Journal of Food Processing and Preservation ISSN 1745-4549

MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND QUALITY PARAMETERS OF

AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAF (PIPER BETLE L.) jfpp_480 394..401

KALPANA RAYAGURU1,3, WINNY ROUTRAY2 and S.N. MOHANTY1

1
Department of Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Orissa University of Agriculture and
Technology, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 751003, India
2
Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur W.B. 721302, India

3
Corresponding author. TEL: 91-9437631812;
FAX: 91674-2564774;
EMAIL: rayagurukalpana@yahoo.com
Accepted for Publication December 4, 2009
doi:10.1111/j.1745-4549.2010.00480.x
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of temperature on hot-air drying
kinetics of betel leaves (Piper betle L.).The leaves were dried at 40, 50 and 60C air
temperatures in a convective dryer and also under sun and shade to compare the
quality parameters. In order to estimate and select the appropriate drying model, five
well-known semi-empirical models were applied to the experimental data and com-
pared. The effects of the drying conditions on the biochemical qualities, surface
color and the amount of essential oil of the betel leaves were evaluated. Among all the
drying models, the Page model was found to satisfactorily describe the kinetics of
convection drying of betel leaves. The effective moisture diffusivity values ranged
from 2.43E-09 to 3.41E-09 m2/min. No significant loss of quality was observed at
40C and may be recommended as a controlled method of drying.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The betel leaves are rich nutritionally as well as medicinally. Due to low keeping
quality, betel leaves worth million of rupees go as waste every year. During rainy
season, the leaf production is so high that the leaves remain unsold or sold at throw-
away price. Therefore, manufacturing of essential oil, pan masala, talc, medicinal
compounds, perfumes, beverages and food additives may be useful in utilizing the
crop year round. Dehydration is an essential method of processing betel leaf to avoid
spoilage and the leaves can be further used for value addition. Standardization of
drying parameters has potential application at the level of processors engaged in
pharmaceutical as well as food industries.

the presence of essential oil (0.7–2.6%). Furthermore, the

INTRODUCTION
Betel vine (Piper betle L.) is a perennial, dioecious evergreen
creeper grown in moist, tropical and subtropical region. It is
cultivated either under forest ecosystem with support or in
artificially created shaded condition. Betel leaf is an aromatic
leaf belonging to the Piperaceae family widely used as a mas-
ticatory. It is rich nutritionally as well as medicinally. It is sup-
posed to be a tonic for both the heart and the brain. The leaves
are aromatic, stimulant and carminative, antiseptic and
expectorant. Its chlorophyll is beneficial to the teeth. It clears
the mouth and throat and helps in digestion by encouraging
salivation and neutralizing excess acid by the lime taken with
it (The Wealth of Anon 1962). The flavor of the leaf is due to
herbal source is used widely as traditional medicine in differ-
ent countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thai-
land, China and many other western countries.
The betel leaves are perishable in nature, yet have a good
market value both inside and outside India. Due to low
keeping quality and faulty transportation system, betel
leaves worth millions of rupees go as waste every year. Apart
from this, during rainy season, the leaf production is so high
that the leaves remain unsold or sold at throwaway price.
Therefore, manufacturing of essential oil, pan masala, talc,
medicinal compounds, perfumes, beverages and food
additives may be useful in stabilizing the market price of
the crop year round. This calls for the attention of the

