FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 (39 of 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (See section 10 and rule 13)
1. TITLE OF THE INVENTION:
FREE FLOWING FEED GRADE CHOLINE CHLORIDE POWDER WITH NUTRITIVE FAT BASED
CARRIER
2. APPLICANTS)
(a) NAME: MEHTAMUKESH
(b) NATIONALITY:
Indian
(c) ADDRESS:
MEHTAMUKESH 302/B, Neelkanth Complex, Sahar Road, Andheri (East), Mumbai-400099 Maharashtra, INDIA
3. PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION:
Choline is a member of the group consisting of the vitamins of B complex and is widely used for enriching animal feeds. Choline is mostly added to feeds in the form of its chloride salt namely Choline Chloride. Choline is a structural part of lecithin and sphingomycetin. Choline appears to be required in metabolism of fats and its deficiency can lead to fatty livers, hemorrhage kidneys or perosis in chickens. For example, an animal feed described in patent number SU1784152 by Dvinin Yuri F; Lebskaya Taryana K; et al describes a formulation having choline chloride (0.2%) and fish fat (2-10%) w/w amongst other ingredients.
The pure Choline Chloride is an extremely hygroscopic substance. Anhydrous samples obtained by crystallization from organic solvents or by evaporation, become deliquescent within a few hours by absorbing moisture from atmosphere. Although available in crystalline powder form of 98% approx. purity, it is difficult to use the chemical in
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pure form as a feed component due to its hygroscopic nature. The product is also available as an aqueous solution of 75% to 85% strength; however choline chloride is a minor ingredient in the total compound feed mixture and it is not possible to disperse an aqueous minor component homogenously throughout the feed with normal equipment employed for such mixing.
Therefore commonly Choline Chloride is added in a diluted dry form as 50 to 60% of a mixture based on an inert inorganic / organic carrier. Silica, bentonite, etc. are the inorganic carriers commonly used for this purpose, whereas corn cob flour, rice husk flour, etc. are the common organic carriers. US Patent 4,820,532 by Bayer, et al describes the use of silica carrier. The problem of high silica carrier for choline chloride has been addressed by prior inventors. US Patent 5,486363 by Kiefer, et al describes the use of hydrophobic carrier such as silicic acid. US Patent 5,766,668 by Brommelsiek, et al describes a mixture of hygroscopic excipient and hydrobphobic adjuvant used in combination as a carrier. However, the common element in both these inventions is the use of hydrophobic substances which are very costly, and their only function is to counter the hygroscopicity of choline chloride to keep it in free flowing condition, for it to be evenly mixed in the animal feed. These inorganic/organic carriers either have no nutritive value or a negligible nutritional value, and they infact add to the cost of freight and processing of choline chloride.
For above reasons, it would be more beneficial if such inorganic/organic carriers are used along with choline chloride that have their own nutritive value, thus contributing to the energy density of the compounded feed, and lowering the effective cost of choline chloride supplementation to the feed. The present invention addresses this issue.
The present livestock and poultry owners expect faster growth and better food conversion ratio from their feeds. This requirement of higher energy is met in one way by supplementing the feed with fats, either as oils or in solid form. It is thus common for a feed composition to have fats and choline chloride both present at the same time. The main feature of this invention is to replace the traditional
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non-nutritive / less nutritive or expensive carriers for choline chloride by the very nutritive solid tat of the type that is already an ingredient of most types of feeds.
For example, in the formulation of SU1784152 cited earlier, all the choline chloride (0.2%) could be pre-mixed with a part quantity (say 0.5% of total weight) of total fish fat initially to ease the uniform mixing and dispersal of choline chloride and the remaining part of fat could be added in the final mixture. This would eliminate the need for non-nutritive carrier while enabling the choline chloride to become free-flowing during mixing.
Some mention has been made, in above cited patents of use of fatty acid salt/fatty acids etc. in formulation of choline feed precursors, but their incorporation has hitherto been for providing lubricating properties during processing, and therefore the tat content available in the end product is zero or negligible.
The present invention departs from the past practices by utilizing predominantly tat based compounds as carriers for choline chloride feed additive. The fat is effectively at no additional cost as the carrier due to the nutritional energy that it imparts to the feed independently. This avoids the unnecessary cost of non-nutritive carrier, with no value in the feed. In fact, any non-nutritive carrier is an impurity in the feed.
Fat is commonly used in all types of feeds in much larger quantities than the amount of fat minimally necessary to be added to the choline chloride to derive benefits of such addition as per the invention. Therefore the minimal quantities of tat carrier for choline chloride will provide only a partial requirement of total fat in the feed, thus leaving a balance to be added separately to make a appropriate dosage of oils in the feed. However, the quantity of fat and/or other energy source ingredient required to be separately added can be proportionally reduced by the quantum of fat that is present in the form of carrier of choline chloride. The present invention therefore produces more potent, economical and qualitatively better feed as compared to presently available feeds using Choline Chlorides.
