and modifications may be made to the embodiments. Here, the embodiments are not construed to be limited by the descriptions of the present disclosure. The embodiments should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and replacements within the idea and the technical scope of the disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. The singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises/comprising” and/or “includes/including” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical or scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly-used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Throughout the specification, when one part “includes” one component, this indicates that the part may further include another component instead of excluding another component.

In addition, throughout the specification, a “smoking material” refers to a part or area containing a smokeable material. In other words, the smoking material may be a material capable of generating an aerosol and may refer to a part that contains a material transferring nicotine to a user.

Throughout the specification, a “smoking article” may refer to any product that can be smoked or any product that can provide a smoking experience, regardless of whether the product is based on tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco, or tobacco substitutes.

Hereinafter, a smoking material including expanded tobacco leaves according to the present disclosure and a method of preparing expanded tobacco leaves will be described in detail with reference to embodiments and drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments and drawings.

The present disclosure corresponds to a smoking material including expanded tobacco leaves,

In addition, as shown in, the present disclosure may provide a method of preparing a smoking material, the method including step Sof preparing raw leaves;

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in step Sof the present disclosure, the raw leaves are impregnated with the liquid carbon dioxide. A container in which the impregnating is performed may be in a high-pressure atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere. Here, liquid carbon dioxide penetrates a pore structure of the raw leaves and freezes.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in step Sof the present disclosure, carbon dioxide in pores may be vaporized by heating the raw leaves and the low temperature expansion process may be performed, and the low temperature expansion process may be performed at a temperature of 200° C. to 230° C. More desirably, the expansion process may be performed at a temperature of 200° C. to 220° C. When expansion is performed at a temperature less than 200° C., a variation in moisture content of the expanded tobacco leaves may increase, and a quality of a smoking product may not be uniform. When the expansion process is performed at a temperature greater than 230° C., a possibility of failing to enhance the original taste of a cigarette may exist.

The expansion process may be performed on a cut tobacco leaf and may show an excellent tobacco smoke taste due to use of cut tobacco leaves, in comparison to use of materials such as stems, ligules, and the like, and an increase in a volume of 20 to 50% is possible with respect to a volume of cut tobacco leaves before the expansion process, due to excellent expansion properties in comparison to other materials. In comparison, the volume increases by less than 30% during an expansion process of materials such as stems.

In addition, in the expanded tobacco leaves expanded by the low temperature expansion process, a loss of the original taste of the cigarette is minimized. The smoking material including the expanded tobacco leaves may provide a clean aftertaste while preventing the loss of the original taste of the cigarette by reducing irritation and off-flavor and off-odor.

The raw leaves may be cut to have an appropriate width and length, or may be cut after the expansion process. The expanded tobacco leaves may have a size of 0.5 to 4.0 mm, and cut tobacco leaves having a size of 0.85 mm or greater are included in an amount of 95 wt % or greater in the expanded tobacco leaves. The expanded tobacco leaves of the present disclosure described above have a large amount of effective cut tobacco leaves (0.85 mm or greater) after expansion.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may be included in an amount of 50 wt % or greater in the smoking material, and may desirably be included in an amount of 60 wt % or greater. The expanded tobacco leaves according to the present disclosure may be included in the above-described large amount to have an effect of reducing an amount of tobacco leaves to be used.

In particular, the smoking material of the present disclosure may include 100 wt % of expanded tobacco leaves, and in this case, the amount of tobacco leaves to be used itself may be reduced, a tobacco smoke taste may be enhanced, and at the same time, only a supply line of expanded tobacco leaves may be used without a separate lamina processing operation in a process line used for manufacturing a cigarette, and thus, controlling of a moisture content and a flavoring process may be easily performed.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may include at least one selected from a group consisting of flue-cured tobacco, burley tobacco, oriental tobacco, and cigar leaves. For example, based on the flue-cured tobacco, both the burley tobacco and the oriental tobacco may be included, only one of the burley tobacco and the oriental tobacco may be included, or only the burley tobacco may be included; or only the flue-cured tobacco, instead of the other types of leaves, may be included.

More specifically, 30 to 70 wt % of flue-cured tobacco, 10 to 50 wt % of burley tobacco, and 0 to 50 wt % of oriental tobacco may be included. Desirably, 40 to 60 wt % h of flue-cured tobacco, 10 to 30 wt % of burley tobacco, and 20 to 40 wt % of oriental tobacco may be included.

