LWT - Food Science and Technology 141 (2021) 110953

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LWT
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Drying of wolfberry fruit juice using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound

Yaru Qi a, Fen Yu b, c, Xuecheng Wang b, c, Na Wan b, c, Ming Yang b, c, Zhenfeng Wu b, c, *,
Yuanhui Li b, c, **
a
Academic Affairs Division, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, 330004, China
b
Key Laboratory of Modern Preparation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, 330004,
China
c
State Key Laboratory of Innovative Medicine and High Efficiency and Energy Saving Pharmaceutical Equipment, Nanchang, 330004, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this study, the low-intensity pulsed ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying (LPUVD) was applied to improve the
Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound efficiency in drying wolfberry fruit juice with acceptable quality. The low-intensity ultrasound used was 0.7 W/
Vacuum drying cm2, and the effects of pulsed ultrasound ratio and drying temperature on the drying kinetics and quality pa­
Fruit juice
rameters (color, total flavonoid, total polyphenol content, DPPH radical scavenging activity and powder prop­
Quality
Drying characteristics
erties) were investigated and compared with continuous ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying (CUVD). It was
shown that LPUVD offers an advantage over CUVD in quality retention, and LPUVD at 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultra­
sound ratio took only 30 min more than CUVD. Significant influence of pulsed ultrasound ratio on quality pa­
rameters was not observed (p ≥ 0.05). The minimal quality loss was found in the sample dried at 50 ◦ C whereas
the maximum was found in the sample dried at 40 ◦ C. Also, the drying methods and conditions showed no
significant effects on the powder properties. Overall, the optimal drying conditions of LPUVD was found to be
drying temperature of 50 ◦ C and pulsed ultrasound ratio of 10 s: 10 s. The findings in current work demonstrate
that LPUVD is a promising drying technique for wolfberry fruit juice.

1. Introduction
Fresh fruit is an important dietary component because of its
numerous health benefits and delicious taste. Nowadays, due to the
perishable characteristic of the fresh fruit and the increasing consumer
demand for diversity of food products, there is a growing interest in
converting them into new added-value products, such as juice, jam and
more stable dry powder form (Li, Wang, Wu, Wan, & Yang, 2020).
Among them, processing of fruit into juice or concentrate and further
processing them into dry powder form offers several benefits over its
liquid counterpart, such as the reduced transportation and packaging
volume, extended shelf-life and increased application as an ingredient in
a variety of food products (Can Karaca, Guzel, & Ak, 2016). Up to now,
spray drying is the most widely used method in the production of juice
powder, but wall deposition due to the existence of
low-molecular-weight sugars and organic acids in juice is still a
prevalent problem in spray dryer as it can negatively affect the quality
and quantity of the dried product (Keshani, Daud, Nourouzi, Namvar, &
Ghasemi, 2015).
Vacuum drying (VD) has been widely employed in food processing
industry, possesses low-temperature and oxygen-free advantages (Li
et al., 2020). However, due to the high viscosity of juice, the use of single
VD in drying juice is time-consuming and inefficient. Based on the
relevant published literature, VD may be enhanced by using some valid
strengthening techniques based on high energy technology. Among
them, the application of ultrasound has emerged and demonstrated a
promising method due to its high efficiency and flexibility in integration
with other processing techniques (Boger et al., 2018). With these ad­
vantages, ultrasound has been widely used in processing of food mate­
rials such as meat products (Alarcon-Rojo, Carrillo-Lopez,
Reyes-Villagrana, Huerta-Jimenez, & Garcia-Galicia, 2019), fruit bev­
erages and wine (Silva, Arruda, Pastore, Meireles, & Saldana, 2020; Al

* Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Modern Preparation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese
Medicine, Nanchang, 330004, China.
** Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Modern Preparation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese
Medicine, Nanchang, 330004, China.
E-mail addresses: zfwu527@163.com (Z. Wu), 18782008224@163.com (Y. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.110953
Received 26 November 2020; Received in revised form 17 January 2021; Accepted 20 January 2021
Available online 23 January 2021
0023-6438/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Qi et al.
Daccache et al., 2020), and dairy beverages (Monteiro et al., 2020) for
various applications. Ultrasound processing is fundamentally based on
the acoustic cavitation which produces mechanical and thermal effects
in the sonicated medium (Martins Strieder, Neves, Silva, & Meireles,
2020). During the ultrasound-assisted drying, ultrasound waves travel
through the medium and cause a rapid series of compressions and ex­
pansions, which contribute to accelerate the transfer of moisture and
heat. Thus, ultrasound technology allows the development of efficient
processes to shorten drying time and thereby to improve the preserva­
tion of heat-sensitive nutrients (Dujmić et al., 2013). Up to now, ultra­
sound has been applied to dry fruit and vegetables to improve efficiency
and quality of dried products (Souza da Silva et al., 2019; Tekin &
Baslar, 2018). However, the performance information on the application
of ultrasound in drying of juice in liquid state is still limited.
Ultrasound effects are dependent on the frequency, intensity and
treatment time (Liu, Cao, He, Sun, & Chen, 2018). In the drying of fruit
and vegetables, in order to accelerate the drying process by modification
of material structure and physicochemical properties (such as viscosity,
surface tension and adhesion force), a high-intensity ultrasound that ≥
1 W/cm2 (low-frequency that < 100 kHz) is needed (Zhang et al., 2017).
Different from the highly heterogeneous in structure of natural plant
materials, fruit juice is a kind of homogeneous aqueous solution pos­
sessing a soft structure, which allows a low attenuation of ultrasound
and a high ultrasound efficiency (Musielak, Mierzwa, & Kroehnke,
2016). According to Zhang et al. (2017), although the low-intensity
ultrasound is not enough to break down of plant cells, it can produce
cavitation force and localized pressure, which may potentially be
applied to enhance the drying of juice. Moreover, contrary to high in­
tensity ultrasound, the low-intensity ultrasound limits the production of
free radicals and thereby has the positive effect in preserving oxidizable
nutrients. As evidence shows that continuous ultrasound treatment can
produce strong thermal effect and intensify free radical formation to
cause degradation in product quality (Musielak et al., 2016). Therefore,
pulsed ultrasound may be an alternative method to continuous one for
quality retention.
Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) is a popular fruit consumed as food
and medicine source in many countries. It contains high levels of poly­
phenols and flavonoids, both of which are widely present in plant
kingdom, serving as defenders in plants against insects, herbivores and
oxidative damages, and also possess a variety of biological activities as
mentioned earlier (Borkataky, Kakoty, & Saikia, 2013). However, they
are sensitive to thermal treatment and can be easily decomposed during
drying process (Niamnuy, Charoenchaitrakool, Mayachiew, & Deva­
hastin, 2013). Whereas wolfberry fruit contains large amounts of
low-molecular-weight sugars which can cause severe wall deposition in
spray drier (Li, Wu, Wang, Yu, & Yang, 2019; Zhoua, Jia, Fana, Yang, &
Hea, 2017). Thus, it is of a certain significance to develop a novel drying
method to produce dried wolfberry juice with improved production ef­
ficiency and quality retention. As mentioned above, the low-intensity
pulsed ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying (LPUVD) may achieve these
goals. Thus, the objective of the present study is to examine the per­
formance of the LPUVD for drying of wolfberry fruit juice. To this end,
the study investigated the effects of LPUVD in comparison with
continuous ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying (CUVD) by determina­
tion of drying kinetics and product quality attributes including color,
