Abstract:
Traditional curing methods for spices are laborious and consume a lot of time. So, it was
found that there is a need to standardize the parameters of curing for vanilla. In this study, an
attempt was made to standardize the curing procedure for vanilla. Vanilla curing consists of four
steps viz: killing, sweating, slow drying and conditioning. Sweating and drying was carried out
in aconvective dryer at 45 o C,
50 o C, 55 o C and 60 o C instead of sun drying in the traditional
(Bourbon) method. The quality of cured beanswas also analysed for vanillin content. The
vanillin content for the five samples were 1.07%, 1.59%, 1.79% and 1.63% respectively for
treatments at 45 o C, 50 o C, 55 o C and 60 o C. The sample which was sun dried had vanillin content
of 1.75%. Moiosture content of the four convectively dried samples were 14%, 20%, 22% and
19% respectively. The sun dried sample had moisture content of 25%. Microbial infestation by
fungus of Aspergillus sp. and Fusarium sp. was also identfied in one of the samples. Shelf life
studies on cured vanilla under Modified Atmospheric Packaging was also studied with different
gauge ( 125, 250, 400) polypropylene bags. The extract of vanilla was recovered by the cold
extraction process and was found to have a vanillin content of 1.05% by weight.
