Flavor capsules for smoking articles

Abstract

A smoking article includes a smokable material and a filter downstream of the smokable material. The filter comprises a capsule having a core and a breakable shell. The core has a mixture including one or more lipid compounds and one or more humectants. The lipid compounds account for 50% or more of the weight of the mixture. At least one of the one or more humectants is capable of interacting with one or more smoke constituents to reduce the concentration of the one or more smoke constituents in mainstream smoke.

Claims

1. A smoking article comprising: a smokable material; and a filter downstream of the smokable material, wherein the filter comprises a seamless crushable capsule comprising a core and a breakable shell surrounding the core, wherein the core comprises a mixture including one or more lipid compounds, and one or more humectants that are capable of interacting with one or more smoke constituents to reduce the concentration of the one or more smoke constituents in mainstream smoke, and wherein the one or more lipid compounds account for 50% or more of the weight of the mixture, and wherein the one or more humectants account for 2% to 15% of the weight of the mixture.

2. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the one or more lipid compounds comprise one or more medium chain triglycerides.

3. The smoking article of claim 2, wherein the one or more medium chain triglycerides account for 50% or more of the weight of the mixture.

4. The smoking article of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more medium chain triglycerides is a medium chain triglyceride that is present in coconut oil.

5. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more humectants is hydrophilic and comprises a sugar alcohol, a sugar polyol, a polymeric polyol, or a glycol capable of forming a hydrogen bond with phenol.

6. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the one or more humectants comprise a compound selected from the group consisting of glycerol triacetate, triethyl citrate, ethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, and polyoxyethylene.

7. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the one or more humectants comprise polyethylene glycol 400 or polyethylene glycol 600.

8. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the mixture is an emulsion.

9. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the capsule is formed via a vibration jet breakup technique.

10. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the capsule has a diameter in a range from 3 mm to 5 mm.

11. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the capsule has a crush force value prior to introduction into the smoking article of from 5 N to 20 N.

12. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the core further comprises a flavorant.

13. The smoking article of claim 12, wherein the flavorant is selected from the group consisting of acetoin, sucrose, sorbitol, ethyl lactate, lactic acid, vanilla oleoresin, benzyl alcohol, ethyl maltol, vanillin, furaneol, maltol, benzaldehyde, and heliotropine.

14. The smoking article of claim 12, wherein the flavorant is hydrophilic.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an embodiment of a partially unrolled smoking article. FIGS. 2-3 are schematic longitudinal sectional views of embodiments of filters including a capsule. FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a cross section of a capsule. FIG. 5 is a plot of percentages of yields of phenol relative to control cigarettes in which no humectant was injected. The smoking articles, filters, and capsules depicted in FIGS. 1-4 illustrate embodiments of smoking articles or components of smoking articles described above. The schematic drawings are not necessarily to scale and are presented for purposes of illustration and not limitation. The drawings depict one or more aspects described in this disclosure. However, it will be understood that other aspects not depicted in the drawings fall within the scope and spirit of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(2) Referring now to FIG. 1, a smoking article 10, in this case a cigarette, is depicted. The smoking article 10 includes a rod 20, such as a tobacco rod, and a mouth end filter 30 that includes filter material 32, such as cellulose acetate tow. The depicted smoking article 10 includes plug wrap 60, cigarette paper 40, and tipping paper 50. In the depicted embodiment, the plug wrap 60 circumscribes at least a portion of the filter 30. The cigarette paper 40 circumscribes at least a portion of the rod 20. Tipping paper 50 or other suitable wrapper circumscribes the plug wrap 60 and a portion of the cigarette paper 40 as is generally known in the art. The filter 30 includes a crushable capsule, which may be oriented as depicted in, for example, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3.

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment where filter 30 is in a plug 32-space 33-plug 34 configuration, circumscribed by plug wrap 60. Plug 32 is the mouth end plug and is preferably white cellulose acetate tow. Crushable capsule 80 is disposed in void space 33 between plugs 32 and 34.

(4) FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where filter 30 crushable capsule 80 is embedded in filter material 32, circumscribed by plug wrap 60.

(5) FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a crushable capsule 80 that includes a core 82 surrounded by a breakable shell 84.

(6) In the following non-limiting examples that provide illustrative embodiments of the capsules and methods described above. These examples are not intended to provide any limitation on the scope of the disclosure presented herein.

EXAMPLES

(7) To determine whether humectants in filters can effectively remove phenol from mainstream smoke, filters of cigarettes were injected with a composition comprising a humectant. Various humectants were evaluated at various concentrations. Table 2 below illustrates volumes, densities, and concentrations of humectant compositions injected into the filters.

(8) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Humectant compositions injected into filters for testing phenol reduction Injected Density Concentration Volume in Humectant [20° C.] [% w/w] filters [μl] Prototype A Triethyl citrate 1.140 7 8.3 Prototype B Triethyl citrate 1.140 10 11.9 Prototype C ethyleneglycol 0.98 7 9.7 Prototype D ethyleneglycol 0.98 10 13.8 Prototype E PEG 600 1.126 7 8.4 Prototype F PEG 600 1.126 10 12.0

(9) Humectants were dissolved in ethanol to the desired concentration, and then the dissolved humectant compositions were injected into filters.

(10) The ability of the humectant compositions to reduce phenol concentrations in mainstream smoke was tested as follows. Briefly, cigarette mainstream smoke was collected according to ISO 3308 under standard conditions onto a Cambridge filter pad. The filter pad is extracted with an organic solvent, and the extract was subjected to analysis by routine gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy.

(11) The results of the testing are presented in FIG. 5, with the percentages of yields in phenol relative to the yields of phenol in control cigarettes into which no humectant was injected. These results show that the humectants are effective in significantly reducing the level of a smoke constituent from mainstream smoke.

(12) A number of breakable capsules were prepared and characterized. Table 3 below lists the ingredients used to form three batches of capsules.

(13) TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Ingredients used to produce capsules 001 002 003 Ingredient mg % mg % mg % MCT 32.94 90.00 35.55 90.00 31.32 90.00 CaCl.sub.2 1.52 4.15 1.50 3.80 1.50 4.31 PVA 0.50 1.37 0.50 1.27 0.50 1.44 Alginate 0.70 1.91 0.70 1.77 0.70 2.01 Propylene 0.94 2.57 1.25 3.16 0.78 2.2 glycol TOTAL 36.6 100.0 39.5 100.0 34.8 100.0 MCT = medium chain triglyceride. PVA = polyvinyl alcohol.

(14) Capsules for batches 001, 002 and 003 were prepared by a vibration het breakup technique.

(15) As indicated in Table 3, the shell (CaCl.sub.2), PVA and alginate) was about 7% to about 8% of the weight of the capsule, while the core (MCT and propylene glycol) was about 92% to about 93% of the weight of the capsule.

(16) The average diameter of the capsules for batch 001 was 4.3 mm. The average diameter for the capsules for batch 002 was 4.2 mm. The average diameter for the capsules for batch 003 was 4.2 mm.

(17) Capsules from batch 1 were subjected to breakage testing as described above in the specification. Crush force and distance at breakage were evaluated. The mean crush force was 11.9 N, and the mean distance at break was 1.25 mm.

(18) Thus, methods, systems, devices, compounds and compositions for FLAVOR CAPSULES FOR SMOKING ARTICLES are described. Various modifications and variations of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments. Indeed, various modifications of the described modes for carrying out the invention which are apparent to those skilled in chemistry; chemical engineering; filter manufacturing; cigarette manufacturing; or related fields are intended to be within the scope of the following claims.