total flavonoid content, total polyphenol content, DPPH radical scav­
enging activity and powder properties. Our previous study showed that
VD at 40, 50 and 60 ◦ C for 24 h failed to dehydrate the juice to a suitable
low moisture content to permit successful grinding the product into
powder particles, so the information on VD of the juice was not pre­
sented in this paper.
2
LWT 141 (2021) 110953
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Fresh wolfberry fruit (Crataegus spp.) was purchased from a com­
mercial farm located in Ningxia, China. After a careful check, the spoiled
ones were discarded and the rest of intact ones were washed and juiced
in a juicer (Z8-V817, Joyoung, Shangdong, China) for 3 times with 10 s
each time, with an interval of 1 min between every two times to prevent
over-heating of the fresh juice. The residues were removed by filtration
through cotton cloth under a reduced pressure of 40 kPa. The obtained
juice (24.6 ± 0.53% solid content) was placed into a conical flask and
vacuum degassed, then refrigerated at 4 ◦ C for 12 h prior to drying. All
chemicals and solvents were of analytical reagent grades and were used
without further purification.
2.2. Drying experiments
LPUVD was performed in the drier as illustrated in Fig. 1. The dryer
was modified from a vacuum dryer (DZF-6050, Shanghai Boxun In­
dustry & Commerce Co., Ltd., China) by hollowing out the center of the
drying tray and then placing a material container with ultrasound
generators (KG-CSB, 600 W, 43 kHz) at the bottom in the hollow place.
Juice of 100 g was placed into the material container (sterilized by steam
autoclaving at 110 ◦ C for 30 min) in thin layer (5.7 × 10− 3 kg/m2).
Drying temperatures used in the experiments were 40, 50 and 60 ◦ C and
the pressure in drying chamber was 100 Pa. The ultrasound power used
was 120 W, and the corresponding ultrasound intensity dissipated in the
juice was calculated as 0.7 W/cm2 according to Huerta, Silva, Ekaette,
El-Bialy, and Saldana (2020) and Silva and Saldaña (2020). An electrical
controller (tpc1061Ti, Shenzhen Kunlun Tongtai Technology Co., Ltd,
China) for the ultrasound system was used and the 10 s: 10 s and 10 s: 90
s pulsed ultrasound treatments, meaning that 50% and 10% net soni­
cation time, were achieved by programming 10 s ultrasound intervals
followed by 10 and 90 s periods without ultrasound irradiation,
respectively.
CUVD was performed in the same dryer of LPUVD. Juice of 100 g was
placed into the material container (sterilized by autoclaving at 105 ◦ C
for 30 min) in thin layer (5.7 × 10− 3 kg/m2). Then, drying experiments
were conducted at different drying temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 ◦ C
with pressure of 100 Pa and ultrasound intensity of 0.7 W/cm2,
respectively.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of ultrasound-assisted vacuum dryer.
Y. Qi et al.
Drying experiments were conducted in triplicate. During the drying
process, the weight of samples was recorded at 30-min intervals ac­
cording to a 0.01 g precision digital balance (Matou YP10002, Shanghai,
China) placed under the drier. Drying was continued until reaching a
moisture content of 5% on dry basis (db). The dried samples were
powdered using a disintegrator (Xingyu XY-200, Zhejiang, China) for 20
s with 10 s intervals to prevent over-heating and then passed through a
0.25-mm mesh sieve (Ejiang, Shanyn, China). The obtained powder
samples were vacuum-packed and refrigerated at 4 ◦ C for 24 h until
analyses.
2.3. Drying kinetics
2.3.1. Moisture ratio
The moisture ratio (MR) of the juice was calculated from the weight
loss data during drying using Eq. (1) (Xie et al., 2018):
Mt
MR =
M0 (1)
where M t is the moisture content at t time of drying (g/g db); Mo is the
initial moisture content (g/g db).
2.3.2. Drying rate
The drying rate (DR) was calculated from the weight loss data during
drying using Eq. (2) (Li et al., 2020):
DR = − dW/dt = (Wt1 − Wt2)/t2 − t1 (2)
where t1 and t2 are the different drying times (min) during drying; Wt1
(g) and Wt2 (g) are the weights of the juice at drying time t1 and t2,
respectively. DR was expressed as the weight losses per 60 min (g/60
min).
2.3.3. Drying kinetics modeling
Drying curves of the juices were fitted with the Page model which is
described in Eq. (3).
MR = exp( − ktn ) (3)
where k is the drying rate constant (min-1); n is the exponent.
The fit quality of the model on experimental data was determined
using the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square
