Compostos fenólicos e atividade antioxidante do quiabo (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moech.) em pó obtido em secador de leito fixo.

Abstract

The okra is a vegetable present the whole year being quite consumed in several parts of the world. However, it presents short shelf life generating post-harvest losses. Thus drying is an alternative to minimize waste. Within this line the objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of drying at different temperatures on the content of phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and physical and chemical characteristics of okra. The fixed bed drier was used with temperatures of 43ºC and 65°C and an air velocity of 0.85 m/s. All the analyzes made on okra in natura were carried out on dehydrated okra. The results showed that there was a concentration of all nutrients evaluated after the drying process. The application of empirical models showed that the Page model was the most adequate (R2 = 99.95%, SSE = 0.002 and RMSE = 0.0007) for the temperature of 43 ° C and for the temperature of 65 ° C the logarithmic model provided the best fit (R2 = 99.6%, SSE = 0.008 and RMSE = 0.020). The application of the phenomenological model yielded a Deff = 9.16x10-8 m2 / s (R2 = 98.5%) for the temperature of 43ºC and a Deff = 2,16x10-7 m2 / s (R2 = 98.2 %) to 65 ° C.