food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379

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Food and Bioproducts Processing
j our nal home page: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ f bp
Hygroscopic behavior of banana (Musa ssp. AAA) our in
different ripening stages
Jonnahta Monteiro Cardoso, Rosinelson da Silva Pena

Faculty of Food Engineering, Technology Institute, Federal University of Par (UFPA), CEP: 66075-110, Belm, PA, Brazil
a b s t r a c t
The objective of this study was to evaluate the hygroscopic behavior of Nanico banana our at three ripening
stages (29

Brix) using moisture sorption isotherms at 25

C. The our samples were obtained using a xed-bed

drying process at 60

C. The BET monolayer procedure was used for the desorption analysis. The Halsey, Henderson,
Oswin, Smith, BET and GAB models were tted to the sorption data. All ours exhibited type II isotherms that were
almost superimposed, indicating that the ripening stage of the banana did not alter the hygroscopic behavior of
the products. According to the adsorption isotherms, the our has microbiological stability (a
w
<0.6) at moisture
contents below 13g H
2
O/100g dry base (d.b.). The monolayer moisture content indicated that the drying process of
the Nanico banana should not proceed to moisture content lower than 7.10g H
2
O/100g d.b. to avoid unnecessary
power consumption. A type-H3 hysteresis between the adsorption and desorption isotherms of our was observed.
The Oswin, Smith and GAB models provided the best t for the our adsorption and desorption data.
2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Musa ssp.; Isotherms; Sorption; Hygroscopicity; Modeling
1. Introduction
The banana is one of the most highly consumed fruits in the
world witha productionof 102 milliontons in2010 (FAO, 2012).
With a high degree of productivity that is characterized with
an increased number of fruit per bunch with long fruit, the
Nanico banana has gained prominence. Due to its promis-
ing genetic potential, this variety is considered to have several
economic advantages compared with other cultivars, such as
the genotypes fromthe groups AAAA, AAB and AAAB (Donato
et al., 2006). These characteristics favor both the fresh con-
sumption and the industrialization of this variety.
Green or semi-mature banana our is an interesting alter-
native use of the fruit (Lima et al., 2000). Moisture removed
during the processing of the our prevents the growth and
reproduction of spoilage micro-organisms, minimizing unde-
sirable reactions and enabling the product to be stored at
roomtemperature. Drying substantially reduces the mass and
volume of the product, minimizing the packaging, transport

Corresponding author at: Faculty of Food Engineering, Federal University of Par (UFPA) Rua Augusto Crrea, 01, P.O. Box 479, Postal
Code: 66075-110, Belm, PA, Brazil. Tel.: +55 91 3201 8055; fax: +55 91 3201 7626.
E-mail addresses: rspena@ufpa.br, rspena70@hotmail.com(R.S. Pena).
Received13 February2013; Receivedinrevisedform10 July 2013; Accepted1 August 2013
and storage costs (Raghavan and Orsat, 2007; Mujumdar, 1995;
Okos et al., 1992).
Drying fruit is one of the oldest preservation techniques
and is based on the reduction of water activity (a
w
). Water
is one of the most important components of food, affecting
the physical nature and the product properties in a complex
manner. The interactions between the water molecules and
the medium can affect the physical structure and the chem-
ical composition of various solutes, including polymers and
colloids, or of dispersed particles (Park et al., 2001).
For dried goods, the moisture adsorption and desorption
isotherms can provide important information for multiple
issues, such as the optimal drying and storage conditions,
which are necessary to determine the shelf life and the
type of packaging to be used (Assunc o and Pena, 2007).
Starchy foods show mostly Langmuir-like tipe II isotherms,
while protein-rich foods display mostly solution-like type
II isotherm, and foods rich in soluble solids present type
III isotherms (Yanniotis and Blahovec, 2009). There are
0960-3085/$ see front matter 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2013.08.004
74 food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379
numerous empirical and semi-empirical mathematical mod-
els used in the prediction of food moisture sorption isotherms
(Peng et al., 2007). Sorptionisotherms for multiple starchours
can be found in the literature (Bezerra et al., 2013; Chist et al.,
2012; Cova et al., 2010; Kulchanet al., 2010; Perdomoet al., 2009;
Mishra and Rai, 2006).
The importance of the water sorption isotherms to the
low moisture food industry, the nutritional and technological
properties of Nanico banana promoting its industrialization
as our and the lack of data on the hygroscopic behavior of
this variety of banana motivated this research, which aimed
to evaluate the hygroscopic behavior of Nanico banana our
obtainedfromthe fruit at three ripening stages using moisture
absorption and desorption isotherms at 25

