STUDY ON DRYING KINETICS OF MORINGA LEAVES USING CABINET, FLUIDIZED BED AND INFRARED DRYER

Abstract

Moringa Oleifera leaves are familiar to all, but unknowing that this leaves contain quite a lot of nutrient value which are useful for human body function. This plant‟s leaves contain verities of antioxidant which inhabit & fight against free radical to cell of human body for preventing cancer. Moringa leaves need to dry for use through diversified use. Storage and processing quality depend on better dry. The absence of knowledge about the proper drying method which could be used in the production of Moringa leaves creates a challenge in its processing. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine performance of different types of dryer to dry Moringa Oleifera leaves by performing quantitative and qualitative analysis of Moringa leaves. For Moringa dried leaves apply three common type of dryer i.e. cabinet dryer, fluidized bed dryer and infrared dryer. This study was conducted to introduce the uses of Moringa Oleifera leaves as ingredient of functional foods. Through this study the ration of time and moisture loss by several dryer are mentioned. Most of the dryer for temperature range 50°C to 70°C. Optimum amount of moisture content increase shelf life, prevent loss of nutrition and protect form microbial spoilage. The quality parameters like carbohydrate, sterol and flavonoid were done. Engineering properties like color, and proximate analysis (ash content) for various samples were measured. The ash content was found to be higher in both cabinet and infrared dryer. And the color of the dried moringa was best in moringa leaves dried in infrared dryer at 60 °C. In terms of ash content the cabinet and infrared dryer are found preferable than fluidized bed dryer. In terms of color characteristics the moringa leaves dried at 60°C in infrared dryer is preferable than others. It can be concluded that moringa is better dried at 60°C. From our study, we found that the infrared drying has many advantages over other methods and it is one of the better promising alternative method of drying among the tray drying and fluidized bed dryer for the production of dried Moringa leaves.