Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 284291 www.elsevier.

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Kinetics of osmotic dehydration and air-drying of pumpkins (Cucurbita moschata)

Carolina Castilho Garcia, Maria Aparecida Mauro *, Mieko Kimura
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Institute of Biosciences, Language and Physical Sciences (IBILCE), UNESP Sao Paulo State University Rua Cristovao Colombo 2265, 15054-000 - Sao Jose do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil Received 13 October 2006; received in revised form 31 January 2007; accepted 1 February 2007 Available online 16 February 2007

Abstract Kinetics of osmotic dehydration (OD) and eects of sucrose impregnation on thermal air-drying of pumpkin slices were investigated. A simplied model based on the solution of Ficks Law was used to estimate eective diusion coecients during OD and air-drying. In order to take into account shrinkage, average and variable thicknesses were considered. Pumpkin slices were dehydrated in sucrose solutions (40%, 50% and 60%, w/w, 27 C). The eective water diusion coecients were higher than the sucrose, and low diusivity dependence with solution concentration was observed. Samples non-treated and pre-treated in 60% osmotic solutions during one hour were dried in a hot-air-dryer at 50 and 70 C (2 m/s) until equilibrium was achieved. Pre-treatment enhanced mass transfer during air-drying. Great volume reduction was observed in pre and non-treated dried samples. Using variable thickness in the model diminished the relative deviations between predicted and experimental OD and drying data. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Diusion coecients; Osmotic dehydration; Convective drying; Shrinkage; Pumpkin

1. Introduction Due to physical, chemical and biochemical changes during drying, quality degradation is a major concern in the selection, design and operation of a food drier (Mujumdar, 1997). Dehydration of foodstus by immersion in osmotic solutions previous to convective air-drying seems to improve the quality of the nal product since it prevents oxidative browning and/or loss of volatile avoring constituents, reduces the fruit acidity (Ponting, 1973), and can decrease structural collapse during air-drying (Del Valle, Cuadros, & Aguilera, 1998; Lenart, 1996; Simal, Deya, Frau, & Rossello, 1997). This pre-treatment can also minimize drying color losses (Nsonzi & Ramaswamy, 1998), as well as reduce nutrient losses, e.g. lycopene in vac-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 17 3221 2253; fax: +55 3221 2299. E-mail address: cidam@ibilce.unesp.br (M.A. Mauro).

uum-dried tomatoes (Shi, Le Maguer, Kakuda, Liptay, & Niekamp, 1999). Osmotic dehydration (OD) of fruits and vegetables is based on their immersion in an aqueous concentrated solution containing one or more solutes. This process involves the simultaneous ow of water and solutes. Water and food solutes diuse from the food to the concentrated solution, and solution solutes from the osmotic solution into the food. Solute transfer is usually limited due to dierential permeability of cellular membranes (Bildweel, 1979). Consequently, more water transfer than solute transfer characterizes this process. The eects of osmotic pre-treatment on drying rates have been investigated by several authors (Karathanos, Kostrapoulos, & Saravacos, 1995; Lenart, 1996; Park, Bin, & Brod, 2002; Rahman & Lamb, 1991; Simal et al., 1997) and vary according to the raw material used and the drying conditions. Sucrose is considered one of the best osmotic substances, especially when the OD is employed before

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Nomenclature eective diusion coecients of k species (m2/s) eective diusion coecients of moisture (m2/s) total mass variation in relation to initial mass (dimensionless) M mass (kg) N number of observations or residuals P pressure (kg/(ms2)) R universal gas constant (kJ/(kg-mol K)) R2 correlation coecient (dimensionless) RRMS mean relative error root square (dimensionless) SG sugar gain in relation to initial mass (dimensionless) t time (s) T temperature (K) V volume (m3) a V volume at a specic state a (=OD or D) (m3) WL water loss in relation to initial mass (dimensionless) wk fractional or residual content of species k, dry basis (dimensionless) wk mass fraction of species k, wet basis (dimensionless)  wk t average content of species k at time t, wet basis (dimensionless) Dk Dm DM X t X y z average moisture content at drying time t, dry basis (dimensionless) fractional or residual moisture content, dry basis (dimensionless) experimental or calculated value (dimensionless) length scale (m)

