The present invention relates method for extraction of iron from plant leaves.

Background:

Iron is one of the important minerals required for human body, which is a part of hemoglobin in red blood cells and carries oxygen from lungs to working cells throughout the body. Deficiency in iron will leads to Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA), which is a most common widespread nutrient deficiency throughout world especially India.

India has launched several iron supplementation programmes but remains in unsatisfactory results. The leaves, pods, seeds, flowers, and roots of the Moringa oleifera tree are edible.

The leaves have been proved by scientific research to be a powerhouse of nutritional value. It contains times the vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the calcium in milk, 4 times the vitamin A in carrots and 2 times the protein in milk.

Even though the tender pods, commonly known as ‘Drumstick’ are considered a prized vegetable for culinary preparations, the tender leaves are also used for curry preparation.

Moringa is one of the most useful plant used as food and in indigenous system of medicine. It also has medicinal importance in folk medicine for treatment of variety of human ailments like rheumatism, paralysis, epilepsy.

Murrayakoenigii, more commonly known as curry leaf, is a small tree growing up to 4-6 m tall, with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter. The flowers are small white, and fragrant. The small black, shiny berries are claimed to be edible, but their seeds are poisonous.

The curry tree is native to India and found almost everywhere in the Indian subcontinent excluding the high altitudes of the Himalayas. Curry leaf is an essential leafy spice used in Asian cuisines for its distinct flavor. It has prominently been used a folk medicine in India and other Asian countries as an analgesic, astringent, antidysenteric, febrifuge, hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic agent. It is a powerful antioxidant and used for improvement of vision. It has also been used to treat night-blindness, and for regulation of fertility.

The green leaves are stated to be eaten raw for curing dysentery, and the infusion of the washed leaves stops vomiting. The leaves, the bark and the roots of Murrayakoenigii can be used as a tonic for stomachic. The green leaves are stated to be eaten raw for curing dysentery, and the infusion of the washed leaves stops vomiting.

A toxicity study showed that methanolic extract was moderately toxic to rats.

Prior Art:

US8541383B2 discloses a non-toxic dietary supplement composition comprising enriched demethylated curcuminoids from Curcuma longa alone or at least two of the compounds or extracts selected from enriched demethylated curcuminoids, Moringa oleifera and Murrayakoenigii and optionally containing other ingredients for treating obesity.

US20060275247A1 discloses a pigmented emulsion cosmetic composition containing Moringa seed extract in combination with at least one lipophilic particulate that is a pigment, powder, or mixture.

Hence, these patents disclose the usage of Moringa seed extract with other combination to prepare several useful products. Therefore, there is need to develop a novel method for the iron extraction from the plant leaves for getting the optimum content which aids in treating the iron deficiency and diseases like anaemia.

Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.

The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorth and method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.

The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Objective of the invention

The primary object of thepresent invention ismethod for extraction of iron from plant leaves.

Summary of the invention:

Accordingly following invention is method for extraction of iron from plant leaves.

the plant leaves of two different plants are collected and heated along with water in a closed vessel until the boiling point of water is reached.

The steam generated during the heating of leaves and water is collected separately and for the process of condensation wherein the steam converts.

It liquid by allowing the steam to pass through a condensing coil with a series of tubes on which water from external source is sprinkled. This process is termed as evaporation process.

The heating process is continued until the iron content from the leaves gets absorbed by the water which turns the colour of water into green. This is termed as absorption process.

The extracted iron solution from both evaporation and absorption methods are added to the sea salt, by a process of dipping.

In this process the extracted solution is periodically added, as a result the salt will absorb iron content and also changes its colour to green.

After the iron absorption a salt is achieved which is observed by the change in salt colour, the salt is then allowed to dry up which results in optimum iron content.

The source of heating the water and plant leaves is proposed to be electric or gas up to the boiling point of water depending on the available energy.

The extracted iron is helpful in treating anemia, one of the most common nutritional deficiencies that cause fatigue, dizziness, fast heart rate and malaise, or an overall feeling of sickness and weakness.

Brief description of drawings

Further clarify various aspects of some example embodiments of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only illustrated embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings.

