Abstract
Studies on the drying kinetics of medicinal, aromatic and spice plants are a necessary step towards establishing the combination of drying parameters that would not qualitatively and quantitatively alter the quality of the fresh product. The purpose of this study was to investigate the drying kinetics of Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius) leaves and to verify whether the theoretical diffusion and the semi-empirical Lewis drying models were capable of accurately predicting the drying curves of the product at 35, 40, and 45°C, with a dry air mass flow rate of 0.731 kg s-1 m-2. Leaves were collected at 0800 h, 1200 h and 1700 h. The goodness of fit between experimental and predicted values was based on the correlation coefficient, root mean square error, mean absolute percentage error, mean bias error, and fit index. Residual plot analysis was also considered in the selection of the most effective drying model. Temperature had a pronounced effect on mass transfer and drying rate decreased continuously during the course of drying. Leaf collection time had little influence on the drying kinetics. Effective moisture diffusivity was found to increase with temperature. The results indicated that the Lewis model was considered a better predictor of the thin-layer drying behaviour of Brazilian peppertree leaves than the theoretical model based on Fick’s second law of diffusion.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Temperature pronouncedly affected mass transfer.
- Taxon
- Brazilian peppertree
Schinus terebinthifoliat0 - Treatment
- Temperaturee0
- Outcome
- mass transfere0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Temperature had a pronounced effect on mass transfer”
t0“brazilian peppertree”
Claim · model-written summary
Drying rate declined during drying.
- Taxon
- Brazilian peppertreeSchinus terebinthifoliat0
- Outcome
- drying ratee0
- Direction
- decreased continuouslye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“drying rate decreased continuously during the course of drying”
t0“brazilian peppertree”
Claim · model-written summary
Collection time had little effect on drying kinetics.
- Taxon
- brazilian peppertreeSchinus terebinthifoliat0
- Organ / stage
- Leafe0
- Outcome
- drying kineticse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Leaf collection time had little influence on the drying kinetics”
t0“brazilian peppertree”
Claim · model-written summary
Effective moisture diffusivity rose with temperature.
- Taxon
- brazilian peppertreeSchinus terebinthifoliat0
- Treatment
- temperaturee0
- Outcome
- Effective moisture diffusivitye0
- Direction
- increasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Effective moisture diffusivity was found to increase with temperature”
t0“brazilian peppertree”
Claim · model-written summary
The Lewis model predicted leaf drying better than the Fick diffusion model.
- Taxon
- Brazilian peppertreeSchinus terebinthifoliae0
- Outcome
- thin-layer drying behavioure0
- Direction
- bettere0
- Comparator
- the theoretical model based on Fick’s second law of diffusione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the Lewis model was considered a better predictor of the thin-layer drying behaviour of Brazilian peppertree leaves than the theoretical model based on Fick’s second law of diffusion”