error (RMSE). The closer R2 to 1 and RMSE to 0, the more accurate
model-fitting.
2.4. Color analysis
Color analysis was carried out following the procedure reported by
Li, Wu, Tang, et al. (2019), using a Minolta Colorimeter (CR-400, Min­
olta Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan) equipped with a xenon light source. Briefly,
a reflectance mode and a viewing-angle of 2◦ were used in the tests. The
Hunter L*, a* and b* color parameters were used to describe the color of
the dried juice powders. Total color difference (ΔE) was calculated as Eq.
(4) (Li et al., 2020). Because the water content has a strong influence on
color parameters (Brashlyanova, 2014), the color parameter values of
the fresh and the dried juice with large water content difference are
incomparable. In addition, freeze-drying is a dehydration method that
has a minimal effect on product quality and is well known to produce
high-quality products, and it is frequently used as a benchmark process
to evaluate effects of other drying methods on target quality traits in
dried products (Harguindeguy & Fissore, 2020). Thus, the freeze dried
juice powder was used as the control to assess the color change after
drying. The freeze drying was carried out according to the method re­
ported by Li et al. (2020). The tests were conducted in triplicate.
3
LWT 141 (2021) 110953
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
ΔE = (L0 − L* )2 + (a0 − a* )2 + (b0 − b* )2 (4)
where L0*, a0*, and b0* are the color parameters of the sample obtained
by freeze drying; L*, a*, and b* are the color parameters of the samples
obtained by LPUVD and CUVD.
2.5. Determination of total flavonoid content and total polyphenol content
Total flavonoid content (TFC) was determined according to the
method described by Li et al. (2020). TFC was expressed as mg/g sample
(dry basis) in rutin equivalents/g of (mg RE/g) by comparison with rutin
standard curve. Total polyphenol content (TPC) was determined ac­
cording to the method described by Liu et al. (Liu, Chang, Liu, & Shen,
2016) with some modifications. The Folin-Ciocalteu reagent of 5 mL and
the powder sample of 0.5 g were mixed, and the reaction stopped after
exactly 2 min. Then, 7.5% aqueous Na2CO3 (4 mL) was added into the
mixture, and the resulting solution was homogenized and kept in dark
for 60 min at room temperature. Absorbance was recorded at 765 nm (in
triplicate) using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer (DU 7400; Beckman
Coulter, Inc., CA, USA). A standard curve was built using gallic acid as
the standard (15–150 mg/L). TPC was expressed as mg of gallic acid
equivalent/g of sample in dry basis (mg GAE/g).
2.6. DPPH•-scavenging assay
Antioxidant activity was measured according to the method
described by Li et al. (2020) with some modifications. The methanolic
solution contains 26.94 mg/L of DPPH radical and the methanolic so­
lution contains 10 μg/mL dried juice powders were prepared. The test
sample was prepared by mixing equal volume of these two solutions,
followed by dark incubation at room temperature for 30 min. The
absorbance was recorded using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer (UV-1700,
Shmadzu, Japan) at 516 nm against the blank (0.1 mM ethanolic DPPH
solution). The DPPH•-scavenging activity was calculated from Eq. (4)
and expressed as the percentage of inhibition of the DPPH radical.
IP(%inhibition) = [1 − (A1 − A2] / A3 (5)
where A1, A2 and A3 are the absorbance values of sample, blank and
control group, respectively.
2.7. Powder properties measurement
The particle size and the span of particle size distribution of powder
samples were measured by laser diffraction using the Malvern Master­
sizer 2000 (Malvern Instruments Ltd., Malvern, UK) with powder feeder
unit. Critical relative humidity (CRH), also called the caking point, was
measured as follows: Shaking a powder sample (10 g) on a dish that is in
equilibrium with the desired surrounding relative humidity (RH)
controlled by saturated salt (Table 1), at a temperature of 20 ◦ C, and
observing the behaviour of the sample (Teunou, Fitzpatrick, & Synnott,
1999). If particles of the sample stick together, then the sample is
considered to be a cake. The flowability of the powder samples was
Table 1
Relative humidity of saturated salts used at 20 ◦ C.
Saturated salts RH at 20 ◦ C (%)
P2O5 0
LiCl 12
KC2H3O2 23
MgCl2 33
K2CO3 44
Na2Cr2O7⋅2H2O 55
NaNO2 66
NaCl 76
Y. Qi et al. LWT 141 (2021) 110953