C.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Raw material
The bananas of the Nanico variety (Musa ssp. AAA) used
in this research were acquired fromthe supply centers in the
state of Par (CEASA-PA), Belm, Par, Brazil (latitude 01

27

21

S and longitude 48

30

16

W). Bananas at three ripening stages

were used, and the samples were dened as ripening stage
1 (23

Brix), ripening stage 2 (56

Brix) and ripening stage 3

(89

Brix).
2.2. Proximate composition of the banana our
The bananas were selected, washed in running water and
immersed in chlorinated water (100mg/L) for 10min. The
fruit were subsequently peeled and cut into 4mm-thick slices,
followed by bleaching by immersion into a 1% (w/v) citric
acid solution for 15min. Next, the slices were placed on an
absorbent paper to drain the excess solution and dried in
a xed-bed dryer with air temperature at 60

C and airow
velocities of 1.5m/s until a constant weight was reached. The
product was milled in a hammer mill and subjected to mois-
ture analysis in a forced-air oven at 105

C using the AOAC

(1997) method 925.10. Ash was measured by incineration of
the sample in a mufe furnace at 550

C using the AOAC (1997)

method 923.03. Fats were determined from a solvent extrac-
tion in a Soxhlet apparatus using the AOAC (1997) method
963.15. The proteincontent was determinedusing the Kjeldahl
method with a nitrogen-to-protein conversion factor of 5.85
according to AOAC (1997) method 920.87. The starch content
was measured by acid hydrolysis using the method reported
by Rickard and Behn (1987). The reducing and total sugars
were determined using the AOAC (1997) method 920.183b. The
analyses were performed in triplicate, and the results were
evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukeys
test for a comparison of the means using the STATISTICA Ker-
nel Release 7.1 software (StatSoft Inc., 2006, Tulsa, OK, USA).
Levenes test was used to provide the homogeneity of variance
(p>0.05) for ANOVA.
2.3. Sorption isotherms of the banana our
Moisture adsorption and desorption isotherms were obtained
at 25

C for the three banana ours using the relationship

between the moisture content and a
w
of the products, accord-
ing to Souza et al. (2013). To obtain the adsorption data, the
product samples were weighed (1g) in an analytical balance
(0.001g accuracy) in suitable capsules, placed in a desicca-
tor with silica gel, and held under vacuumat 25

C for 24h to
ensure a
w
<0.1 in all samples. The samples were then placed
in a desiccator with water and the systemmaintained at 25

C
(1

C). Samples (induplicate) were removedfromthe desicca-

tors at increasing time intervals. Differences in the moisture
content with time were evaluated by weighing the samples
and measuring a
w
using a hygrometer (Aqualab 3TE; Decagon,
Pullman, WA, USA) (0.003 accuracy), which was calibrated in
four a
w
levels at 25

C(0.2500.984) withstandardsalt solutions

provided by Decagon. It was necessary three days to obtain
each isotherm. Upon reaching the maximum moisture levels
during the adsorption process, the samples were transferred
to a desiccator with silica gel, and the same procedure was fol-
lowed to obtain the desorption data. The monolayer moisture
content (m
o
) for the desorption process was determined using
the BETlinear equation(Eq. (1)) (Brunauer et al., 1938) by linear
regression using the Microsoft Ofce Excel 2007 software
a
w
(1 a
w
) m
=
1
m
o
C
+
(C 1)
m
o
C
a
w
, (1)
where, m=moisture content (g H
2
O/100g d.b.), a
w
=water
activity, m
o
=monolayer moisture content (g H
2
O/100g d.b.)
and C=constant related to the sorption heat.
2.4. Mathematical modeling of the sorption isotherms
Six mathematical models (Table 1) were tted to the banana
our sorption isotherms obtained at 25