In the method of preparing the smoking material according to the present disclosure, after step S, step Sof adding general cut tobacco leaves that are not expanded may be further included. Types of general cut tobacco leaves that may be included in addition to the expanded tobacco leaves are not limited, and may be, for example, at least one selected from flue-cured tobacco, burley tobacco, oriental tobacco, cigar leaves, or Virginia, and the same leaf combination as that of the expanded tobacco leaves may be used, however, the types are merely examples and embodiments are not limited to the types. The other general cut tobacco leaves are processed through a typical process and may be processed, for example, through a humidification, flavoring, toasting, or a conditioning process, and the like.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the expanded tobacco leaves may be flavored with at least one moisturizer selected from a group consisting of propylene glycol and glycerin. The expanded tobacco leaves may be flavored after the low temperature expansion process, and in particular, a casing treatment with a moisturizer, and the like is not performed on cut tobacco leaves used in the expanded tobacco leaves of the present disclosure at a step before the expansion process. The expanded tobacco leaves of the present disclosure may be flavored with a moisturizer after the expansion process, and thus, stably controlling of a moisture content may be possible such that the expanded tobacco leaves may be used in a smoking article.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, with respect to 100 parts by weight of the expanded tobacco leaves, the expanded tobacco leaves may be flavored with 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of propylene glycol and flavored with 0.01 to 5 parts by weight of glycerin. When the propylene glycol is used in an amount of less than 0.1 parts by weight, the tobacco smoke taste may be affected by a lack of a moisture retention capacity, and when the propylene glycol is used in an amount of greater than 10 parts by weight, the moisturizer may have an inappropriate viscosity. In addition, when the glycerin is used in an amount of less than 0.01 parts by weight, the tobacco smoke taste may be affected by a lack of a moisture retention capacity, and when the glycerin is used in an amount of greater than 5 parts by weight, the moisturizer may have an inappropriate viscosity.

In addition to propylene glycol and glycerin, the moisturizer may further include at least one of ethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, and oleyl alcohol.

When flavoring with the moisturizer is performed, a flavoring agent may also be treated together with the moisturizer. The flavoring agent may include naturally generated flavor materials, herbal medicines, extracts of herbal medicines, synthetically obtained materials, or combinations thereof (e.g., tobacco,, licorice,, eugenol, chamomile, fenugreek, clove, maple, matcha, menthol, mint, cinnamon, turmeric, herbs, cherries, berries, peaches, apples, oranges, mangoes, clementines, lemons, limes, grapes, blueberries, citrus fruits, spearmint, peppermint, lavender, aloe vera, sandalwood, bergamot, pine, rose oil, vanilla, lemon oil, orange oil, orange blossom, cherry blossom, jasmine, ylang-ylang, sage, mint oil from any species of coffee,, star anise, cocoa, lemongrass, rooibos, flax, ginkgo, hazel, hibiscus, laurel, Mate, orange peel, rose, tea (e.g., green tea or black tea), thyme, juniper, elderflower, basil, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, paprika, rosemary, saffron, lemon peel, mint, beefsteak plant, turmeric, coriander, myrtle, cassis, valerian, pimento, mace, damian, marjoram, olive, lemon balm, lemon basil, chive,, tarragon, limonene, thymol, camphene), flavour enhancers, bitterness receptor site blockers, sensorial receptor site activators or stimulators, sugars and/or sugar substitutes (e.g., sucralose, acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharine, cyclamates, lactose, sucrose, glucose, fructose, sorbitol, or mannitol), and other additives, such as charcoal, chlorophyll, minerals, herbal medicines, or breath freshening agents. They may be man-made, synthetic, or natural ingredients or blends thereof, but are not limited thereto.

In addition, the present disclosure may provide a smoking article including the smoking material.

The smoking article may include the expanded tobacco leaves of the present disclosure to have an encapsulated pressure drop (EPD) draw resistance of 60 to 120 mmHO, and an unencapsulated pressure drop (UPD) draw resistance of 140 to 180 mmHO. Since the expanded tobacco leaves are included, the smoking article of the present disclosure may exhibit a similar level of draw resistance to those of general smoking articles even though the weight of the smoking material is reduced. In addition, the smoking article may have a hardness of 80% or greater and may also have a hardness level similar to those of general smoking articles.

The smoking article may be a combustion-type smoking article or a heating-type smoking article. The combustion-type smoking article may be used in a tobacco material portion of a combustible smoking article such as a filter cigarette, a small cigar, and a cigar. The heating-type smoking article may refer to an article in which smoking is performed by applying heat using an electric heating device such as a heater, instead of burning.

The smoking article may include a smoking material and a filter portion, and may further include different types of segments depending on a shape of a smoking article.

The smoking article may include cigarette paper that surrounds the filter portion and the smoking material. The cigarette paper may be paper, flax, wood pulp, and a polymer material.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the filter portion may be a mono filter, a dual filter, or a triple filter. In addition, the filter portion may include at least one filter among a porous matrix structure, a tube structure, and a paper tube structure. The filter may include a filter tow including a fibrous form, a filamentous form, or both, and the fibrous form and the filamentous form may each include at least one of a polymer, paper, cellulose acetate, activated carbon, and carbon. However, embodiments are not limited thereto. In some embodiments, a filter material may further include at least one filter material widely known in the art, such as activated carbon, an adsorbent including carbon, and the like.