EFFECT OF HOT AIR TEMPERATURE ON DRYING KINETICS OF PALMYRA (BORASSUS AETHIOPUM MART.) SEED-SPROUT FLESHY SCALE SLICES AND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF ITS FLOUR

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of different drying air temperatures (40, 50, 60 and 70 ℃) on moisture removal ratio and drying rate of pre-cooked and uncooked palmyra (Borassus aethiopum) seed-sprout fleshy scale (SFS) slices and quality of the resultant flours. Through drying kinetic analysis, it was found that the drying process of pre-cooked and uncooked palmyra SFS slices took place in the falling rate period and the drying time decreased with increasing air temperature in all samples. The colour parameters (L*, a* and b*) were affected by the drying air temperature and treatment type (pre-cooked and uncooked), with significantly higher ΔE values in uncooked samples compared to the pre-cooked samples. Drying of uncooked SFS slices maintains relatively high total antioxidant activity and low content of vitamin C compared to the pre-cooked samples. Beta-carotene, total phenol and total flavonoid contents however showed no specific trend in pre-cooked and uncooked SFS samples. Generally, pre-cooking palmyra SFS before drying significantly (P ˂ 0.05) improved their water absorption capacity, swelling index and swelling capacity while decreasing bulk density. However, treatment type and drying air temperature was observed to greatly (P ˂ 0.05) influenced all pasting properties without any observable trend. Based on the results, the quality of palmyra SFS flour showed opposite behaviours, thus indicating a compromise decision on processing conditions involved to meet the quality properties of interest.