C by nonlinear
regression using the STATISTICA Kernel Release 7.1 software
(StatSoft Inc., 2006, Tulsa, OK, USA). The LevenbergMarquardt
algorithmwas used with a convergence criterion of 10
6
. The
coefcient of determination (R
2
) (Eq. (2)) and the mean rela-
tive deviation modulus (P) (Eq. (3)) were used to compare the
t precision of the models. The P values lower than 10% were
Table 1 Mathematical models used to t the sorption isotherms of banana our.
Models Mathematical equations Number of parameters
Halsey (Chirife and Iglesias, 1978) m =
_
a
ln aw

1/b
2
Henderson (Chirife and Iglesias, 1978) m =
_
ln(1aw)
a

1/b
2
Oswin (Chirife and Iglesias, 1978) m = a
_
aw
1aw

b
2
Smith (Chirife and Iglesias, 1978) m = a b ln(1 a
w
) 2
BET (Figueira et al., 2004) m =
mocaw
1aw

_
1(n+1)a
n
w
+na
n+1
w
1(1c)awca
n+1
w
_
3
GAB (Maroulis et al., 1988) m =
mockaw
[(1kaw)(1+(c1)kaw)]
3
m=moisture content (g/100g d.b.); a
w
=water activity; a, b, m
o
, k and c terms are the parameters to be estimated by tting.
food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379 75
Table 2 Proximate composition of banana our in different ripening stages.
Parameters Ripening stage 1 Ripening stage 2 Ripening stage 3
Moisture (g/100g) 9.85 0.21
a
9.64 0.11
a
8.73 0.03
b
Ashes (g/100g) 3.16 0.05
a
3.26 0.04
a
3.15 0.09
a
Lipids (g/100g) 1.63 0.05
c
2.24 0.05
b
2.93 0.14
a
Proteins (N5.85) (g/100g) 4.89 0.21
b
5.74 0.21
a
5.25 0.21
a,b
Starch (g/100g) 70.07 1.85
a
63.89 2.67
b
52.65 1.14
c
Reducing sugars (g/100g) 2.05 0.08
c
2.95 0.12
b
4.43 0.15
a
Total sugars (g/100g) 2.88 0.03
c
5.99 0.11
b
10.0 0.14
a
Mean of triplicatestandard deviation. Mean values in the same rowfollowed by different superscript letters (a, b, c) are signicantly different
(p0.05 by Tukeys test).
adopted as an indicative of a good t for practical purposes
(Peng et al., 2007)
R
2
=

n
i=1
(m
i
m
pre,i
)

n
i=1
(m
i
m
exp,i
)
_
_

n
i=1
(m
i
m
pre,i
)
2
_

n
i=1
(m
i
m
exp,i
)
2
_
(2)
P =
100
n
n

i=1

m
exp
m
pre

m
exp
(3)
where m=moisture content (g H
2
O/100g d.b.), m
exp
and m
pre
are the experimental andpredictedmoisture contents, respec-
tively, and n=number of observations.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Proximate composition of the banana our
The major constituent of Nanico banana our was starch
(52.6570.07%), regardless of ripening stage (Table 2). In a
comparison of the our constituents, statistically signicant
differences (p0.05) were observed in multiple components
withthe most signicant variations inthe starchandtotal sug-
ars values. The starch decreased and total sugars increased
with the ripening stage of the banana, as a result of starch
hydrolysis producing sucrose (non-reducing sugar) and the
subsequent sucrose hydrolysis producing glucose andfructose
(reducing sugars) (Cordenunsi and Lajolo, 1995). The reducing
sugars content of our also increased with the ripening stage
of the banana.
For the sample from ripening stage 1, the composition of
the banana our was consistent with the values found in the
Table 3 Moisture adsorption and desorption data of banana our in different ripening stages at 25

