Effect of drying temperatures on the functional properties of purple sweet potato (ipomoea batatas).
Anthocyanins, bioactive compounds, Page, Henderson and Pabis, drying kinetics, Ipomoea potatoes.
Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea potatoes) are one of the most important food crops in developing countries, their easy cultivation, adaptability, tolerance to different climates and low production cost facilitate their dissemination. Purple-fleshed sweet potatoes are rich in phenolic compounds, such as anthocyanins, as well as having hypoglycemic properties. Anthocyanins are natural antioxidants capable of inhibiting or delaying injuries caused by free radicals. One of the most used vegetable preservation methods is drying. Even though it is a method of easy execution, it has process parameters that interfere widely in sensory terms and in the physical-chemical properties of the final product. The present work aimed to evaluate the impact of different drying temperatures in an oven with hot air circulation on the antioxidant capacity, on the content of phenolic compounds, total and monomeric anthocyanins in purple sweet potato, in addition to determining a mathematical model that could describe drying kinetics. According to the results
observed, drying at 40 ° C was more convenient in terms of phenolic compounds, however drying at 50 ° C was more efficient for the result of antioxidant capacity by the H + capture method performed by DDPH and for total and monomeric anthocyanins. The mathematical model that described the kinetics curves well was that of Page and next of Henderson and Pabis.