Greek letters q density or volumetric concentration (kg/m3) qk volumetric concentration of species k (kg/m3) Subscripts and Superscripts 0 initial state a sample state, osmotically dehydrated (OD) or dried (D) cal calculated D dried eq equilibrium exp experimental OD osmotically dehydrated rs reducing sugars s sucrose ts total solids w water

drying. The presence of this sugar on the surface of the dehydrated sample is an obstacle for the contact with oxygen (Lenart, 1996) thus reducing the oxidative reactions. Pumpkins are good sources of carotenoids, and some varieties are rich in provitamins A, mainly a-carotene and b-carotene (Arima & Rodriguez-Amaya, 1988; Azevedo-Meleiro, 2003; Dutta, Raychaudhuri, & Chakraborty, 2006; Murkovic, Mulleder, & Neunteu, 2002). Carotenoids are among the phytochemical components believed to reduce the risk of developing some degenerative diseases, and are responsible for the attractive color of many fruits and vegetables. Being highly unsaturated, they are prone to isomerization and oxidation during processing because of the contact with acids, heat treatment and exposure to light, resulting in some loss of color and biological activity alteration (RodriguezAmaya, 2002). Hence, improvement of nutritional and sensory properties of air-dried pumpkins could be achieved by applying a suitable pre-osmotic treatment. Nevertheless, as observed by Mayor, Moreira, Chenlo, and Sereno (2006), even though OD of pumpkin could be a useful technique to obtain new processed products of interest to the consumer, few works have been found in the literature. The mentioned authors present a broad study about OD of Cucurbita pepo L. in salt solution.

Kowalska and Lenart (2001) also report the high OD eciency of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima vs. Melonowa) in sucrose solution, when compared to carrot and apple tissues. Pan, Zhao, Zhang, Chen, and Mujumdar (2003) studied OD of several plants, including pumpkins in sugar solutions, and subsequent drying. They obtained a signicant reduction in the thermal drying time of the impregnated materials in comparison to the fresh material. There are some works that do not deal with OD but apply dierent techniques aiming to improve dried pumpkin quality such as combination-drying, e.g. initial partial freeze-drying followed by terminal hot air-drying of the Cucurbita maxima species (Kumar, Radhakrishna, Nagaraju, & Rao, 2001). Another work applied freezing or blanching to the same species (Cucurbita maxima) before vacuum drying, which increased the moisture diusivity (Arevalo-Pinedo & Murr, 2007). The purpose of this work is to evaluate OD kinetics of pumpkins in sucrose solutions and the eects of solute impregnation on the kinetics of air-drying using a simplied model based on Ficks Law that takes into account shrinkage. Eective diusion coecients and methodology to consider shrinkage in the model can be useful for projects and to control the processes.

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2. Materials and methods 2.1. Raw material

sugar contents were determined in triplicate by oxy-reduction titration (William, 1970). 2.5. Calculations

