Abstract
An experiment was carried out in the laboratories of the Department of Food Engineering, Department of Vegetable Science, and Department of Plantation Spices Medicinal and Aromatic crops, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), West Bengal, India. The work was performed during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 with different drying methods including sun drying, solar drying and oven drying. In oven drying, different temperatures such as 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70 degrees C were considered. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was designed with seven treatments and three replications. Experimental results were significantly varied among the treatments as influenced by different drying methods and temperatures. Minimum time taken (480 min) to reach safe moisture content was recorded in T-7 (oven drying at 70 degrees C), whereas maximum values in color components such as L* value (24.55), a* value (32.14), b* value (20.53), and pungency score (7.85) were recorded in T-6 (oven drying at 65 degrees C). However, the highest texture (1180.81) was observed in T-1 (sun drying). Biochemical parameters were significantly varied among the treatments. The maximum amounts of ascorbic acid (56.06 mg/100 g) and oleoresin content (10.72) were found in T-3 (oven drying at 50 degrees C), whereas minimum values of biochemical parameters were recorded by T-1 (sun drying) and T-2 (solar drying) methods, respectively. Mathematical relationships were found in different drying methods and temperatures. Models such as the Lewis, Page, Modified Page, and Henderson and Pabis models were selected to fit the data. Maximum R-2 value (0.9835) was found in both the Page and Modified Page models with similar values of drying method and temperature at 65 degrees C. This value was the highest among all models in all drying temperatures. However, the lowest chi(2), and RMSE values (0.000818 and 0.027261, respectively) were recorded with the Page model.