assessed using the angle of repose which was determined by a BT-1000

Powder Integrated Property Tester (Dandong Baite, LiaoNing, China).

2.8. Statistical analysis

All experiments were performed in triplicate, with the data expressed

as mean and standard deviation. The figures were plotted using Origin
Software Version 9.1 (OriginLab Corp., MA, USA). Statistical signifi­
cance was evaluated by ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple-range test (p <
0.05) using SPSS 21.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Drying kinetics

3.1.1. Moisture ratio

Fig. 2 shows the MR of wolfberry fruit juice versus drying time ob­
tained from all investigated drying treatments. It was observed that all
the MR curves dropped rapidly during the initial drying period but they
became gently in continuation of the drying process. The reason is that
the fresh juice contained a large amount of moisture and exhibited a
good flowability (low viscosity), thus allowed a high rate of moisture
diffusion at the initial drying period (Musielak et al., 2016). However, as
drying continued, the moisture content and flowability of juice reduced
gradually (viscosity increases), and thereby reduced the diffusion rate of
moisture from the internal part of the juice to the surface (Gallego-­
Juarez & Riera, 2012) and, consequently, the drying rate decreased.
It was apparent that both the drying temperature and pulsed ultra­
sound ratio affected the drying time. It was found that increasing the
drying temperature from 40 to 60 ◦ C, the required drying time decreased
from 450 to 240 min for CUVD and 480 to 270 min for LPUVD at pulsed
ratio of 10 s: 10 s. However, LPUVD at 40 ◦ C with pulsed ultrasound
ratio of 10 s: 90 s failed to reduce the MR to the target moisture content,
due to the fact that after 690-min drying, the MR was still 11.7% db
while the DR (Fig. 3 c) was approximately 0. This result is due to the low
drying temperature and the short net sonication time failed to provide
enough energy to remove the moisture contained in the juice.
It was also observed that LPUVD increased the drying time in com­
parison to CUVD. However, it is worth noticing that the MR and the DR
curves for juices treated with CUVD and LPUVD at10 s: 10 s pulsed ul­
trasound ratio nearly overlap, regardless of the drying temperature. This
result implies that 50% and 100% net sonication time had a similar ef­
fect on the drying kinetics. Similar result was found in continuous and
intermittent ultrasound-assisted convective drying of apple and red bell
pepper (Schössler, Jäger, & Knorr, 2012). Thus, it can be concluded that
the halved net sonication time caused a reduction in ultrasound effect on
drying kinetics, but a significant enhancement in drying rate was still
provided. Because it is reasonable to assume that energy consumption is
smaller in the case of pulsed ultrasound, the obtained result suggests
that LPUVD at 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultrasound ratio may take energy-saving
and cost-saving advantages over CUVD. However, this changes when the
net sonication time was further reduced to only 10% by applying a
pulsed ultrasound ratio of 10 s: 90 s, as it resulted in a considerable
increase in drying time.
Fig. 2. Drying curves of 60 ◦ C drying (a) and 50 ◦ C drying (b) and 40 ◦ C
3.1.2. Drying rate drying (c).
Fig. 3 illustrates the variation in DR versus drying time obtained for
all investigated drying treatments. It can be seen that all DR curves increased viscosity and declined flowability of sample increased the
consist of an initial rising-rate period, a subsequent continuous-rate resistance of moisture transfer (Karimi, 2010; Yiotis, Tsimpanogiannis,
period and a final falling-rate period. The short rising-rate period Stubos, & Yortsos, 2006). It was also observed that the DR curves of
occurred due to sample warming at the beginning of drying (Chen, Li, & juices treated with continuous ultrasound and 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultra­
Zhu, 2018); the continuous-rate period appeared due to the presence of sound ratio nearly overlap, which is in accordance with the MR curves.
abundant moisture in this stage allowed the moisture in juice to transfer The DR values during the continuous-rate period increased with
from internal to surface at a rate at least equal to the moisture evapo­ increasing drying temperature and net sonication time. According to
rates from the surface (Gonçalves, Brito, & Pel, 2012); the falling-rate Puyate and Lawrence (Puyate & Lawrence, 2006), the DR during
period arose due to the low moisture content, meanwhile, the