Mature pumpkins (Cucurbita moschata) obtained on the local market were cut in three portions in a transversal direction to their axis and each portion was cut in four longitudinal pieces. The pieces were peeled, seeded and sliced (3.97 0.15 mm thickness). The transversal area of the slice was approximately 2025 cm2. 2.2. Osmotic dehydration Pumpkin slices were weighed, placed in four mesh baskets and immersed in sucrose (commercial sugar) aqueous solutions (40, 50 and 60%, w/w). The OD system consisted of a jacketed stainless steel vessel containing 15 kg of aqueous sucrose solution continuously stirred and maintained at 27 C by circulation of thermostatically controlled water in the jacket. Each basket containing approximately 14 slices corresponded to a single OD time: 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 h. Two baskets were prepared for each process time. Syrupto-fruit ratio was approximately 15:1. After the pre-established contacting period, the samples were removed, their surfaces cleaned with wet tissue, blotted with absorbing paper, and weighed. Equilibrium data was experimentally determined by immersion of slices (2 mm thickness) during 48 h in 40, 50 and 60% sucrose solutions. Preliminary tests showed that 48 h were enough for equilibrium to be achieved. Solids, total and reducing sugars contents, were determined in fresh and osmotically treated samples. 2.3. Hot-air-drying Samples non-treated and pre-treated in osmotic solutions at 60% w/w during 1 h, were dried at 50 and 70 C. Drying experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale drier operating with air-velocity of 2 m/s. The drier was equipped with an electronic balance with an accuracy of 0.01 g. The weight was continuously registered in a microcomputer using a RS232 interface. The air-owed parallel to the bed that consisted of three wire nets supported by a structure, which substituted the balance plate. Approximately 0.3 kg of osmotically treated and fresh samples was dried until equilibrium moisture was achieved. Solid content was determined in fresh and osmotically treated samples. Specic volumes of fresh, osmotically and dried samples were measured and shrinkage was calculated. 2.4. Analytical methods Solid content of fresh and osmotically treated samples was determined in triplicate, gravimetrically, by drying in a vacuum oven at 60 C, 10 kPa, until constant weight was achieved. The density was determined in duplicate by volume dislocation technique using 50 ml pycnometers and toluene as a displacing uid. The reducing and total

2.5.1. Mass and volume variation The total mass variation in relation to initial mass, during osmotic dehydration, was calculated from experimental data following Eq. (1): DM M M 0 M0 1

The water loss (WL) and the sugar gain (SG) in relation to initial mass was calculated for the OD, through the mass balances shown in Eqs. (2) and (3): ww M w0 M 0 w M0 ws M w0 M 0 s SG M0 WL Sugar gain was also calculated by dierence: SG DM WL 4 To calculate the shrinkage during each step of the processes, the volume variation was expressed by Eq. (5): VaV0 V0  a  0 1 M M0 M 0 qa q q0 5 2 3

where superscript a indicates the sample condition, osmotically dehydrated (OD) or dried (D). 2.5.2. Eective diusion coecients 2.5.2.1. Osmotic dehydration. The eective diusion coecients of water and sucrose (Dk) were determined according to Ficks Second Law applied to a plane sheet. The analytical solution in terms of the mean water or  sucrose content in the slab at OD time t, wk t, is (Crank, 1975): wk  wk t weq k w0 weq k k 1 8 X 1 p2
n1

p2 Dk t exp 2n 1 2 z2 2n 1
2

 6

k w; s

In an approximate manner, the thickness of the slab, z, was assumed to be a linear function of ww, since the shrinkage incorporated in the analytical solution of Ficks Law proved to be adequate to t experimental data of pumpkins osmotically dehydrated in sodium chloride solutions (Mayor et al., 2006) and, in some specic conditions, of pineapple osmotically dehydrated in sucrose solutions, (Ramallo, Schvezov, & Mascheroni, 2004). The coecients of Eq. (6) were also determined considering z as an average thickness calculated between initial and nal measurements.

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2.5.2.2. Air-drying. The eective diusion coecients of moisture (Dm) were determined according to Ficks Law applied to a plane sheet. The diusion model has been applied to the drying of biological materials (Daudin, 1983). However, in Eq. (7), the fractional content changes to express the moisture on a dry basis. X X t X eq X 0 X eq   1 2 8 X 1 2 p Dm t 2 exp 2n 1 p n1 2n 12 z2