C.
Ripening stage 1 Ripening stage 2 Ripening stage 3
Adsorption Desorption Adsorption Desorption Adsorption Desorption
a
w
m a
w
m a
w
m a
w
m a
w
m a
w
m
0.08 4.69 0.94 44.94 0.08 3.87 0.92 38.73 0.05 4.40 0.91 35.35
0.12 5.31 0.89 29.58 0.14 5.19 0.92 36.36 0.08 5.11 0.88 31.79
0.15 6.07 0.86 27.19 0.16 5.72 0.90 33.53 0.10 5.80 0.86 29.06
0.18 6.49 0.83 23.37 0.19 6.22 0.87 30.29 0.14 6.51 0.83 24.89
0.25 7.53 0.78 21.17 0.21 6.71 0.85 26.06 0.17 7.05 0.80 23.07
0.30 8.30 0.75 20.07 0.27 7.47 0.83 24.17 0.19 7.38 0.77 21.37
0.35 8.84 0.72 19.23 0.31 8.14 0.80 22.60 0.23 7.86 0.74 20.37
0.39 9.38 0.69 18.36 0.35 9.08 0.78 21.14 0.26 8.25 0.68 18.43
0.43 9.79 0.66 17.19 0.39 9.43 0.74 19.52 0.29 8.58 0.63 17.00
0.49 10.88 0.64 16.54 0.42 9.92 0.71 18.87 0.33 8.91 0.57 15.69
0.53 11.99 0.59 15.11 0.47 10.72 0.67 17.94 0.37 9.27 0.53 14.77
0.58 13.11 0.56 14.48 0.52 11.96 0.64 16.92 0.40 9.76 0.49 13.90
0.63 14.36 0.52 13.79 0.56 12.87 0.58 15.64 0.44 10.66 0.45 13.11
0.66 15.05 0.47 12.85 0.61 13.88 0.54 14.86 0.48 11.70 0.40 11.96
0.69 16.21 0.42 11.52 0.64 14.92 0.48 13.50 0.52 12.19 0.35 11.39
0.74 18.79 0.36 10.66 0.68 15.76 0.44 12.53 0.57 13.20 0.30 10.79
0.79 21.17 0.32 9.91 0.74 18.53 0.40 11.61 0.62 14.82 0.27 9.85
0.83 23.15 0.28 9.08 0.78 20.28 0.34 10.70 0.66 15.82 0.23 8.94
0.87 26.80 0.25 8.27 0.81 22.02 0.29 9.49 0.68 16.48 0.19 8.21
0.90 31.12 0.17 6.87 0.84 24.58 0.26 8.31 0.73 18.18 0.17 7.32
0.94 44.94 0.10 5.36 0.86 26.48 0.20 6.59 0.76 19.83 0.12 6.11
0.92 38.33 0.17 5.64 0.81 23.34 0.10 5.48
0.12 4.59 0.84 25.51 0.05 4.10
0.06 2.95 0.88 30.33
0.90 33.27
0.91 35.50
a
w
, water activity (dimensionless); m, moisture content (g H
2
O/100g d.b.). All values are means of two measures (relative error less than 5%).
76 food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379
literature for our of the same banana variety at the same
ripening stage. Menezes et al. (2011) reported values of 6.90%
moisture, 3.14% ash, 0.89% fat, 3.60% protein, 76.77% starch
and 1.81% reducing sugars. Mota et al. (2000) found 0.82%
lipid and 2.6% protein. Muyonga et al. (2001) reported starch
contents between 70.64%and 75.90%. Data regarding the com-
position of Nanico banana our in ripening stages 2 and 3
were not found in the literature.
3.2. Sorption isotherms of the banana our
Moisture adsorption and desorption data of Nanico banana
our at the three ripening stages (29

