Recovery of Antioxidants from Decaffeination Process

1 . A process to recover an antioxidant component, comprising:

a. providing coffee beans

b. decaffeinating the coffee beans to produce a decaffeination stream and decaffeinated coffee beans;

c. processing the decaffeination stream to recover an antioxidant component.

2 . The process of claim 1 and wherein the decaffeinated coffee beans are in usable form for a coffee making process for roast and ground coffee for conventional brewing, instant coffee, or a coffee extract.

3 . The process of claim 2 and wherein the decaffeinated coffee beans contain about 85% or more of the level of chlorogenic acids as in the coffee beans.

4 . The process of claim 1 and wherein the decaffeinated coffee beans contain less than 3% of the amount initially present in the beans prior to decaffeination.

5 . The process of claim 1 and wherein processing the decaffeination stream comprises a step selected from the group consisting of concentrating, drying, evaporating, extracting, precipitating, and mixtures and combinations thereof.

6 . The process of claim 1 and wherein processing the decaffeination stream comprises a step selected from the group consisting of chilling, rotary evaporation, vacuum drying, freeze drying, extraction with solvent, acidification, and mixtures and combinations thereof.

7 . The process of claim 1 and wherein processing the decaffeination stream comprises a step selected from the group consisting of ultra filtration, chromatographic separation, column separation, and mixtures and combinations thereof.

8 . The process of claim 1 and wherein the antioxidant component comprises a polyphenolic compound.

9 . The process of claim 8 and wherein the polyphenolic compound comprises a chlorogenic acid.

10 . The process of claim 9 and wherein the chlorogenic acid comprises a chlorogenic acid selected from the group consisting of caffeoylquinic acids, feruloylquinic acids, dicaffeoylquinic acids, and mixtures and combinations thereof.

11 . The process of claim 1 and wherein the decaffeinating the coffee beans comprises using a solvent.

12 . The process of claim 11 and wherein the solvent comprises a natural solvent.

13 . The process of claim 1 and further comprising processing the decaffeination stream into at least a first solvent stream and a second caffeine stream.

14 . The process of claim 13 and further comprising processing the second caffeine stream into a third waste stream and a fourth caffeine stream.

15 . The process of claim 14 and wherein the fourth caffeine stream comprises predominantly caffeine.

16 . A process for producing an antioxidant component, comprising:

a. providing coffee beans;

b. providing a solvent;

c. decaffeinating the coffee beans to produce:

a decaffeination stream comprising the solvent and coffee solids from the coffee beans; and

decaffeinated coffee beans;

d. separating the solvent and the coffee solids;

e. processing the coffee solids to produce an antioxidant component.

17 . The process of claim 16 and wherein the solvent comprises a natural solvent.

18 . The process of claim 16 and wherein the decaffeinated coffee beans is usable for conventional coffee brewing.

19 . The process of claim 16 and wherein the antioxidant component comprises chlorogenic acid.

20 . A process to recover an antioxidant component, comprising:

a. providing a natural caffeine containing product;

b. decaffeinating the natural caffeine containing product to produce a decaffeination stream and a decaffeinated natural caffeine containing product, which remains in a usable form for making a consumer product;

c. processing the decaffeination stream to recover an antioxidant component; and

wherein the natural caffeine containing product comprises a product selected from the group consisting coffee beans, tea leaves, cocoa beans, chocolate product, guarana, and mixtures and combinations thereof.