In Eq. (7), thickness z was considered both variable (a linear function of X) and invariable (an average value between initial and nal dimension) during the processes. 2.5.2.3. Fitting. The diusion coecients in Eqs. (6) and (7) were determined from the experimental data by minimizing the squares of the deviations between predicted and observed values. These series converged quickly so four terms were enough. The theoretical model was tted to experimental data by non-linear regression using the steepestdescent method (Marquard, 1959). The tting eciency was evaluated by the correlation coecient R2 and the mean relative error root square (RRMS); the latter according to Eq. (8): ( )1=2 N 1 X exp 2 RRMS% 100 y y cal =y exp 8 N n1 3. Results and discussion Total solids, sucrose and reducing sugar contents as well as mass variation Eq. (1), water loss Eq. (2) and sucrose gain (Eq. (3)) of the samples treated osmotically in 40, 50 and 60% sucrose solution are reported in Tables 13, respectively. After equal time process, the higher the osmotic concentration, the higher were the total solid and sugar contents measured in the samples. Except for reducing sugars, equilibrium contents also increased with the osmotic solution concentration. Part of these sugars was lost after a long process time (48 h), probably due to damages in the cellular tissue. Water loss and sugar gain did not follow a pattern. This was attributed to dierences between the pumpkins,

since small dierences in initial composition can cause distinct mass variations during OD. For high moisture materials such as pumpkins, a small change in the water content corresponds to a great variation of water loss in relation to the initial mass. Table 4 shows the eective diusion coecients of water and sucrose determined from Eq. (6), considering an average thickness (between initial and nal state) and a variable thickness (a linear function of water content). In both diffusivity determinations the thickness z was estimated considering similar shrinkage in all dimensions. To do this, volume variation was determined from the water loss and sucrose gain (Tables 13) and the corresponding specic volume of the water and sucrose (Perry & Chilton, 1973). Eq. (6) better predicted the water and sugar contents when variable thickness was considered. Reasonable tting was obtained with this assumption since the values of R2 were always higher than 0.94 and almost all RRMS values were lower than 20% (Table 4). Even though variable thickness consideration has enhanced the tting, the coecient values did not dier more than 10% between the dierent calculation methods. Eective diusion coecients of sucrose were lower than water in all treatments. Both water and sucrose diusivities were independent of osmotic concentration at 50% and 60% sucrose solutions; this was probably due to a conjunction of opposite factors. If, on the one hand, diusivity decreases as sucrose concentration increases in binary sucrose-water solutions (Henrion, 1964), on the other hand, the higher sucrose concentration the higher damage tissue, which makes sucrose diusion easier. Diusivities determined with 40% solution were slightly higher than the others, as would be expected for more diluted solution. The mass transfer eciency in OD is generally estimated as the ratio water loss/sugar gain. The most ecient treatments were with 40% and 60% solution for 1/2 and 1 h. On taking into account eciency, short process time and low water content, a 60% sucrose solution during 1 h treatment was selected to be employed in convective drying. Samples non-treated and osmotically treated in this condition were dried at 50 and 70 C. Relative humidity was approximately 22% and 9% at 50 C and 70 C, respectively. Water content measured in fresh and osmotically treated samples, and that obtained in dried samples by mass balance, as well as the mass variation (DM), the water loss (WL) and the sugar gain (SG) (the latter calculated by dierence as in

Table 1 Total solids (wts), sucrose (ws ) and reducing sugars (wrs) content; variation in mass (DM), water loss (WL) and sucrose gain (SG) in relation to the initial mass (M0), during osmotic dehydration in 40% sucrose solution Time (h) 0 0.5 1 2 3 48 wts (kg/100 kg) 6.84 0.03 18.04 0.23 23.46 0.17 28.60 0.06 36.63 0.09 39.77 0.05 ws (kg/100 kg) 1.67 0.05 8.62 0.03 13.05 0.18 16.43 0.97 22.15 0.35 25.94 0.54 wrs (kg/100 kg) 2.43 0.01 4.21 0.04 4.51 0.04 4.28 0.24 5.92 0.09 3.54 0.01 DM (kg/100 kg) 0 39.64 0.04 48.26 1.39 54.21 0.08 61.95 0.60 WL (kg/100 kg) 0 43.71 0.03 53.58 1.07 60.49 0.06 69.06 0.37 SG (kg/100 kg) 0 3.53 0.01 5.08 0.18 5.52 0.01 6.76 0.13

