| Abstrakt: |
Curry leaves -- a miracle plant had been used in Indian kitchens from ancient times to enhance flavour and aroma of the food. But apart from their appetite tickling flavour, these leaves are known to have essential nutrients like copper, calcium, phosphorus, fibre, carbohydrates, energy, magnesium and iron. However, the crop is highly perishable and susceptible to microbial contamination. The shelf life of the leaves can be increased by using different drying techniques. In this study, control and pretreated curry leaves were dried under various drying techniques i.e. open sun drying, solar drying, solar tunnel drying and mechanical drying at 50°C, 55°C and 60°C. The quality was determined on the basis of moisture content, time of drying, colour, chlorophyll content, rehydration ratio and sensory attributes. Among all the drying techniques, solar tunnel drying and mechanical drying at 55°C gave best results for pretreated curry leaves witnessing total drying time of 3.5 hours and 4.5 hours, respectively. The green colour of the leaves was retained better in mechanical drying system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
