Manpreet SinghBorse, Sudarshan Murlidhar2019-12-142019-12-142019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810137676The present study was conducted to modify the drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer and evaluate its performance for drying of bitter gourd slices. Drying cabinet was modified with skewers on rack arrangement for proper air circulation over the samples and better maneuvering of samples during drying. Modified drying cabinet was evaluated in comparison to existing drying cabinet having trays for bitter gourd slices. The drying experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of different process parameters viz., pretreatment, loading, drying method on the drying behavior and quality of dried bitter gourd slices. The quality parameters viz., total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total chlorophyll content, antioxidant capacity, colour (L, a, b, ΔE), ascorbic acid content, shrinkage, rehydration characteristics (rehydration ratio, coefficient of rehydration and percent water in the rehydrated sample) and hardness were studied. The final moisture content of the solar dried bitter gourd slices was in the range 6.84-8.27% wb. The dried product obtained using modified drying cabinet was of better quality as compared to existing drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer and open sun drying. The average values for total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, total chlorophyll content, ascorbic acid content and antioxidant capacity for best sample dried using modified drying cabinet of indirect type solar dryer were 0.227, 0.032, 0.248, 1.26 mg/g dw and 72.90 % respectively. The dried bitter gourd samples were stored in different packaging materials (LDPE, LAF and vacuum) and the storage quality of dried bitter gourd slices was also studied at regular intervals. The quality attributes of dried bitter gourd slices were affected during storage in different packaging materials. The vacuum sealed pouches for storage of dried bitter gourd slices were found to be best on the basis of quality retention. The quality data obtained for various dried samples was statistically analyzed by using completely randomized design and the quality data obtained during storage experiment was analyzed by factorial completely randomized design using statistical software SAS 9.3. The quality parameters were significantly (p<0.0001) affected by the drying method, pretreatment, loading, packaging material and storage period.ennullThesis