ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,653,222, issued on June 16, was assigned to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
"Whitened tobacco composition" was invented by Dwayne William Beeson (Kernersville, N.C.), Jack Gray Flinchum Jr. (Clemmons, N.C.) and Huamin Gan (Clemmons, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of preparing a whitened tobacco material is provided, the method including the steps of (i) extracting a tobacco material with an aqueous solution to give a tobacco pulp and a tobacco extract; (ii) treating the tobacco pulp with at least one of a caustic reagent and an oxidizing agent for a time and at a temperature sufficient to lighten the color ...