Abstract:
Dried longan, Thai economic product with an export revenue of 2,109.3 million bahts, is
traditionally produced by a hot air drying method, which takes more drying times and deteriorates
qualities of a dried product. To improve the qualities of dried longan, alternative drying techniques,
i.e, continuous and intermittent microwave combined with hot air were proposed in this study.
Longans (Dor variety) were dried from the initial moisture content of 360-420%d.b. to the
intermediate moisture content of 70%d.b. with microwave and hot air, and then further dried by
only hot air to the final moisture content of 20%d.b. Temperature of hot air with velocity of 0.3 m/s
was set at 65 C. The effect of microwave power at 150, 190 and 240 W on longan drying kinetics
and qualities of dried longan in terms of color, texture, shrinkage, microstructure and sensory
evaluation as well as drying energy were studied. It was found that the microwave combined with
hot air drying reduced drying time and saved drying energy as compared to hot air drying. This
technique also help reduce hardness, toughness and shrinkage of dried longan because of large pore
size resulted from microwave power. The microwave combined with hot air can decrease redness
and yellowness but increase lightness in dried longan. The quality of longan dried by continuous
microwave combined with hot air drying was similar to that dried by intermittent microwave
combined with hot air drying. Dried longan produced by microwave combined with hot air drying
was more acceptable than that produced by hot air drying.