394 Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY
researchers for development of value-added products (Ray-
aguru et al. 2007).
The literature indicates that once the matured leaves are
harvested, deteriorative changes occur resulting in senes-
cence. The shelf life of the leaves in fresh form may be
enhanced for a very few days only by employing suitable treat-
ment and packaging methods (Venkatrao and Narasimhan
1977; Rayaguru et al. 2008). Thus, proper utilization of this
potential crop is handicapped by this constraint. So far, no
systematic effort has been made to improve the processing
and preservation of this potential cash crop. Scientific study
on optimization of all the above said parameters will no
doubt lead to the minimization of loss. Dehydration is an
essential method of processing betel leaf that can avoid spoil-
age. Standardization of drying parameters is vital for produc-
ing quality leaves which can be further used for value addition
and can be traded internationally. Thus, controlled and
appropriate drying of the leaves appears to be the only alter-
native measure for preserving the nutritional as well as
medicinal qualities of the leaves. The drying behaviors of dif-
ferent aromatic plants and culinary herbs have been studied
by many investigators, parsley (Akpinar et al. 2006), laurel
(Yagcioglu et al. 1999), bay leaves (Demir et al. 2004), mint
(Doymaz 2006), apple slices (Sacilik and Elicin 2006), aloe
vera (Simal et al. 2000) and black tea (Panchariya et al. 2002).
However, studies on the drying characteristics of betel leaves
are scarce in the literature, particularly the drying kinetics.
This study presents hot-air convective drying kinetics of
betel leaves dried at different temperatures. An attempt has
been made to examine the quality characteristics of dried betel
leaves using different drying methods which in turn will enable
the traders to go for preparation of different value-added
products. It includes a comparative evaluation of the effect of
drying air temperature on the surface color of the dried leaves.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fresh, healthy, green and matured betel leaves were collected
in bulk and washed thrice thoroughly in clean water to remove
the dirt and dust present. Then, petioles were removed. The
depetioled leaves were subjected to the drying experiments.
For the shade drying, fresh leaves were spread uniformly on a
concrete floor area of 2 m2 inside a room for more than 2 days.
TABLE 1. MATHEMATICAL MODELS WIDELY USED TO DESCRIBE THE DRYING KINETICS
Name of the model Equation
Lewis MR = exp(-kt)
Page MR = exp(-ktn)
Modified Page MR = exp[-(kt)n]
Henderson and Pabis MR = a exp(-kt)
Logarithmic MR = a exp(-kt) + c
Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES
The temperature varied from 25 to 32C during the period of
study. For the sun drying and hot-air drying, the fresh leaves
were spread in single layer on the stainless steel trays
(81 ¥ 40 ¥ 2.5 cm). In case of the sun drying, leaves were
exposed to sunlight from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The temperature
range was 28 to 38C and relative humidity varied from average
minimum of 68% to average maximum of 85%. For hot-air
convective drying, the leaves were dried in a cross-flow tray
dryer at three different temperatures of 40, 50 and 60C. After
attaining desired drying air temperature, samples of about
200 g were loaded onto the drying trays in single layer. The
stainless steel tray was removed from the dryer and weighed
regularly at 30-min intervals. The initial moisture content of
fresh leaves and the final moisture content of dried sample
were determined by hot-air oven method. Three 30-g leaf
samples were dried in an oven at 105C for 24 h to determine
initial moisture content. All the experiments were carried out
at 1.1 m/s air velocity. The drying tests were terminated when
the weights of the samples were stabilized, which was assumed
to be the stage of dynamic equilibrium.
Drying Analysis and Evaluation of Thin-Layer
Drying Models
Based on the initial moisture content from oven drying, the
weight loss was used to calculate the moisture content. The
drying characteristic curves were plotted after analyzing the
experimental data. The moisture content was converted to
moisture ratio (MR) using the following equation:
MR = ( M t − M e ) ( M 0 − M e ) (1)
where M, M0, Me, Mt are the moisture content (kg water/kg
dry matter) at a given time, beginning of the drying, when the
equilibrium is reached and at time t (min), respectively.
In order to estimate and select the appropriate drying
model among different semitheoretical and/or empirical
models, mathematical modeling was carried out to describe
the drying curve equation of betel leaves and to determine the
parameters of the thin-layer drying models by fitting experi-
mental data to the model equation. The thin-layer drying
equations mentioned in Table 1 were tested to select the best
model. The nonlinear regression analysis was performed
using the Curve expert 3.1 program and Microsoft office 2007
References
Yaldiz and Ertekin 2001; Kabganian et al. 2002; Krokida et al. 2002
Tulasidas et al. 1993; Cronin and Kearney 1998; Yaldiz and Ertekin 2001; Gupta et al. 2002;
Kabganian et al. 2002; Midilli et al. 2002
Yaldiz and Ertekin 2001; Midilli et al. 2002
Kabganian et al. 2002
Yagcioglu et al. 1999; Togrul and Pehlivan 2002
395
MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES
Excel. Although the coefficient of determination (R2) was one
of the primary criterions for selecting the best model to
describe thin-layer drying curves of leaves, there are some sta-
