Hazelnut and related industries

Products made from hazelnuts:

At present, more than 100 types of hazelnut products are produced in the world and sent to international markets. Therefore, it is very necessary and important to pay attention to the production of new products from hazelnuts. Hazelnut products are obtained from its roots, wood, trunk, stems, skin, flowers, leaves and fruits and they can be divided into several general categories:

  Food products:

 Includes nuts, chocolate, edible oils, hazelnut flour, hazelnut paste, hazelnut cookies, hazelnut biscuits, hazelnut slices, fortified pasta, fortified bread, flavored dairy, flavored ice cream, chewing gum, jelly, etc. Products Medicinal

  Cosmetics:

 Including extraction of active ingredients, all kinds of vitamins, anti-cancer pills and capsules of taxol, antimicrobial products of ethanolic extract of hazelnut leaves and cane, topical oils, various creams, sprays, perfumery and ...
New products from hazelnut waste:
Including fuel, activated carbon, absorbent materials, animal and poultry feed, nanobiological fertilizers, various natural dyes, various hazelnut handicrafts, etc.
 

Overview of processing and production of new hazelnut products:

1- Hazelnut oil and butter:

As we know, hazelnut has about 60% oil, which is light yellow in color and has a mild taste and pleasant smell. This oil is used for nutrition, perfumery and painting. The general steps in factories for oil production are:
1- Gum extraction 2- Neutralization 3- Drying 4- Decolorization
5- Hydrogenation 6- Decolorization 7- Oil formulation 8- Deodorization

  2- Hazelnut paste:

 One of the new hazelnut products that is widely used in the food industry is hazelnut paste. This product, which is produced from hazelnut kernels, has a high added value and is used in various food industries, chocolate making, flavored dairy products, cakes and biscuits, cookies and cakes, confectionery, various types of caramel, flavored bread, fortified pasta, and. ... has industrial applications. The hazelnut paste production line includes pre-mill and ball mill. In the pre-mill, the hazelnuts are ground to a size of 110 microns and the product reaches a size of 20-30 microns with a ball mill. The ball mill has a two-layer cover. The tank and storage also have two layers. In this process, cold water is taken automatically. The capacity of this device is 800-100 kg per hour.

Hazelnut peeler:

After harvesting the hazelnut, the first activity that is done on it is to separate its green skin (pod). Previously, this operation was done traditionally and by hand, which was very laborious and had little efficiency. In addition to separating the green skin from the hazelnut, the hazelnut peeling machine in a completely hygienic and high-efficiency manner also separates the resulting skin and pod.

Hazelnut kernel machine:

The pulverizer has the ability to pulverize hard-skinned grains with high efficiency and low recycling percentage. This device can handle this operation well, regardless of the size of the input grains, and does not need to sort the grains in advance.

Screening machine:

In many industries, a device is needed to differentiate the product based on the grain size of the product. The sieve is flexible in terms of controlling the grain size (mesh) of the output product and this is done by changing the plates with the corresponding mesh.

Smile hazelnut machine (cracker):

 Iran is one of the major producers of hazelnuts in the world after Turkey, the United States and Spain. Among us Iranians, eating salted hazelnuts is more common than other nations. Unlike its similar product, pistachio, there is no natural smiling hazelnut and it must be smoked before salting. Until now, hazelnuts were traditionally left by hand by beating them between two hard objects (such as stones), which has many disadvantages such as unsanitary, time consuming, long distance, lack of manpower at peak consumption (before Nowruz) and has a fixed labor force (mostly rural women turn to work in times of unemployment and for low income). The smiling hazelnut machine has solved this problem during a completely hygienic process with high efficiency (less than 3% fineness).

3- Hazelnut chocolate:

Chocolate grinder is used to mix and refine chocolate components (powdered sugar, vegetable oil and hazelnut powder). The inner layer is shaken and moves inside the system, which is made of stainless steel. When needed, the system automatically receives cold water. When 50 microns of powdered sugar is used, the chocolate produced by this system will be 2-25 microns thick. Depending on the flow rate, the grain size of the product will be between 20 and 25 micrometers.
Chocolate waste re-preparation:
 Chocolate waste reprocessing is a vital process for natural chocolate production. During this process, the viscosity of the chocolate decreases as a result of heat transfer and mechanical agitation. In addition, moisture, volatiles and unpleasant odors are removed by this process. Waste preparation takes approximately 13 hours and consists of 6 parts: 1- Loading 2- Dry chocolate waste preparation 3- Plastic chocolate waste preparation 4- Chocolate waste waste preparation 5- Homogenization 6- Electric discharge.