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Table 2 Total solids (wts), sucrose (ws ) and reducing sugars (wrs) content; variation in mass (DM), water loss (WL) and sucrose gain (SG) in relation to the initial mass (M0), during osmotic dehydration in 50% sucrose solution Time (h) 0 0.5 1 2 3 48 wts(kg/100 kg) 8.63 0.03 19.96 0.09 28.53 0.14 31.67 0.14 43.77 0.12 49.54 0.16 ws (kg/100 kg) 1.99 0.26 10.38 0.02 15.99 0.43 18.70 0.85 25.22 1.03 35.72 0.95 wrs(kg/100 kg) 2.93 0.13 3.96 0.13 4.99 0.12 4.96 0.07 6.57 0.51 3.40 0.11 DM (kg/100 kg) 0 29.11 3.03 46.48 1.08 49.76 1.05 59.56 1.38 WL(kg/100 kg) 0 34.63 2.43 53.12 0.78 57.04 0.72 68.63 0.78 SG(kg/100 kg) 0 5.37 0.31 6.57 0.17 7.41 0.20 8.21 0.35

Table 3 Total solids (wts), sucrose (ws ) and reducing sugars (wrs) content; variation in mass (DM), water loss (WL) and sucrose gain (SG) in relation to the initial mass (M0), during osmotic dehydration in 60% sucrose solution Time (h) 0 0.5 1 2 3 48 wts (kg/100 kg) 7.23 0.02 23.10 0.12 35.81 0.09 39.08 0.10 51.07 0.22 59.18 0.04 ws (kg/100 kg) 1.62 0.18 12.67 0.21 20.73 0.08 23.13 0.67 31.29 0.72 44.46 1.48 wrs (kg/100 kg) 3.27 0.11 5.65 0.26 7.01 0.71 7.52 0.34 8.63 0.31 2.99 0.04 DM (kg/100 kg) 0 47.56 3.55 60.59 1.81 59.59 0.03 68.26 0.18 WL (kg/100 kg) 0 52.45 2.72 67.47 1.16 68.15 0.01 77.24 0.09 SG (kg/100 kg) 0 4.94 0.44 6.55 0.38 7.73 0.01 8.84 0.06

Table 4 Eective diusion coecients of water and sucrose according to Eq. (6), calculated with average and variable thickness consideration Osmotic solution, w/w Water Average thickness Dw 1010 (m2/s) 40% 50% 60% 1.66 1.45 1.44 RRMS (%) 43.1 32.1 18.3 R2 0.927 0.881 0.911 Variable thickness Dw 1010 (m2/s) 1.69 1.34 1.36 RRMS (%) 26.8 17.4 11.6 R2 0.970 0.945 0.944 Sucrose Average thickness Ds 1010 (m2/s) 1.35 0.97 0.98 RRMS (%) 26.9 7.4 11.7 R2 0.903 0.952 0.910 Variable thickness Ds 1010 (m2/s) 1.37 0.88 0.90 RRMS (%) 17.2 5.9 7.8 R2 0.954 0.967 0.951

Eq. (3)), are shown in Table 5. The impregnation of sucrose in the pre-treated tissue contributed to a higher water content in the dried samples. This was due to the higher water retention capacity by the sucrose (Chirife, Fontan, & Benmergui, 1980), in comparison to cellulosic (Papadakis, Bahu, Mckenzie, & Kemp, 1993) or proteic (Bull, 1944) compounds at low humidity levels. Despite the initial water content of the pumpkins osmotically dehydrated prior drying at 50 C and 70 C being similar, small dierences in composition probably inuenced the mass transfer behavior that was more eective (ratio water loss/sugar gain) in the second experiment. The densities of these pumpkins were dierent, as shown in Table 6, where experimental

results for densities of fresh, osmotically dehydrated and dried pumpkins, and volume variation calculated according to Eq. (5), are presented. Great volume reduction and density increase was observed after air-drying of both the non-treated and osmotically treated samples. However, some shrinkage prevention was obtained in pre-treated pumpkins (Table 6). The volume reduction, from initial (fresh) to dried state, calculated according to Eq. (5), was compared with the water volume loss, based on sucrose and water changes during OD, water changes during airdrying and corresponding specic volumes of the water and sucrose (Perry & Chilton, 1973). Volume reduction was very similar to the water volume loss, showing that

