บุษวรรณ หิรัญวรชาติ. Physical and chemical properties of dried pretreated carrots and their extracts. Doctoral Degree(Food Engineering). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2011.
Physical and chemical properties of dried pretreated carrots and their extracts
Abstract:
The present study, which was aimed to investigate the effects of selected pretreatment
methods on the physical and chemical properties of dried carrots and their extracts, were
divided into three parts. The first part of the study was aimed to study the effects of
pretreatments with citric acid, which was used as an anti-darkening agent and a texturemodifier.
Carrots were soaked in citric acid to pH of either 4 or 5 or blanched in citric
acid to pH of either 4 or 5 prior to hot air drying. Untreated carrot, carrots soaked in
water and carrots blanched in water were used as the control samples. The effects of
pretreatments, in combination with hot air drying at 70, 80 and 90 C, on selected
physical and chemical properties of dried carrots, namely, color, shrinkage, rehydration
ability, Beta-carotene content and cis-trans isomerization of Beta-carotene, were evaluated. It
was noted that carrots, which were soaked and blanched in citric acid, were redder than
the untreated sample. Although shrinkage of the pretreated carrots was more extensive,
the rehydration ability of the pretreated carrots was higher than that of the untreated
sample. The Beta-carotene content of carrot with no pretreatment decreased continuously,
whereas the contents of Beta-carotene in citric acid soaked and blanched carrots tended to
remain unchanged. Isomerization of Beta-carotene in all samples was not significantly
different.
In the second part of the study the effects of selected pretreatment methods, i.e., soaking
in citric acid, blanching in water and blanching in citric acid, as well as hot air drying
(at 70, 80 and 90 C), on the retention and relative in vitro bioaccessibility of Beta-carotene
in dried carrots were investigated. The results indicated that the selected pretreatments
and drying could enhance the relative bioaccessibility of Beta-carotene in dried carrots. The
relative bioaccessibility of p-carotene in dried carrots increased to 47-73%, while the
values in the fresh (13%) and dried untreated (31-47%) carrots were lower. Although
significant losses of Beta-carotene occurred during both the pretreatment and drying
processes, bioaccessible Beta-carotene contents of the dried pretreated carrots were in a
similar order to that of the fresh carrot, indicating the ability and hence the benefit of
appropriate pretreatment and drying processes in maintaining the nutritive quality of
carrots.
Finally, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of Beta-carotene from carrots was
conducted. Four response variables, including the Beta-carotene content, total carotenoids
content and antioxidant activity as assessed by DPPH and ABTS assays, were first
optimized to identify the optimum condition of extraction. The optimized condition was
then used to investigate the effects of sample pretreatment methods (i.e., soaking in
citric acid to pH 5, blanching in water as well as blanching in citric acid to pH 5) on
MAE of carrots. The results indicated that the optimum extraction condition was the use
of the absorbed microwave power of 102 W and the extraction time of 3 min. The
contents of Beta-carotene and total carotenoids extractable from carrots blanched in water
and in citric acid were significantly higher than those from the untreated carrot. The
antioxidant activity of the extracts obtained from carrots blanched in water and in citric
acid as assessed by both the DPPH and ABTS assays was also higher.