Cinética de secagem do figo da Índia (Opuntia ficus-Indica) produzidos no sertão da Paraíba.

Abstract

This work was developed with the aim of characterizing physical and physicochemical the palm fruit (Opuntia ficus indica L. Miller). Also, study the thin layer drying fruit (Opuntia ficus indica L. Miller) at temperatures of 122, 140 and 158 °Fahrenheit in an oven with forced air circulation. For representing mathematical models of the diffusion approximation, logarithmic, and Midilli Kucuk and modified Page were employed. As evaluation criterion we used the coefficient of determination and the mean square deviation. Finally the flour was evaluated for the levels of ascorbic acid, and total sugar. We used an experimental design with 3 central point’s 2² to evaluate the influence of temperature and thickness independent variables on the responses: ascorbic acid, and total sugar. From the results obtained it was observed that increasing the temperature decreased drying time of the fruit. Among the models applied the logarithmic showed the highest coefficient of determination R² and the lowest values of DQM, all represent well the overall drying in question. Regarding the statistical analysis, found that for ascorbic acid variable was statistically significant influence on the input variables: temperature and layer thickness.