| Abstrakt: |
Saffron is an expensive spice in the world which is used in different industries. The most important post-harvest process of saffron is drying of its stigma. Therefore, in this study, the effect of Refractance Window drying (RWD), hot air drying of saffron in three temperatures (60, 70 and 80°C), and drying in room temperature (25°C) on physicochemical and sensory properties of saffron were investigated. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Duncan test (p<0.05). In the RWD method, two Mylar membranes with thickness of 0.20 and 0.30 micrometer and a pyrex glass with thickness of 3 mm were used. Based on the statistical results and regarding process time reduction, Refractance Window drying method by mylar membrane with a thickness of 0.20 µm and hot air drying method did not have a significant difference (p<0.05), and with mean drying time of 25.28 and 22.28 min, respectively, were the best methods. In terms of bioactive components, namely picrocrocin, safranal and crocin, with an average content of 112.83 , 51.79 and 274.76 , respectively, drying with pyrex glass was better than other methods. Saffron dried with RWD by means of mylar membrane with a thickness of 0.20 µm, with a mean of 48.17 mass percentage for cold water-soluble extract had the highest value. In the sensory evaluation, dried saffron with RWD by means of mylar membrane with a thickness of 0.20 µm had the better quality assessed by the test panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