4
Y. Qi et al.
Fig. 3. Drying rate curves of 60 ◦ C drying (a) and 50 ◦ C drying (b) and 40 ◦ C
drying (c).
continuous-rate period is controlled by external resistances, thus a
higher drying temperature and more intensive ultrasound treatment led
to the higher DR value in this drying period.
3.1.3. Kinetic modeling of drying process
Page model has been applied to simulate the drying curves of a va­
riety of food undergoing various drying methods (Khampakool,
5
LWT 141 (2021) 110953
Soisungwan, & Park, 2019; Mewa, Okoth, Kunyanga, & Rugiri, 2019).
The values of model parameters are listed in Table 2. For the model
under all the treatments, the R2 values were found over 0.99 and the
RMSD values were found below 0.01, demonstrating accuracy of the
fitting. The drying rate constant k increased regularly with an increase in
temperature and net sonication time. Similar result was reported by
Janjai et al. (Janjai et al., 2011) in the research of hot air drying of litchi
and by Yang et al. (Yang, Li, Tao, Luo, & Yu, 2018) in the research of
ultrasound-assisted heat pump drying of pea seed. The another drying
rate constant n also increased with increasing temperature and net
sonication time. However, this result differs from Yang et al. (2018) who
found that the value of parameter n increased with increasing drying
temperature, but did not show any trend related to the use of ultrasound.
This difference may be attributed to the different drying methods,
different drying parameters and different plant foods with different
structures and textures.
3.2. Color
During thermal process, the color of fruit juice is prone to deteriorate
due to the degradation of pigments and the formation of brown pigments
through non-enzymatic reaction (Maillard reaction) and enzymatic re­
action (Kammoun Bejar, Kechaou, & Boudhrioua Mihoubi, 2011; Yang,
Wu, Ng, & Wang, 2017), resulting in declines of product quality and
consumer acceptance. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the values of color pa­
rameters of dried juice powder were dependent on drying conditions.
Because the juice dried at 40 ◦ C with 10 s: 90 s pulsed ultrasound ratio
failed to reach a suitable low moisture content to permit successful
grinding the product into powder particles, the subsequent quality
analysis of this sample was not carried out. In comparison to the control
group (freeze dried juice), drying caused a significant decline in L* and
b* values and a significant rise in a* value, regardless of drying condi­
tions (p < 0.05), indicating that the color became darker, bluer and
redder after drying.
Under the same drying temperature, the use of pulsed ultrasound
resulted in a smaller change in the values of all color parameters,
demonstrating its advantage in terms of color retention. As mentioned
earlier, this advantage can be attributed to the fact that the pulsation
reduced the net processing time of ultrasound, which limited the pro­
duction of free radicals to cause the color deterioration (Musielak et al.,
2016). However, when subjected to 50 ◦ C drying temperature, 10 s: 10 s
pulsed ultrasound ratio lead to smaller changes in all color parameters
than 10 s: 90 s. This can be explained by the shorter drying time. In
addition, when subjected to 60 ◦ C drying temperature, no significant
difference in values of color parameters was observed between juices
dried at pulsed ultrasound ratios of 10 s: 10 s and 10 s: 90 s (p ≥ 0.05).
This result indicates that LPUVD at 60 ◦ C, the longer drying time caused
by 10 s: 90 s pulsed ultrasound ratio and the longer net sonication time
caused by 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultrasound ratio have similar effect on color
change in the juice.
In the case of the impact of drying temperature on the change of
values of color parameters of the juice, drying at 50 ◦ C resulted in
minimal change, followed by drying at 60 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C. According to
Zhang et al. (2015) and Boger et al. (2018), the lower operating tem­
perature can lead to a higher cavitation strength of sonication and
thereby increase the production of free radicals. It is probably for this
reason, coupled with the longest drying time, drying at 40 ◦ C caused the
maximal change. Drying at 60 ◦ C resulted in greater change than 50 ◦ C
may be due to the higher drying temperature. Overall, for improving
color retention of the fresh juice, the optimal drying conditions are 50 ◦ C
drying temperature and 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultrasound ratio.
3.3. Total polyphenol content and total flavonoid content
The TFC and TPC of the fresh and dried juices produced at different
drying conditions are shown in Fig. 5. The TFC and TPC found in fresh
Y. Qi et al. LWT 141 (2021) 110953

