Patents
US 12295402 B2: Controlled release mentholated tobacco beads
- Granted
- 2025-05-13
- Filed
- 2023-06-29 application 18344279
- Type
- Utility · 18 claims
- Elsewhere
- Google Patents ↗ · USPTO patent document ↗ · USPTO Patent Center record ↗
Abstract
Encapsulated tobacco beads and processes of making the encapsulated tobacco beads are disclosed. According to an embodiment, a process of making encapsulated tobacco beads comprises mixing tobacco particles and menthol in an aqueous solution to form a wet mass; extruding the wet mass to form extrudates; spheronizing the extrudates to form tobacco beads; drying the tobacco beads; contacting the beads with a solution comprising a cation; and introducing the contacted tobacco beads into a solution of coating material in a concentration effective to induce ionic gelation of the coating material around the beads, to form encapsulated tobacco beads having gel coatings. According to another embodiment, an encapsulated tobacco bead comprises a core comprising tobacco particles and encapsulated menthol, an inner coating layer comprising hydroxypropyl methylcellulose or pectin, and an outer coating layer comprising an ionically-crosslinked gel.
Source: PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 (ipg250513.xml).
Assignees
| Assignee | Type | Place | Also on furp.org | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Morris USA Inc. 523 patents | US company or organization | Richmond, VA | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
Inventors
| Inventor | Place | Patents | Person page | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgios D. Karles | Richmond, VA | 114 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 | |
| Shuzhong Zhuang | Glen Allen, VA | 60 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 | |
| Yi Zeng | Richmond, VA | 13 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
CPC categories
| Subclass | Category | First group | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A24B | Manufacture or preparation of tobacco for smoking or chewing; tobacco; snuff | A24B15/283 | PVGPATDIS, file of 2026-04-10 |
Cooperative Patent Classification, as currently assigned (one row per subclass).
Assignments and security interests
No recorded assignments or security interests on file for this patent.
USPTO bulk data: PatentsView granted patents, disambiguated (PVGPATDIS) for patents, assignees, inventors, places and CPC categories; the USPTO Patent Assignment Dataset (ECORSEXC) for assignments and security interests. Patents filed in the last 20 years. No claims or full text. Links to other records are by name (and state): EXACT means the identical full name and state; FUZZY means a looser name match, with the confidence shown.