Table 5 Water content (ww) of fresh, osmotically dehydrated and dried pumpkin (50 and 70 C); variation in mass (DM), water loss (WL) and sugar gain (SG) in relation to the initial mass (M0), during osmotic treatment (60% sucrose solution, 1 h) Drying temperature Fresh ww (kg/100 kg) 50 Cnon-treated 50 Cpre-treated (60%, 1 h) 70 Cnon-treated 70 Cpre-treated (60%, 1 h) 92.18 0.03 92.17 0.02 92.74 0.05 93.27 0.53 Osmotically dehydrated ww (kg/100 kg) 75.56 0.04 74.43 0.10 Mass variations during osmotic treatment DM (kg/100 kg) 41.88 0.75 55.59 0.87 WL (kg/100 kg) 48.25 0.56 60.22 0.65 SG (kg/100 kg) 6.37 0.18 4.62 0.22 Dried ww (kg/100 kg) 7.73 9.14 6.01 9.26

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Table 6 Densities of fresh (q0), osmotically dehydrated (qOD) and dried pumpkin (qD), and volume variation from fresh sample (V0) to the osmotically dehydrated (VOD) or dried (VD) samples, according to Eq. (5) Drying temperature Densities q0 (kg/m3) 50 Cnon-treated 50 Cpre-treated (60%, 1 h) 70 Cnon-treated 70 Cpre-treated (60%, 1 h) 1016.5 1.2 1016.5 1.2 1005.6 5.1 998.8 1.9 qOD (kg/m3) qD (kg/m3) 1262.5 24.2 1361.4 7.5 1307.6 5.0 1302.4 22.9 Volume variation V OD V 0 (%) V0 46.51 58.70 VD V0 (%) V0 93.18 88.33 94.06 90.40

1104.4 3.9 1074.1 7.2

the osmotic pre-treatment diminished shrinkage due to the volume occupied by sucrose impregnated in the tissue. The density experimental results of fresh pumpkin, close to water density, suggest that this tissue has low porosity. Microscopic observations of the fresh pumpkin tissue, according to a procedure described by Mauro, Tavares, and Menegalli (2003), also conrmed its limited intercellular air-spaces. The Dm values determined from Eq. (7) with average and variable thickness consideration as well as the correspondent R2 and RRMS can be observed in Table 7. Eq. (7) better predicted the moisture content of treated and non-treated samples when variable thickness was considered. In this case the R2 values were always higher than 0.98 and the RRMS values resulted in lower than 20% for non-treated samples. On the other hand, for treated samples, the RRMS values were around 30%, but these higher values are due to small X values at the last drying stages that increase relative deviations in Eq. (8). A comparison between experimental and calculated air-drying curves according to Ficks model Eq. (7), considering variable thickness of the non-treated and osmotically treated sliced pumpkin, is shown in Fig. 1. The diusion coecients found in this work, for nontreated pumpkin, can be compared to those predicted by Rovedo, Suarez, and Viollaz (1997). The authors measured moisture content, temperature and surface area variations during drying of Cucurbita pepo L. at 40, 50 and 60 C, and applied a rigorous approach that considered mass and heat transfer in a three dimensional shrinking solid slab. They determined tting parameters according to Arrhenius equation that, if applied at 50 and 70 C, will result in diusion coecients equal to 0.70 1010 m2/s at 50 C and 1.59 1010 m2/s at 70 C. These values are very similar to the diusivities estimated in our work when

