Drying of stanley plum with some post-harvest applications

The Effects of Some Physical, Chemical and Microwave Pretreatments on Plum Drying

Özet

This study was conducted to observe the effects of some physical, chemical and microwave pretreatments on drying period and prune colour of Stanley plums dried in the sun. For this aim, seven pretreatments including piercing with thin needle, cutting fruit layer by knife, microwave application, dipping into solutions of NaOH and K2CO3 with or without olive oil addition were compared with untreated samples. Microwave application was the most effective pretreatment in reducing drying time (95 h) while control was the slowest drying application (401 h). Microwave and other chemical applications negatively affected colour by increasing redness of prunes. Olive oil addition decreased this negative effect but decelerated drying process. Layer cutting were concluded to be a promising method since it significantly accelerated drying while saving colour of prunes.

Abstract

This study was conducted to observe the effects of some physical, chemical and microwave pretreatments on drying period and prune quality of Stanley plums dried under open sun. For this aim, seven pretreatments including piercing with thin needle, cutting fruit layer by knife, microwave application, dipping into solutions of NaOH and K2CO3 with or without olive oil addition were compared with untreated samples. Microwave application was the most effective pretreatment in reducing drying time and was followed by dipping into 5% K2CO3. Microwave and other chemical applications negatively affected quality by increasing redness of prunes. Olive oil addition decreased this negative effect but decelerated drying process. Layer cutting were concluded to be a promising method since it significantly accelerated drying while saving quality of prunes.