MICROWAVE DRYING OF SPINACIA OLERACEA

S.Sharada

Abstract: Fresh spinach leaves with 50g weight were taken from the market and 9.86 moisture content on dry basis were dried in a microwave oven using four different microwave power levels ranging between 90 and 350 W, until the moisture content fell down to 0.1 on dry basis. The drying processes were completed between 570 and 1350s depending on the microwave power level. Moisture ratio and drying rate were calculated. In this study the measured values of moisture ratio were compared with predicted values obtained from Newton, Henderson and Pabis, Midilli et al and pages thin layer drying semi empirical equations. On detailed study of the four model equations, Midilli et al. equation was found to be the best fit for the drying of spinach leaves by spinach leaves by using microwave oven. The fitness of these models was evaluated by using the reduced chi-square, root mean square error and modeling efficiency. The specific energy consumption to evaporate a unit mass of water from the product was also determined.

Keywords: Spinach Leaves, Moisture Content, Moisture Ratio, Drying rate and Micro wave.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2013.0211071