Aw Content Research Articles

Characterization of fruit leather with carrageenan addition with various bananas

AbsctractFruit leather is a dried fruit treat, chewy and flavorful. It is used for the product prepared by dehydration of fruit puree with or without sugar and acid. While Bananas is perisable fruit that had various types so that fruit leather is one of food procceses to preservation and to increase value. Fruit leather have to plastic texture. Carrageenan is polysaccaride that has function as gel formation. The objectives of this study were 1) to study the effect of fruit leather of various bananas and 2) to study the effect of adding carrageenan for bananas fruit leather.The methode was using three types of ripe banana that were raja sereh (A); muli (B) and white kepok (C). The bananas were steamed at 8 minutes after that removed peel and sized using blender for 3 minutes as fruit purees. The fruit purees were added 0,6% carrageenan and without added carrageenan then was dried at 60°C for 12 hours. The fruit leather were analyzed by physico chemical.The fruit leathers had plastic form. Various bananas affected water content; ash content; Aw content, texture and color. The water content of fruit leather raja sereh was highest (15,08% (0% carrgenan) and 16,05% (0,6% carrgenan)) so that the aw value of sereh banana (0,68 and 0,7%) was higher than muli banana (0,61 and 0,59%) and white kepok (0,64 and 0,6%). Additional of carragenan affected to texture of fruit leathers, F value of adding carrageenan 0,6% was higher than adding carrageenan 0%.

Water activity of fresh bee pollen and mixtures of bee pollen-honey of different botanical origin

A mixture of bee pollen and honey could represent a complete food supplement for human diet. In this study, for three bee pollen-honey mixtures ratios at two storage times (0 and 90 days) at room temperature, water activity (aw) were investigated. For the mixtures were employed Castanea and Eucalyptus pollen species, and acacia, chestnut and “beach” honeys. In the mixtures, Castanea and Eucalyptus pollen showed a different aw trend in relation to pollen concentration and to storage time. In Castanea-honeys mixtures and in Eucalyptus-honey mixtures (only at time 0) aw values were higher than each component of the corresponding mixtures. In Eucalyptus-honeys mixtures (only at time 90) aw values were lower than each component. This investigation highlights that honey, bee-pollen and their mixtures, stored at room temperature, could have a little change in their aw content, in time. Results shows that aw values of bee pollen mixed with honey were all lower than 0.7, although bee pollen-honey mixtures were stored at room temperature instead at freezing temperature (−15 °C) for 90 days.

Study on the reuse of marble and andesite wastes in epoxy‐based composites

Andesite‐ (AW) and marble‐dust wastes (MW) were recycled to be used in composite preparation. Both were obtained from local industrial sources. Commercially available epoxy resin (ER) and its modified version with polyaniline (PANI) were used as the neat polymer matrix. The dispersion of the fillers was investigated by X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The effects of PANI and waste loading on the mechanical, thermal, electrical, water sorption, and corrosion properties were investigated. The optimum loading levels for MW or AW in the composites were found to be 20 wt%. Using thermogravimetric analyses, thermal behavior and stability of the composites prepared were probed. The incorporation of PANI and waste fillers increased the T10 temperature by 10–33°C and the tensile strength by 4–51 MPa of neat ER. The composites containing 10–30 wt% AW filler were found to be semiconductive and electrical conductivity decreased with the increase in AW content. The PANI‐ER/AW composite showed perfect resistance to corrosion and also exhibited the best adhesion. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:3081–3091, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers

Effects of agricultural wastes on the hydraulic properties of a loamy sand cropland in Turkey

This study was carried out to determine the proper amount of application for manure (M), hazelnut husk (Corylus avellane L.) (HH), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) (TO) and tea (Camellia Sinensis (L.)) (TE) wastes based on hydraulic property improvement of a loamy sand cropland in Turkey. The effects of agricultural wastes on field capacity (FC), permanent wilting point (PWP), available water content (AWC), relative saturation (RS) and initial infiltration rate (IR) were determined for a loamy sand soil 7 months after agricultural wastes were incorporated to 15 cm soil depth at four different rates (0, 2%, 4% and 6%, weight:weight) in a randomized plot design experiment with three replicates. While increases in soil OM content for the M application rates were generally lower, TE and HH treatments including high organic carbon (OC) contents resulted in high soil organic matter (OM) increases. Organic wastes generally increased the values of soil hydraulic properties, with increased aggregate stability (AS) and total porosity (F) and reduced bulk density (BD). The highest AS and F values were obtained with 6% HH and 6% TE applications, respectively. Due to different mineralization rates of the organic wastes attributable to their carbon: nitrogen (C:N) ratios, the same application rate had different effects on the soil’s hydraulic properties. Manure, having the lowest C:N ratio, generally had a lower effect on AS and BD. Increased IR due to increases in AS and F by the agricultural waste treatment, especially at 4 and 6% HH, reduced the AW content to 15 cm compared with 2% HH. This indicates that the significant application of higher C:N ratio wastes is not suitable in terms of AW, due to significant improvement of IR. While the highest FC (17.3%) and AWC (10.7%) values were found in the 6% TE application, the highest PWP (7.2%) and IR (333.4 cm h−1) were in the 6% TO and 6% HH applications, respectively. To improve soil physical and hydraulic properties, 6% TO and M, 4% TE and 2% HH applications are suggested for loamy sand cropland.