건조방법에 따른 여주의 품질특성 및 항산화 활성

Abstract

Bitter melon has many nutrients and is excellent for many physiological functions. Here, bitter melon was dried by various methods (sun drying, hot air drying, freeze drying, and infrared drying), and the quality characteristics and antioxidant activity of the dried bitter melon were determined to improve the utilization of bitter melon as a food. The freeze-dried bitter melon had the highest soluble solid content (1.27 °Brix), and reducing sugar content of dried bitter melon was 220.33-247.13 mg/100 g. The pH and acidity of the dried bitter melons were 4.38-4.79 and 0.60-0.69%, respectively. The total amino acid content of the freeze-dried bitter melon was the highest, and the content of arginine, which has a bitter taste, was the highest in all the samples. Hot air-dried bitter melon had the highest polyphenol content, while the flavonoid content was the highest in infrared-dried bitter melon. However, there was no significant difference between the different drying methods. Antioxidant activity was significantly higher in hot air drying and infrared drying than in the other drying methods. Thus, freeze-dried bitter melon had superior physicochemical characteristics while infrared-dried and hot air-dried bitter melon had high antioxidant activity. Therefore, a proper drying method can be selected according to the requirement either as food materials or for processing of bitter melon.