Brix) are presented in

the Table 3. The isotherms obtained from these data (Fig. 1)
were classied as having typical sigmoid (type II) character-
istics (Salwin, 1963) and, in particular, were more consistent
with Langmuir-like type II isotherms according to the quanti-
tative criteria proposed by Yanniotis and Blahovec (2009). Type
II isotherms have also been reported to be good models for
greenbanana our (peeled and unpeeled) (Bezerra et al., 2013),
tapioca our (Chist et al., 2012), banana our (Musa paradisiaca)
that was both unmodied and modied by an acid-treatment
(Aguirre-cruz et al., 2010), cassava our (Santos et al., 2004)
and other starch products (Perdomo et al., 2009; Mishra and
Rai, 2006; Abdullah et al., 2000).
In addition to exhibiting the same behavior, the our
adsorptionand desorptionisotherms appeared to be superim-
posed. This consistency in behavior suggests that the highly
signicant reduction in starch content (70.0752.65%) with the
concomitant increase in the total sugars content (2.8810.0%)
that occurred as the banana maturation did not affect the
hygroscopic behavior of the our. Products rich in sugars tend
to exhibit behaviors that are consistent with either of the
more solution-like type II or type III isotherms (Yanniotis and
Blahovec, 2009).
The exponential behavior of the adsorption isotherms for
a
w
levels exceeding 0.6 (Fig. 1) indicated that the our would
require improved storage controls, such as avoiding environ-
ments with relative humidity (RH) exceeding 60%, as these
conditions could allow a small increase in RH to cause a sud-
den increase in the products moisture content. While the
crystalline regions of starch (amylopectin) are resistant to
water penetration, water can affect the structure and acts as a
plasticizer for the amorphous regions (amylose) (Al-muhtaseb
et al., 2004). However, at low values of a
w
(<0.3), the plasti-
cization effect is minimal, and the mobility of the amorphous
regions is restricted.
The adsorption data indicated that our has microbiologi-
cal stability (a
w
<0.6) (Rockland and Nishi, 1980; Salwin, 1963)
at moisture contents less than 13g H
2
O/100g d.b., a condition
that was met for the our samples (moisture contents ran-
ging from 8.73% to 9.85%). The mean value of the monolayer
moisture content (m
o
) of the our was determined to be 7.10g
H
2
O/100g d.b. for the desorption process with no statistically
signicant differences (p>0.05) between the products. The m
o
parameter represents the most stable conditionof a foodprod-
uct. The product should not be dried to moisture contents
below this value because the remaining water molecules are
tightly bound to the solutes. Water removal under these con-
ditions may require signicantly greater amounts of energy
than the latent heat of water vaporization (Mishra et al., 1996;
Rockland, 1969).
Fig. 1 shows the hysteresis generatedfromthe our adsorp-
tion and desorption isotherms, exhibiting characteristics that


0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

(
g

H
2
O
/
1
0
0
g
d
.
b
.
)
Water activity (a
w
)
Adsorption
Desorption
(A)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

(
g

H
2
O
/
1
0
0
g

d
.
b
.
)
Water activity (aw)
Adsorption
Desorption
(B)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0
M
o
i
s
t
u
r
e

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

(
g

H
2
O
/
1
0
0
g

d
.
b
.
)
Water activity (aw)
Adsorption
Desorption
(C)
Fig. 1 Hysteresis loop to adsorption and desorption
isotherms of banana our in ripening stage 1 (A), ripening
stage 2 (B) and ripening stage 3 (C) at 25

C.
are consistent with the type-H3 hysteresis loop according to
the IUPAC classication (Sing et al., 1985). Hysteresis can be
used as an index of the food quality. A decrease in the hys-
teresis loop or its complete absence has beenrelated to greater
product stability during storage (Caurie, 2007).
3.3. Modeling of sorption isotherms of the banana
our
The tting parameters of the mathematical models applied
to predict the behavior of the our adsorption and desorp-
tion isotherms are shown in Table 4. According to Gabas et
food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379 77
Fig. 2 Sorption isotherms of banana our in different ripening stages at 25

C and the models of Oswin, Smith and GAB

tted to the adsorption and desorption data.
Table 4 Parameters of mathematical modeling of sorption isotherms of banana our in different ripening stages at 25

