Abstract
Moisture migration is considered to be one of the most important influencer on crop quality during storage, which is easily affected by storage conditions, such as ambient humidity and temperature. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of storage condition on moisture content of Chinese naked oat by simulating 9 equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) and 5 temperatures. The equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of dry sample was achieved by adsorption, while EMC of wet one was achieved by desorption. EMC of oat increased with the increase in ERH and decreased when temperature increased. The sorption isotherm was a typical “S” shape and fitted using current EMC/ERH models. Modified Chung–Pfost (MCPE) model was the most suitable for describing the dynamic sorption process of Chinese naked oat during storage with a ERH range from 10% to 90%. There was an obvious hysteresis between adsorption and desorption isotherms, whose range decreased with the increase of temperature. High temperature accelerated moisture migration by increasing the hydrophilicity of oat surface. Moreover, dynamic moisture migration was imaged by low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), showing that moisture migrated between ambient environment and oat mainly through endosperm where most moisture accumulated. During sorption, free water migrated firstly, followed by bound water and the change in content of bound water was more stable than that of free water. The results of this study can provide a useful information for future work on quality control of oat during storage.
Highlights
Oat, an important coarse cereal, is widely used in food, medicine, feed, and economy fields (Zhao, Fu, Li, Wang, & Chen, 2017)
equilibrium moisture content (EMC) value increased with the increase in equilibrium relative humidity (ERH)
Moisture content and status are the key factors on affecting the quality of Chinese naked oat during storage, which changed frequently with the process of moisture migration caused by adsorption and desorption
Summary
An important coarse cereal, is widely used in food, medicine, feed, and economy fields (Zhao, Fu, Li, Wang, & Chen, 2017) It has a relative low requirement for production condition and self-reproduction ability, which can grow in nutrient-poor and low rainfall area (Ren et al, 2014). It is necessary to understand the dynamic relationship between equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) and equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of oat. Surface wettability property of seed coat is another important parameter to evaluate the performance of moisture migration (Koizumi & Kano, 2016) This property is widely measured by optical contact angle (0°–180°) measuring instrument with a liquid drop method (Roman-Gutierrez, Sabathier, Guilbert, Galet, & Cuq, 2003). Low-field NMR was used to analyze the changes in contents of bound water and free water as well as imaging the dynamic process of moisture migration between ambient environment and oat
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