In order that the advantages of the present invention will be easily understood, a detail description of the invention is discussed below in conjunction with the appended drawings, which, however, should not be considered to limit the scope of the invention to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a block diagram representation of method for extraction of iron from plant leavesaccording to the present invention.

Detailed description of invention:

The following description includes the preferred best mode of one embodiment of the present invention. It will be clear from this description of the invention that the invention is not limited to these illustrated embodiments but that the invention also includes a variety of modifications and embodiments thereto. Therefore, the present description should be seen as illustrative and not limiting. While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions, it should be understood, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

In any embodiment described herein, the open-ended terms "comprising," "comprises,” and the like (which are synonymous with "including," "having” and "characterized by") may be replaced by the respective partially closed phrases "consisting essentially of," consists essentially of," and the like or the respective closed phrases "consisting of," "consists of, the like.

The present invention relates method for extraction of iron from plant leaves.

The method of organic iron extraction from two different plant leaves take place. The supplementation of iron that is extracted from a group of plant leaves is done by evaporation and absorption methods.

The extracted iron solution is sprinkled uniformly on sea salt or any other food product in an appropriate ratio to get optimum iron content.

The deficiency of iron in human bodies can be treated by using the iron extracted from the proposed method. To overcome the deficiency of iron, the fortified salt that has more iron content than the ordinary salts that are available in the market.

The reason for selecting salt as a medium for iron supplement is based on the fact that salt is added in every food item for taste sense.

The extraction of iron from two different plant leaves includes ingredients plant leaves, water and turmeric powder. The Iron is extracted from group of ayurvedic plants by evaporation and absorption method, and the extraction is added over sea salt.

The extracted solution is then supplemented to the sea salt get optimum iron content out of it which eliminates any kind of iron deficiency problems.

Referring to the figure now, Figure 1 illustrates a flow diagram depicting the process of iron extraction from the plant leaves according to the present invention.

The proposed iron extraction process involves the heating of water in a closed vessel up to the boiling point of water by adding plant leaves.

The heating process is carried out until the steam is generated and after that the generated steam during the heating process is collected and condensed by allowing the steam to pass through a condensing coil with a series of tubes on which water from external source is sprinkled.

This heating process is continued until the iron content is extracted from the leaves and get absorbed by the water such that the colour of water is turned into green.

After collecting the extracted solution by both evaporation and condensation methods. The solution is then undergone for supplementation process wherein the extracted solution with optimum iron content is sprinkled /added to the sea salt through the process of dipping.

Upon dipping the sea salt periodically into the extracted solution, salt absorbs iron content and changes its colour to green and finally the salt after supplementation process is allowed to dry and therefore optimum iron content is achieved.

The source of heating the water and plant leaves during the absorption process is proposed to be electric or gas up to the boiling point of water depending on the available energy.

The condensed liquid solution contains a definite proportion of water and iron content which further goes under absorption process.

Both the evaporation and absorption methods result in the extraction of solution which has rich iron content.

The supplementation process in which the extracted iron solution is sprinkled uniformly on sea salt or any other food product in an appropriate ratio to get optimum iron content and the extracted iron is helpful in treating anemia, one of the most common nutritional deficiencies that cause fatigue, dizziness, fast heart rate, and malaise, or an overall feeling of sickness and weakness.

Additional advantages and modification will readily occur to those skilled in art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspect is not limited to specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general invention concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

We Claim:

1. The present invention relates method for extraction of iron from plant leaves.

2. Method for extraction of iron from plant leaves claimed in claim 1,heating water in a closed vessel up to the boiling point of water by adding plant leaves.

3. Method for extraction of iron from plant leaves claimed in claim 1,generated steam during the heating process is collected and condensed by allowing the steam to pass through a condensing coil with a series of tubes on which water from external source is sprinkled.

4. Method for extraction of iron from plant leaves claimed in claim 1,continuing the heating process until the iron content gets absorbed by the water which turns the colour of water into green.

5. Method for extraction of iron from plant leaves claimed in claim 1,adding the extracted solution from both evaporation and absorption methods to the sea salt by a process of dipping.

6. Method for extraction of iron from plant leaves claimed in claim 1,dipping sea salt periodically into the extracted solution, as a result salt absorbs iron content and changes its colour to green and finally the salt is allowed to dry.