4- Extraction and purification of hazelnut active ingredients:

 As we know, hazelnut is the only fruit that has 20 types of essential amino acids in the human body. Also, the presence of vitamins B1 and B3 in the family increases the nutritional and medicinal importance of this fruit. Therefore, the extraction and purification of hazelnut active ingredients is one of the important issues in the production of new hazelnut products. In this regard, the facilities of chemical analysis laboratory, food industry laboratory, microbiology laboratory and quality control laboratory along with the production center of plant extracts and active ingredients in Iran Chemical Industry Development Research Institute provide the possibility of designing and launching hazelnut active ingredients production line.

5- Production of activated carbon:

Hazelnut peel is one of the materials that can be used in various industries. Various plant, synthetic and natural organic materials that have a high percentage of carbon, especially cellulosic wastes such as lignin can be used as raw materials for the production of activated carbon. Activated carbon, due to its contact surface of 2500-300 g / m2, can effectively remove various chemical contaminants such as dyes and heavy metals from the gas or liquid phase through adsorption.
Applications of activated carbon: 1- Removal of dyes 2- Removal of heavy metals 3- Water and wastewater treatment.

Activated carbon production method:
1- Carbonization process 2- Activation process (activation)

Activated carbon production method is done by both chemical and gaseous methods. Hazelnut skin has a good ability to be converted to activated carbon by gas. Coconut skin is used as a raw material and water vapor as an activating agent.
Equipment needed: electric oven, hazelnut skin, water vapor, vacuum pump
Electric furnace for production of activated carbon:
1- Carbonization stage: The furnace temperature is first set at 500 ° C for one hour.
2- Activation stage: Then the oven temperature is raised to 900 degrees and it is done for 2 hours by blowing water vapor. The product is gradually cooled to 100 ° C and then ground.
Based on the results obtained, in the case of hazelnut skin, it has a higher bleaching power and capacity, so that each 0.1 g of activated carbon prepared is able to completely decolorize 65 ml of 200 mg / l methylene blue solution.

6- Antimicrobial substances of ethanolic extract of hazelnut leaves and rods:

Hazelnut cultivation has been common since ancient times and its development has gradually become common in the Mediterranean region. The Romans and Greeks used hazelnuts to treat diseases. The cultivation of the hazelnut tree has been common in Iran since ancient times. Research has shown that ethanolic extract of hazelnut leaves and sticks have antimicrobial effect on Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, etc., and the leaves showed more antimicrobial properties than sticks.

  7- Production of taxol in the treatment of cancer diseases:

Taxol is often extracted from the yew plant and is used in the pharmaceutical industry as one of the most effective natural compounds in the treatment of cancers. Among the applications of taxol is its use in the treatment of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, lung, urinary tract, esophagus and lymph nodes. Taxol was used in 1992 to treat ovarian cancer and approved in 1994. Recent studies have shown that taxol is effective in treating a variety of head and neck tumors, a type of melanoma skin cancer, two common types of lung cancer, urinary tract cancer, esophageal cancer, a specific type of bone cancer, two types of lymph node and spinal cord cancer. The yew tree species is on the verge of extinction, and the trees suitable for taxol extraction are several hundred years old trees, and due to the low yield of taxol production, this extraction leads to the destruction of natural taxol resources. Recently, taxol has been isolated from the bark, leaves, branches and fruits of the hazelnut tree, although it has been proven that the amount of taxol in the yew tree is 10 times that of the hazelnut tree. The increasing demand for taxol in medical uses as an anti-cancer drug and on the other hand the limitation of its production from plant sources causes the mechanism of enzymatic activities in its biosynthesis as well as the extraction methods of this plant to be fully investigated. The simplest way to obtain taxol is to extract it from plant sources. In different organs of most yew species, there are different amounts of taxol, which are arranged in the form of bark, leaves, roots, branches, seeds and wood. The amount of taxol, in addition to its species, depends on the age and sex of the plant, climatic conditions, climate, soil condition of the growing area and the amount of access of the plant to light. A diterpenoid called taxol, obtained from various species of taxus and hazelnut, is one of the best anti-cancer drugs known in the last 15 years. Taxol concentration in different parts of the measured yew tree (Baccata Taxus) and its seasonal and regional variations have also been studied. The results show that the highest concentration of taxol is present among different parts of the tree in leaves (between 0.0285 to 0.055% of dry weight) and roots (0.023 to 0.047% of dry weight) and young bark and stems in order. They are next. The lowest concentration of taxol is also observed in the branches (between 0.0013 and 0.005% of dry weight). Seasonal variation shows that the highest concentration of taxol in leaves, young stems and bark in both areas (Gorgan and Noor) in September, but for branches and roots the situation is different. . Also, the comparison of taxol concentration in different parts of the tree between the above two regions shows that its amount in leaves, branches and roots in the samples of Noor region is significantly higher than the samples of Gorgan region, but in young stems there is a slight difference. On the skin is the opposite. These results show that environmental factors affect the taxol content of different parts of the yew tree. It is also suggested that the leaves of yew and hazelnut trees in Iran be used properly due to their high concentration of taxol as a permanent and renewable source for the preparation and extraction of taxol.