نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 گروه مهندسی بیوسیستم، دانشگاه شهید چمران اهواز، اهواز، ایران.
2 گروه مهندسی بیوسیستم، دانشگاه شهید چمران اهواز، اهواز، ایران
3 پژوهشکدة خرما و میوههای گرمسیری کشور، اهواز، ایران.
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
This study investigates the impact of the hydration process on the softening, desirability, and quality of Deiri dates under the influence of ultrasound waves. The experimental setup included two ultrasound application conditions (with ultrasound and without ultrasound), five water temperatures (30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 degrees Celsius), and five soaking durations (40, 55, 70, 85, and 100 minutes). The qualitative parameters examined were moisture content, color indices L, a, b, ∆E, total sugar, and reduced sugar. Textural characteristics such as firmness, chewability, gumminess, and springiness were also evaluated. The response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design (CCD) was employed for data analysis using the Design Expert 10 software.The results demonstrated that the proposed regression models were significant in determining the effects of hydration on moisture content, reduced sugar, total sugar, color indices L and ∆E, firmness, chewability, cohesiveness, and springiness of the treated samples. Specifically, the moisture content and reduced sugar of samples treated with ultrasonic hydration were 7.47% and 1.34 times higher, respectively, compared to those treated without ultrasound, indicating a pronounced effect of ultrasound. However, the color indices a and b were not significant at the 0.05 level. Optimization results indicated that the optimal conditions for the hydration process of Deiri date fruits involved a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius and a duration of 85 minutes with the application of ultrasound. While ultrasound had a significant effect on several traits, its economic justification must also be considered.
کلیدواژهها [English]
The effect of temperature, time and the use of ultrasonic waves on the process of Deiri dates hydration in Khuzestan
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Dates are one of Iran's major horticultural crops being exported all over the world. Dairi is considered a very popular dry date variety Khuzestan province. In addition to domestic consumption, Dairi also has its own fans abroad. So far, over 500,000 seedlings of commercial dairi cultivars have been produced and distributed among the country's palm-growing provinces. The Dairi dates are easily transported due to the dry texture of the fruit. On the other hand, increasing the hardness of its tissue during storage is the first problem of the processing industries. Regarding the high volume of date production in Khuzestan and the need for investigation the methods affecting preservation and improvement of its quality, the effect of hydration process on the quality of Dairi date fruits was studied.
The study was carried out at Shahid Chmaran university of Ahvaz. Dairi Palm samples, uniform in appearance and weight, were purchased from a local palm grove. After separating the damaged fruits, healthy fruits were divided into 25 fruit packs. The hydration applied with a water bath at five temperature levels (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 degrees Celsius), five soaking durations (40, 55, 70, 85, and 100 minutes) and two condition of ultrasonic waves (ie, with and without ultrasonic). Fruits without undergoing moisturizing process were considered as control. The dependent qualitative parameters measured in this study were moisture content, color, fruit texture, and sugar content. In ultrasonic assisted hydration, date fruit samples were weighed then placed inside the ultrasonic bath containing distilled water at the desired temperature under a constant ultrasonic wave frequency of 28 kHz. Whenever each treatment's time period elapsed, the samples were removed from the machine, their surface water was taken off using a filter paper, then their qualitative parameters were measured. For samples under the hydration process without ultrasonic waves, this process was the same but the ultrasonic wave generator was off. To calculate the percentage of weight gain of fruits from each treatment, 10 fruits were randomly selected, their initial pre-treatment weight (wi) and final post-treatment weight (wf) were determined. The color of the fruit was determined using the HunterLab color meter (Konica MINOLTA, INC). Color attributes include three indicators L, a, and b. For texture analysis, the TPA test was conducted using QTS Farnell25 texture analyzer. Total and inverted sugar of the samples determined according to the fehling test. Response surface method (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was used to investigate the effect of independent variables (namely temperature (A), time (B), ultrasound (C)) on the above mentioned dependent qualitative variables of Dairi fruits.
The results showed that the proposed regression models were significant in determining the effect of hydration on moisture content, reduced and total sugar, color indicators L, E, hardness, chewiness, gumminess and springiness of the treated samples. study showed that the effect of hydration with ultrasound on moisture content and reduced sugar content of the samples was 7.47 percent and 1.34 timest more than the corresponding amount in hydration without ultrasound, which showed the greater effect of ultrasound on the samples. According to the results, the effect of temperature and time levels applied in the current study (and not necessarily all possible temperature and time duration) on other qualitative traits such as color indicators a, b significant difference (at the level of 5 percent) were not observed. Based on the optimization, the temperature level of 40 degrees Celsius and the time of 85 minutes with the application of ultrasound can be stated as the optimal conditions for the hydration process of the Dairi date fruits under test. The use of ultrasonic waves, despite the effect on some traits, should also be economically justified.
This study showed that water temperature level of 40 degrees Celsius and the time duration of 85 minutes along with applying ultrasounic waves can be considered as an optimal set point. Although ultrasonic application was effective on some traits, the cost of the equipment and economy should be considered for its use.