Development of an automated bitter leaf processing machine

Abstract

Bitter leaf is known to be a delicacy and nutritious leaf in Nigeria which is commonly consumed by lots of people. The bitter sap or juice is extracted for medical use or disposed, while the leaf is used for cooking. Manual processing of bitter leaf could lead to injury to the palm and fingers and such could lead to the contamination of the processed leaves or become avenue for infection of injury that may be sustained. Also, processing a small or large amount of bitter leaf for domestic or commercial use could be tasking. For this reason, an automated bitter leaf processing machine was developed in this work to eliminate the risk of contamination and injuries by reducing human intervention to the minimum. The machine is timing-based and comprises the following components: water heater (500W), electric blender (200W), microcontroller(ATmega8A), MOC3021 optocoupler, BT151-500R thyristor, Relay module 12v, Tact button switch, Solenoid valve, I2C LCD interface, voltage regulator L7805CV, MOSFET (IRFZ44 55V 49A), etc. The processing of the bitter leaf with different masses (0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075 and 0.1 kg) using a constant mass of water (0.5 kg) for every cycle was carried out at varying processing chamber (blender) spinning time of 5, 7.5 and 10 min. The results obtained showed that the total removal of the bitterness from the leaf was achieved at 5 min spinning and rinsing time, for 0.01 and 0.025 kg of bitter leaf. At 7.5 min and 10 min, slightly bitter results were recorded for processed bitter leaf masses of 0.05 and 0.075 kg. The results obtained show that the system is suitable for processing bitter leaf both for domestic and commercial purposes.