Vitthal A. Revaskar’s research while affiliated with Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology and other places

The effect of different pretreatments (i.e. osmotic dehydration in 10, 15 and 20ºBrix NaCl solution and drying air temperature (50, 60 and 70 ºC) on drying behaviour of onion slices were investigated. The onion slices were dried in a laboratory model tray dryer. Drying of onion slices occurred in falling rate period. Five thin-layer drying models (Exponential, Page, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic and Power law) were fitted to the moisture ratio data. Among the drying models investigated, the Page model satisfactory described the drying behavior of onion slices. The effective moisture diffusivity of pre-treated samples was higher than the non-treated samples.

In the present study, the effect of pretreatments (i.e. osmotic dehydration in 30, 40 and 50ºBrix sugar solution at 30ºC syrup temperature) and drying air temperature (50, 60, 70 and 80ºC) on drying behaviour of aloe vera cubes were investigated. The aloe vera cubes were dried in a laboratory model tray dryer. Drying of aloe vera occurred in falling rate period. Five thin-layer drying models (Exponential, Page, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic and Power law) were fitted to the moisture ratio data. Among the drying models investigated, the Page model satisfactory described the drying behavior of aloe vera cubes. During convective dehydration, the average effective moisture diffusivity of natural samples and osmosed samples at drying air temperatures ranging from 50 to 80 ºC varied between 2.69 to 4.59 ×10 -09 m²/s between 2.93 to 7.99×10 -09 m²/s respectively.