Table 2
The parameters of Page model at different drying conditions.
Drying conditions K (min− 1) n R2 RMSE Particle size (μm) Span Angle of repose (o) CRH (%)

CUVD
40 ◦ C 0.0103 1.482 0.997 0.0073 32.572 ± 0.054 a 1.591 ± 0.079 a 47.5 ± 3.4 a 44
50 C 0.0114 1.493 0.998 0.0062 32.763 ± 0.048 a 1.564 ± 0.052 a 46.8 ± 2.1 a 44
◦

60 C 0.0121 1.506 0.998 0.0087 32.351 ± 0.046 a 1.573 ± 0.067 a 47.9 ± 2.3 a 44
◦

LPUVD
40 ◦ C, 10 s: 10 s 0.0102 1.480 0.999 0.0057 33.014 ± 0.069 a 1.581 ± 0.059 a 46.3 ± 2.6 a 44
50 ◦ C, 10 s: 10 s 0.0074 1.451 0.998 0.0094 32.827 ± 0.047 a 1.570 ± 0.047 a 47.2 ± 3.3 a 44
50 ◦ C, 10 s: 90 s 0.0113 1.488 0.998 0.0082 32.737 ± 0.071 a 1.569 ± 0.064 a 46.6 ± 2.2 a 44
60 ◦ C, 10 s: 10 s 0.0091 1.463 0.999 0.0072 32.506 ± 0.056 a 1.572 ± 0.068 a 47.8 ± 2.9 a 44
60 ◦ C, 10 s: 90 s 0.0120 1.504 0.999 0.0085 32.738 ± 0.070 a 1.586 ± 0.072 a 47.1 ± 2.6 a 44

Fig. 4. Colour parameters of wolfberry fruit juice with different drying con­
ditions. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
juice were 30.63 ± 1.92 mg RE/g db and 81.39 ± 4.71 mg GAE/g db,
respectively. After drying, a significant decrease in both TFC and TPC
was observed (p < 0.05), and the TFC and TPC showed similar change
trends under different drying conditions. Both the highest TFC and TPC
are found in juices dried by LPUVD at 50 ◦ C with 10 s: 10 s and 10 s: 90 s
puled ultrasound.
With regard to the influence of pulsed ultrasound on TFC and TPC, it
was found that the use of pulsed ultrasound significantly decreased the
reduction of both TFC and TPC when drying at 40 and 50 ◦ C (p < 0.05),
in comparison to the use of continuous ultrasound. This may be attrib­
uted to that decreasing the net sonication time reduced the production of
free radicals (Zhang et al., 2015), and thus decreased the radical
oxidation of polyphenols and flavonoids. However, the net sonication
time had no significant influence on TFC and TPC when juices were
dried at 60 ◦ C (p ≥ 0.05). This indicates that the drying temperature is
the dominant factor affecting the TFC and TPC in drying of wolfberry
fruit juice at the relatively high drying temperature of 60 ◦ C. Also, this
result fundamentally suggests that using the relatively high drying
temperature can increase the attenuation of ultrasonic wave to mitigate
the adverse effect of ultrasound on TFC and TPC. In addition, it was
observed that under the same drying temperature, the application of 10
s: 10 s and 10 s: 90 s pulsed ultrasound ratio did not result in significant
difference in TFC and TPC (p ≥ 0.05). This implies that the TFC and TPC
in the dried juice are comprehensively affected by the net sonication

Fig. 5. Total flavonoid content (TFC), total polyphenol content (TPC) and DPPH•-scavenging activity of wolfberry fruit juice with different drying conditions.