variable thickness was considered (Table 7), showing that this shrinkage consideration can be useful to predict diusivities within reasonable accuracy. Nevertheless, most of the drying diusion coecients reported in the literature are calculated using the initial thickness of the slabs (Vaccarezza & Chirife, 1975). In the present work, if Eq. (7) is tted to the experimental data of non-treated pumpkin considering the initial thickness (4 mm), diusivities will result equal to 3.25 1010 m2/s at 50 C and 7.24 1010 m2/s at 70 C, which are comparable to values reported in the literature. Doymaz (2007) dried pumpkin Cucurbita pepo L. at 50, 55 and 60 C and so obtained diusivity values of 3.88 1010, 6.58 1010 and 9.38 1010 m2/s, respectively. Akpinar, Midilli, and Bicer (2003) also investigated pumpkin slices drying using a cyclone type dryer. At 70 C, moisture diusion coecients were obtained between 4.0 and 7.3 1010 m2/s, varying as function of the tray position and air-velocity. Pre-treatment of fruits in sugar solution usually reduces the convective drying rates (Simal et al., 1997; Karathanos et al., 1995; Rahman & Lamb, 1991). However, Park et al. (2002) found that the water diusion coecients in osmotically dehydrated pears were greater than in the fresh fruit while the air-drying velocity was 2 m/s, but not for 1 m/s. This was explained by the reduction in the eect of shrinkage and surface hardening due to the osmotic treatment. In this work, the eect of the pre-treatment on convective drying enhanced the water transfer (Fig. 1). The eective diusion coecients, calculated with shrinkage consideration (average or variable thickness), were higher for pre-treated samples than non-treated ones (Table 7). This unusual behavior is probably related to the fast drying of the fresh pumpkin surface due to the high air-velocity (2 m/s) and its high water content.

Table 7 Eective moisture diusion coecients according to Eq. (7) calculated with average and variable thickness consideration 50 C Average thickness Dm 10 (m2/s) Non-treated Pre-treated 1.59 2.06
10

70 C Variable thickness R
2

Average thickness R
2

Variable thickness R
2

RRMS (%) 89.3 58.0

Dm 10 (m2/s) 0.78 1.34

10

RRMS (%) 13.6 29.8

Dm 10 (m2/s) 3.55 4.16

10

RRMS (%) 97.6 31.3

Dm 1010 (m2/s) 1.51 2.83

RRMS (%) 11.8 30.2

R2 0.990 0.986

0.808 0.911

0.991 0.983

0.865 0.938

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1 0.9

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non-treated, 50C, exp

0.8 0.7 0.6

treated, 50C, exp non-treated, 70C, exp treated, 70C, exp non-treated, cal treated, cal

X (t ) X eq 0.5 X 0 X eq 0.4
0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 1 2 Time (h)

Fig. 1. Comparison between experimental and calculated residual water content according to Eq. (7) with variable thickness consideration, in fresh and osmotically treated pumpkin during drying at 50 C and 70 C.

4. Conclusions OD kinetics of pumpkin in sucrose solutions was obtained for 40, 50 and 60% concentration. Eective diusion coecients of sucrose were lower than water. Comparison between the treatments showed no dependence of the diusion coecients on concentrations at 50% and 60%. Slightly higher values for 40% osmotic treatment were obtained. Drying kinetics was determined for pre-treated (60%, 1 h) and non-treated pumpkin, at 50 and 70 C. The water eective diusion coecients increased with the drying temperature. Pre-treatments enhanced the water transfer during drying. The moisture diusion coecients resulted to be higher than those for the non-treated ones. This unusual behavior was related to the fast surface drying of the fresh samples, forming areas of hardness on the surface and reducing drying rates. Great volume reduction and density increase was observed after air-drying of the non-treated and osmotically treated samples. The use of shrinkage consideration in the simplied model based on the analytical solution of Ficks Law proved to be adequate when the variable thickness was applied, and this procedure better predicted OD and drying experimental data. Acknowledgements The authors thank the FAPESP (Fundacao de Amparo ` a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo) for the fellowship (proc 02/10806-8) and research nancial support (proc 03/10151-4). References
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