C.
Isotherms Models Number of parameters Equation parameters R
2
P (%)
Ripening stage 1
Adsorption
Halsey 2 a=49.08; b=1.77 0.9971 3.1
Henderson 2 a=0.04; b=1.14 0.9454 18.2
Oswin 2 a=11.33; b=0.48 0.9916 6.5
Smith 2 a=2.80; b=12.67 0.9677 9.4
BET 3 m
o
=5.00; c =1.1210
6
; n=19.00 0.9632 10.1
GAB 3 m
o
=5.82; c =66.49; k =0.92 0.9896 7.0
Desorption
Halsey 2 a=102.47; b=1.96 0.9925 5.2
Henderson 2 a=0.03; b=1.28 0.0416 12.2
Oswin 2 a=12.82; b=0.43 0.9901 3.9
Smith 2 a=4.17; b=12.42 0.9682 5.7
BET 3 m
o
=6.00; c =1.0610
6
; n=15.00 0.9317 11.2
GAB 3 m
o
=6.84; c =71.18; k =0.89 0.9770 5.1
78 food and bioproducts processing 9 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 7379
Table 4 (Continued)
Isotherms Models Number of parameters Equation parameters R
2
P (%)
Ripening stage 2
Adsorption
Halsey 2 a=44.23; b=1.73 0.9967 4.8
Henderson 2 a=0.03; b=1.25 0.9614 13.1
Oswin 2 a=11.44; b=0.47 0.9967 3.5
Smith 2 a=3.05; b=12.25 0.9824 5.6
BET 3 m
o
=5.06; c =293.77; n=16.72 0.9753 9.4
GAB 3 m
o
=6.26; c =24.76; k =0.92 0.9952 4.0
Desorption
Halsey 2 a=92.42; b=1.93 0.9842 12.8
Henderson 2 a=0.02; b=1.34 0.9736 9.8
Oswin 2 a=12.99; b=0.43 0.9930 6.7
Smith 2 a=4.02; b=12.56 0.9833 9.5
BET 3 m
o
=5.93; c =43.24; n=13.15 0.9628 12.7
GAB 3 m
o
=7.71; c =16.54; k =0.86 0.9866 8.0
Ripening stage 3
Adsorption
Halsey 2 a=56.39; b=1.79 0.9991 2.4
Henderson 2 a=0.02; b=1.35 0.9574 16.2
Oswin 2 a=12.27; b=0.45 0.9931 7.0
Smith 2 a=3.86; b=12.16 0.9879 6.2
BET 3 m
o
=5.48; c =295.66; n=14.45 0.9877 7.2
GAB 3 m
o
=6.57; c =43.70; k =0.89 0.9986 2.2
Desorption
Halsey 2 a=112.82; b=1.97 0.9895 8.0
Henderson 2 a=0.01; b=1.59 0.9702 9.6
Oswin 2 a=13.89; b=0.40 0.9947 3.2
Smith 2 a=5.25; b=11.95 0.9863 7.4
BET 3 m
o
=6.63; c =56.22; n=10.38 0.9680 9.0
GAB 3 m
o
=8.21; c =24.90; k =0.84 0.9904 5.1
R
2
, coefcient of determination; P, mean relative deviation modulus.
al. (2007), the degree of tting to experimental data and the
physical meaning of the model should be used as criteria in
selecting the most appropriate sorption model for predicting
an isotherm. According to the coefcient of determination
values (R
2
>0.97) and the mean relative deviation modulus
(P<10%), the Oswin, Smith and GAB models provided the best
t to the our adsorption and desorption data. The efciency
of these models in the prediction of the moisture sorption
isotherms of the our at each ripening stage (29

Brix) can
be observed in Fig. 2. The Halsey model t the adsorption data
excellently, but the model was not satisfactory (P>10%) in t-
ting the data from the banana our desorption in ripening
stage 2.
With parameters of R
2
0.99 and P7.0 for all data relating
to adsorption and desorption processes and the biparametric
model characteristics that enable a mathematical solution by
linear regression, the Oswin model was determined to be the
most suitable model for predicting the Nanico banana our
moisture adsorption and desorption isotherms at 25

C for the
our samples at the three ripening stages (29

Brix).
4. Conclusions
The Nanico banana our isotherms at 25

C for the three

ripening stages (29

Brix) were classied as typical sig-

moid (type II) curves. The reduction in the starch content
(70.0752.65%) and the increase in the total sugar content
(2.8810.0%) of the our did not alter the hygroscopic behav-
ior of the products. According to the adsorption data, the
moisture content of banana our should not be higher than
13g H
2
O/100g d.b. to ensure the microbiological stability
(a
w
<0.6) of the products. Based on the desorption mono-
layer moisture content, the drying process of the Nanico
banana (29

Brix) should not approach a moisture content

below 7.10g H
2
O/100g d.b. to avoid unnecessary power con-
sumption. Finally, the Oswin, Smith and GAB models were
highlighted for their ability to predict both adsorption and
desorption isotherms of Nanico banana our (29

Brix) at
25

C.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank FAPESPA (Fundac o de Amparo Pesquisa
do Estado do Par) for the nancial support.
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