DRYING CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITY CHANGES OF MORINGA LEAVES

Suliman, A. E.; Abdelhay, Y. B.; Saad, A. E.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2016.97760

DRYING CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITY CHANGES OF MORINGA LEAVES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Prof., Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. Of Agric., Giza, Egypt.

² Assistant Prof., Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. Of Agric., Cairo Univ., Giza, Egypt.

³ Graduate Student of Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. Of Agric., Cairo Univ., Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2016.97760

Abstract

The drying characteristics and quality changes of moringa oleifera leaves as a medicinal and aromatic plants were studied and investigated by using a laboratory dryer with initial moisture content of 86.7 % (wet base). Three different drying air temperatures (40, 50 and 60 ºC) with three different drying air velocities (0.45, 1.0 and 1.5 m/s) were functioned during this laboratory experiment. The quality of dried moringa leaves including protein, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), calcium and potassium were estimated. The experiment was carried out at Agricultural Engineering Department, Cairo University, Egypt in 2015.The obtained results demonstrated that the increase of drying temperature and air velocity resulted in lower moisture content and the drying rate was faster at the beginning than at the end for all treatments. At drying air temperature 60°C with air velocity 1.5 m/s showed the best data, at which in dried moringa, the moisture content decreased to 9.35% within drying time 5.5 hours, the average drying rate was 14.06 %/h, drying ratio was 4.42:1 and the average evaporating rate was 28.13 gm_water/h. Also, the quality tests of dried moringa leaves showed that, the best quality in terms of higher retention of protein and potassium at air temperature 60°C with air velocity 1.5 m/s, while at air temperature 40°C with air velocity 0.45 m/s showed the best quality in terms of higher retention of vitamin C and calcium.

Keywords

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