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It is also possible to premix the entire quantity of fat and choline chloride requirements of the feed as shown in one example below. In case of a typical feed formulation as given in cited patent SU1784152, the total amount of fat could be about SO times mat of choline chloride, resulting in a composition with 98% fat additives. This mixture has the virtue of being completely tree from any non-nutritive carriers like silica, etc; and will have only two components, choline chloride and rat. As an alternative, fat can partially replace the hygroscopic excipients that are normally added upto 45% w/w, hydrophobic adujuvants that are normally added upto 1% and adsorptive carriers upto 10% of total weight of commercially available free flowing compositions of choline chloride.
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4. DESCRIPTION:
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner m which it is to be performed
Description off the invention
The present invention relates to the use of Fat based Compound as major ingredient in carriers for choline chloride, the choline chloride feed additive thus obtained, and the process for manufacturing the said feed additive.
The preferred embodiment of the invention uses spray chilled/prilled vegetable based fats which are solid at normal temperatures, and having a slip melting point of 50-65° C. Such rats are a mixture of fatty acids/ hydrogenated fatty acids, consisting of Myristic, Palmitic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic and Linoleinic acids and their triglycerides. These fats are preferred as there is lesser batch to batch variation in their slip melting point temperatures as compared to other commercially available rats of similar melting points. The vegetable based fats are also observed to have better dispersal characteristics on choline chloride. Other solid rat based compounds from vegetable/animal origins containing saturated/unsaturated ratty acids, their mono-, di-, triglycerides and their salts or hydrogenated product can also be used in different embodiment of the invention. It is common knowledge that use of such solid rats is much preferred to the use of oils in liquid / slurry form as a source of rat, because the miscibility and dispersion of liquid rat requires special equipment and is unreliable. The rat and choline chloride mixture as per the invention is free-flowing.
The hygroscopic excipient can be selected from a group of compounds consisting of calcium oxide, silicon oxide, anhydrous sodium sulphate, zeolites, molecular sieves, bentonite, etc., and a mixture thereof or can also include organic hygroscopic substances such as milled corn cob, rice husk, etc. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, precipitated spray-dried silica having a particle size from SO mus. m. to 150 mus. m., which are commercially available, are used. The Hydrophobic adjuvant is either hydrophobic silica, hydrophobic feed grade polymer or a mixture thereof.
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The preferred embodiment of the invention uses silanized hydrophobic silica which is commercially available.
With use of crystalline 98% choline chloride, the process of manufacturing as per the present invention is very simple. The raw materials are slowly and gently mixed in required proportion to a homogenous state, and then screened in a current of dehumidified air. The ingredients can be mixed in any onto* and the individual raw materials can either be added in lots or proportionally dosed.
In the preferred embodiments of the invention described in the following examples, the hygroscopic precipitated silica is mixed with half the required quantity of the solid fat, followed by the addition of solid 98% choline chloride and mixing for 10-15 minutes, the other half of the solid fat is then added and further mixing for 5-10 minutes is done. In some formulations small quantities of silanized silica are added to increase the choline percentage of the compounds. The final mixing is for 5-10 minutes. A slow paddle type/Ribbon bender or a double cone blender is the mixer of choice. The above material is screened in a closed vibratory screening machine with screens for separating the oversize/undersize material, which are recycled. A slow current of dehumidified air using a PSA type gas dryer/dehumidifier is purged into the vibrator to absorb any free moisture and provide a low humidity atmosphere during the screening condition. The screened material is then packed.
Aqueous solution of 75% to 85% choline chloride can also be used. The liquid choline chloride is sprayed and mixed with the hygroscopic precipitated silica and dried at 80 to 1500 C. The drying of the silica-choline mixture can be done separately or it can be dried in the fluidized bed processor/coator-granulator. The solid fat is molten by preheating and converted into a liquid, which is sprayed on the above cooled mixture at 25-30° C to coat the particles. The air supplied for fiuidization is cooled, predried and dehumidified using a PSA type gas dryer/dehumidified before entering the fluid bed processor/coator-granulator. Small quantities of hydrophobic adjuvant can be added to the fat melt before spraying the fat to improve flow characteristics of the final product, if required.