6
Y. Qi et al.
time and the drying time.
In the case of the impact of drying temperature on TFC and TFC in the
juice, 50 ◦ C drying temperature gave both the highest TFC and TFC,
whereas 40 ◦ C gave both the lowest of them. As mentioned earlier, a low
operating temperature treatment can lead to an increase of cavitation
strength of sonication and production of free radicals, which can
aggravate the free radical oxidation of polyphenols and flavonoids. It is
probably for this reason, coupled with the longest drying time, drying at
40 ◦ C resulted in the lowest TFC and TPC. However, drying at 60 ◦ C
resulted in lower TFC and TPC than drying at 50 ◦ C, which can be
explained by the higher drying temperature.
3.4. DPPH radical scavenging activity
The DPPH radical scavenging activities of the fresh juice and dried
juice powders produced at different drying conditions are shown in
Fig. 5. After drying, a significant decrease in DPPH radical scavenging
activity was observed. It was found that the change trend of DPPH
radical scavenging activity in samples followed that of TPC and TFC.
Thus, it can be concluded that the polyphenols and flavonoids should be
important antioxidants in the fresh juice and dried juice powders.
Among the dried juices, the highest DPPH radical scavenging ratio was
noted in samples dried at 50 ◦ C with 10 s: 10 s and 10 s: 90 s pulsed
ultrasound, without significant difference (p ≥ 0.05). This indicates that
a relatively low drying temperature and short drying time are beneficial
to improve the antioxidant activity retention of the juice, and also,
increasing the net sonication time from 10% to 50% was not enough to
reduce this retention.
3.5. Powder properties
In the case of food powders, the particle size and its distribution are
basic and important physical properties in terms of affecting the appli­
cation performance, such as flowability and hygroscopicity (Li et al.,
2017). The sample powder in this paper was obtained by a grinding
process which can determine the size of the powder particle and further
affect its application performance. Thus, in order to eliminate the in­
fluence of grinding process and facilitate analyze the influence of drying
process on powder flowability and hygroscopicity, the same grinding
process parameters were applied to each sample obtained from different
drying process to ensure the same particle size of the powder as possible.
As expected, the values of the particle size and its distribution found for
the samples were very similar (Table 2), without significant difference
(p ≥ 0.05). In this study, the angle of repose was employed to charac­
terize the flowability and the CRH was employed to characterize the
hygroscopicity of the powder. A smaller repose angle indicates a better
flowability, a lower CRH indicates a higher hygroscopicity and a lower
environment humidity should to be controlled during preservation and
processing of the powder. From the results (Table 2), it was found that
the drying process had no significant influence on powder flowability
and CRH. In addition, the values of the repose angle of powder samples
were all above 45◦ , indicating poor flowability (Zhang, Xu, & Li, 2009).
4. Conclusions
Ultrasound has been successfully employed to dry various natural
plant materials including fruit and vegetables for achieving increased
drying rate and improved product quality. However, reports on the
application of ultrasound to the drying of juice in liquid state are very
rare. According to the results of this study, LPUVD increased the quality
retention of fresh wolfberry fruit juice, and 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultrasound
ratio caused only 30 min longer than CUVD in drying time. Compre­
hensive consideration of quality retention and drying time saving, the
optimal drying conditions of LPUVD with 0.7 W/cm2 ultrasound in­
tensity was 50 ◦ C drying temperature and 10 s: 10 s pulsed ultrasound
ratio. Overall, LPUVD possesses high potential for producing the dried
7
LWT 141 (2021) 110953
juice products.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yaru Qi: Investigation, Writing - original draft. Fen Yu: Writing -
original draft. Xuecheng Wang: Software. Na Wan: Validation. Ming
Yang: Supervision. Zhenfeng Wu: Supervision. Yuanhui Li: Concep­
tualization, Methodology, Reviewing and Editing, Writing - review &
editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (81903929, 81960718), China; the Natural Science Foundation
of Jiangxi Province (20171BAB215065), China.
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