Estudo da desidratação osmótica de fatias de chuchu (Sechium edule, Sw.)

Abstract

In this research, the drying kinetics and equilibrium conditions during osmotic dehydration of chayote (Sechium edule, Sw.) were studied using 20, 30 and 40 % (w/v) sucrose solutions. A thermostatic bath was built to allow the experimental evaluation of osmotic dehydration kinetics and equilibrium moisture content determination. The experiments were carried out at three different temperatures (30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C) in order to evaluate the influence of temperature and sucrose concentration. Chayote fruits were washed and submerged in sodium hypochloride solution for ten minutes, for sanitization. Afterwards, the fruits were dried and cut into slices of about 0.5 cm thickness. Then, the slices were put into hypertonic sucrose solutions during preestablished time intervals. After osmotic dehydration, the solution was discarded and the slices were softly dried with absorbent paper to remove surface moisture. The moisture content was determined gravimetrically. Long time experiments up to 96 h were performed to provide information about the equilibrium moisture content. An specific equilibrium isotherm was selected by statistical methods. The correlation that better described equilibrium moisture content behavior was the Smith sorption isotherm, adapted to osmotic environment. The Overhults model was used to describe osmotic dehydration kinetics and estimate the drying constants k and n. Based on the results obtained in this research, it could be demonstrated that the equilibrium moisture content is strongly influenced by sucrose concentration and that k is a parameter dependent on the temperature and sucrose concentration, whereas n may be considered constant for the given experimental setup.