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Hydrophobic adjuvants are effective but costly carrier components, and the present invention employs them in much smaller percentages than known to the art.
Example 1
4 kgs of precipitated silica (sipernat 22) is properly mixed with 3.1 kgs of finery prilled solid vegetable based fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal/kg approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55 C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture. 10.25 Kgs of Solid Choline chloride 98% is then added to the carrier mixture, which is then blended for 10 minutes. A farther quantity of 3.1 kgs of above fat compound is then added and blending is continued for another 5-10 minutes.
The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 19.8 kgs. of free flowing Choline Chloride Feed Additive having 50% Choline Chloride content, 30% Fat content and having a Gross Energy of 2670 Kcal/Kg approx (based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. of Fat)
Example 2
1.65 kgs of precipitated silica (sipernat 22) is properly mixed with 2.6 kgs of finely prilled solid vegetable based fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal/kg approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55° C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture. 10.25 Kgs of crystalline Choline chloride 98% is then added and the mixture is blended for 10 minutes. An additional 2.6 kgs of hit compound is added to the above mixture and blending is continued for another 5-10 minutes.
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The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 16.5 kgs. of free flowing Feed Additive having a Choline Chloride content of 60%, 30% Fat content and having a Gross Energy of 2670 Kcal/Kg approx.(based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. Of Fat).
Example 3
11.75 Kgs of liquid chloine chloride 85% is sprayed and mixed with 1.1 kgs of spray-dried precipitated silica (Sipernat 22) in a suitable blender and the mixture is dried in a fluid bed dryer at 120° C to form part 1.
Separately, 5.25 Kgs of solid vegetable fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal/kg approx.) having a melt slip point of 55 C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 6.24% and Linoleic acid 1.33% is heated to 80° C and mixed with 0.10 Kg of hydrophobic silanized silica (MFIL/TS grade) to form part 2.
The fluidized silica-choline mix of part 1 above is sprayed in a fluid bed processor/coator-granulator by the wet mixture of fat and silanized silica of part 2 above, at temperature of 25-30° C at the rate of 0.250 Kgs/min. Cooled predried, dehumidified air at 20° C is used for fluidizing the mixture. The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 15.5 Kgs of free flowing feed Additive having a Choline Chloride content of 61%, 32% Fat content and Gross Energy of 2850 Kcal/Kg appprox. (based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. of Fat) is thus obtained.
Example 4
0.5 Kgs of Solid Choline chloride 98% is properly mixed with 20 kgs of finely prilled solid vegetable based fat (99.5% fat content and having gross energy 9000 Kcal/kg
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approx.) and having a melt slip point of 55° C and fatty acid profile which consists of Myristic acid 1.12%, Palmitic acid 62.67%, Stearic acid 27.90%, Laurie acid 0.11%, Oleic acid 624% and Linoleic acid 1.33% to form a carrier mixture, which is blended for 20 minutes.
The mixed material is screened through 60 mesh ASTM (0.25 mm width aperture) screen in a closed vibratory screen with dehumidified air atmosphere to get 20.5 kgs. of free flowing Choline Chloride Feed Additive having 3% Choline Chloride content, 97% Fat content and having a Gross Energy of 8680 Kcal/Kg approx (based on Gross Energy of 8900 Kcal per Kg. of Fat).
In the last example the admixture of choline chloride and fat has no other ingredients, it is free flowing and also having a high calorific value. The ratio of choline chloride / fat in this mixture is nearly the same (1:40) as their ideal ratio in a typical feed mixture. The fat is capable of diluting the entire typical dosage of choline chloride effectively wimout any other excipients or adjuvants. There is absolutely no cost of any filler such as silicas etc in this formulation.
In yet other embodiments of the invention, corncobs or rice husk are used to partially replace hygroscopic silica at lesser cost.
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5. CLAIMS:
Remodified claims as per Article 34(2)(b) of PCT

I claim

1. Free flowing feed grade choline chloride powder with nutritive fat based carrier, said powder comprising of
a. Choline chloride between 2% to 85% w/w
b. Fat between 10% to 98% w/w
c. Hygroscopic Excipient between 0% to 45% w/w
d. Hydrophobic Adjuvant between 0% to 1% w/w.
e. Adsorptive carrier between 0% to 10% w/w.

(claim

2. Free flowing feed grade choline chloride powder with nutritive tat based carrier of claim 1 wherein said fat is a hydrogenated OH of vegetable origin having a slip melting point of between 50 to 65 deg C.

DATE 6TH March 2006 SIGNATURE

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7. ABSTRACT OF THE INVENTION:
Choline Chloride Feed Additive having Choline Chloride content from 2% to 85%, consists of a fat-based carrier wherein a major ingredient of the carrier is Fat. Other ingredients of the carrier may include hygroscopic excipients and hydrophobic adjuvants. Processes mat can be used for making the feed additive are also described.
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