Abstract
This study investigated the microwave-vacuum drying on the drying kinetics and quality attributes of dried tomatoes such as lycopene and ascorbic acid contents. Among the thirteen thin layer drying models that were used to fit the experimental data, the Midilli et al gave the highest correlation coefficient, lowest residual sum of squares, root mean square error, and reduced chi-square, thus indicating that the model of Middilli et al best described the microwave-vacuum drying of tomato slices. The highest ascorbic acid retention occurred in the samples dried at 200 W and 0.06 MPa, with a significant decrease (p<0.05) from an initial mean value of 2.74 ± 0.29 to 1.87 ± 0.13 mg/g dry matter, representing a decrease of about 32% in relation to the fresh tomato. On the other hand, the lycopene content of the dried tomatoes significantly (p<0.05) increased from 2.96 mg/100 g dry matter to a maximum value of 25.44 mg/100 g dry matter after microwave-vacuum drying at 700 W and 0.04 MPa. Key words: Tomato slices, drying models, lycopene, ascorbic acid, microwave-vacuum
Highlights
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is the second most important vegetable after potato due to its wide spread cultivation (Celma et al, 2009) and health benefit in fighting prostate cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the stomach and rectum as well as pharynx and oesophageal cancers (FAO, 2010; HSPH, 2010)
Various drying models have been developed for solar drying of organic tomatoes (Sacilik et al, 2006), microwave drying of carrot (Prabhanjan et al, 1995), okra (Dadali et al, 2007), microwave vacuum drying of mint leaves (Therdthai and Zhou, 2009), lactose powder (McMinn, 2006), ultrasonic drying of red bell pepper and apple slices (Schössler et al, 2012), and infrared drying of apple slices (Togrul, 2005)
It was shown that increase in microwave power and vacuum pressure enhanced the drying rate and significantly reduced the drying time of tomato slices
Summary
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is the second most important vegetable after potato due to its wide spread cultivation (Celma et al, 2009) and health benefit in fighting prostate cancer, cervical cancer, cancer of the stomach and rectum as well as pharynx and oesophageal cancers (FAO, 2010; HSPH, 2010). Various drying models have been developed for solar drying of organic tomatoes (Sacilik et al, 2006), microwave drying of carrot (Prabhanjan et al, 1995), okra (Dadali et al, 2007), microwave vacuum drying of mint leaves (Therdthai and Zhou, 2009), lactose powder (McMinn, 2006), ultrasonic drying of red bell pepper and apple slices (Schössler et al, 2012), and infrared drying of apple slices (Togrul, 2005). This study was undertaken to investigate the thin-layer drying kinetics of tomato slices in a microwave-vacuum dryer and to simulate the experimental data to the mathematical models available in scientific literature. The quality attributes of dried tomatoes such as lycopene and ascorbic acid contents were investigated
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