Abstract
ABSTRACT The species Cecropia pachystachya has important medicinal purposes and its leaves have been used in pharmaceutical research, so the drying of this product may help maintaining its chemical properties and ensure safe storage. Thus, the objective of this study was to select mathematical models to represent the drying kinetics of Cecropia pachystachya leaves, determine the effective diffusion coefficient and obtain the activation energy during drying at different temperatures. Leaves were dried in an oven under five temperature conditions (40, 50, 60 and 70 °C), until reaching hygroscopic equilibrium moisture content. Among the models analyzed, the Logarithmic model best represented the drying kinetics at temperatures of 40 and 60 °C, whereas Modified Henderson & Pabis and Dryceleaves represented temperatures of 50 and 70 °C, respectively. The effective diffusion coefficient increased with increasing air temperature, and the activation energy for liquid diffusion in the drying process was 64.53 kJ mol-1.
Highlights
Cecropia pachystachya, popularly known as ‘embaúba’ in Brazil (Costa et al, 2011), is a medium size, pioneer tree of the Urticaceae family, with height from 4 to 8 meters
The effective diffusion coefficient increased with increasing air temperature, and the activation energy for liquid diffusion in the drying process was 64.53 kJ mol-1
RH% values estimated inside the oven were 24.84% (40 °C), 14.85% (50 °C), 7.79 (60 °C) and 4.93% (70 °C)
Summary
Popularly known as ‘embaúba’ in Brazil (Costa et al, 2011), is a medium size, pioneer tree of the Urticaceae family, with height from 4 to 8 meters. It prefers shaded, humid sites and has simple alternate leaves with 8 parts of 40 cm, on average (Salman et al, 2008), with fast growth. C. pachystachya became even more important for research due to the recent full characterization of its chloroplast DNA performed by Wu et al (2017), which facilitates its use in studies related to the Urticaceae family, being very relevant in the most diverse areas of biology and medicine. C. pachystachya, popularly known as ‘embaúba’, which may reach 7 m in height with trunk diameter ranging from 15 to 25 cm (Bocchese et al, 2008)
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