tistical test methods such as the reduced chi-square (c2), root
mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias error (MBE) as
described by Eqs. (2)–(5), those were also used to evaluate the
goodness of fit of the models. The lower c2 and RMSE values
and the higher R2 values, were chosen as the basis for goodness
of fit (Yaldiz and Ertekin 2001; Midilli and Kucuk 2003;
Akpinar et al. 2003a,b, 2006; Demir et al. 2004).
∑ ( MR − MR ) ⋅∑ ( MR − MR )
n n
i =1
i pre ,i
i =1
R2 =
⎡ ∑ ( MR − MR ) ⎤ ⋅ ⎡ ∑ ( MR − MR ) ⎤
n 2
⎣ i =1 ⎦ ⎣i
⎦
pre ,i
∑ ( MR − MRpre ,i )
n 2
exp,i
χ2 = i =1
N −n
1 N
MBE = ∑ ( MRpre,i − MRexp,i )
N i =1
⎡1 N 2⎤
RMSE = ⎢ ∑ ( MRpre,i − MRexp,i ) ⎥
⎣ N i =1 ⎦ Spice Trade Association (ASTA 1997). For distillation, 40 g of
where MRexp,i is the ith experimentally observed MR, MRpre,i is
the ith predicted MR, N is the number of observations and n is
the number constants. The drying curve for each experiment
was obtained by plotting the dimensionless MR of the sample
versus the drying time. Modeling the drying behavior of dif-
ferent agricultural products often requires the statistical
methods of regression and correlation analysis. Linear and
nonlinear regression models are important tools to find the
relationship between different variables, especially, for which
no established empirical relationship exists. In this study, the
relationships of the constants of the best suitable model with
the drying temperature were also determined by multiple
regression technique.
Calculation of Moisture Diffusivity
Fick’s diffusion equation for particles with slab geometry was
used for calculation of effective moisture diffusivity by
method of slopes.Since the betel leaves are having a flat surface
geometry and. in this case, the average thickness of the leaves
was 0.5 mm, the samples were considered of slab geometry.
The equation expressed as (Lopez et al. 2000)
8 ⎛ − π 2 Deff t ⎞
MR = 2 exp ⎜
⎝ 4 L2 ⎠⎟
π
where MR is the dimensionless moisture ratio, Deff is the effec-
tive moisture diffusivity in m2/min, t is the time of drying in
minutes and L is the slab thickness in meters.
396
K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY
For the calculation of the effective moisture diffusivity at
the different temperature conditions, the slope (ko) was calcu-
lated by plotting ln (MR) versus time according to Eq. (7).
π 2 Deff
ko = (7)
4 L2
Analysis of Different Quality Parameters
The fresh and dried samples of leaves obtained from the
above mentioned set of tests were analyzed for different
i exp,i quality parameters. The biochemical quality parameters such
n 2 as pH, total sugar, chlorophyll and ascorbic acid content of
i =1
i exp,i
the dehydrated leaves were determined using standard
(2) experimental procedures (AOAC 1995; Thimmaiah 1999).
The pH was measured using a digital pH meter (model No
L1120, ELICO, India). Total sugar was estimated by phenol-
(3)
sulfuric acid method. The ascorbic acid was measured by 2,6
dichlorophenol-indophenol dye reduction method (colori-
(4) metric) and acidity was estimated by titration method. The
amount of essential oil of fresh and dried betel leaves was
12
determined by using a Clevenger distillation apparatus sug-
(5) gested by the Official Analytical Methods of the American
dried and 80 g of fresh leaves were used and the results were
expressed as the volume of oil per unit weight of dried leaves.
Distillation process was carried out in triplicate for each test.
Data were converted to moisture free basis before compari-
son. The surface color analysis of the fresh and dried leaves
was made by using a HunterLab colorimeter to determine
color coordinates (L*, a* and b* values). The L* value is the
degree of lightness/darkness, a* value is the degree of redness/
greenness and b* value is the degree of yellowness/blueness.
The color change of betel leaf samples affected by drying air
temperature was characterized by the total color change
(DE*), which was calculated by Eq. (8).
12
( ΔE *) = ⎡⎣( ΔL*)2 + ( Δa*)2 + ( Δb*)2 ⎤⎦ (8)
where DL* = L0* - L*, Da* = a0* - a*, Db* = b0* - b*.
The L*, a* and b* values correspond to the values of betel
leaf samples at different drying temperature, whereas the
values of L0*, a0* and b0* are related to the fresh leaves.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 represents the variations of moisture content with
drying time for hot-air convective drying of leaves at 40, 50
(6) and 60C. Final drying levels were realized in 180–420 min,
while in case of sun drying and shade drying, the time taken to
attain final drying level was 510 and 3,120 min, respectively.
The figure clearly indicated that with the increase in the
drying air temperature, the moisture content reduced at a
Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES

FIG. 1. VARIATION OF MOISTURE CONTENT (DRY BASIS) WITH DRYING FIG. 2. VARIATION OF DRYING RATE WITH AVERAGE MOISTURE
TIME OF BETEL LEAVES DRIED BY CONVECTIVE DRYING AT DIFFERENT CONTENT OF BETEL LEAVES DRIED BY CONVECTIVE DRYING AT
TEMPERATURES DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES

much higher rate. The drying rates defined as the quantity of
water removed per unit time versus average moisture content
are shown in Fig. 2. It is apparent that drying rate decreased
continuously with moisture content. However, the experi-
mental results for the convective drying showed that the
drying air temperature had a significant effect on the mois-
ture content. There was no constant-rate drying period in
these curves and all the drying operations were found to
occur in the falling rate period. These results are in agreement
with the earlier observations (Togrul and Pehlivan 2003). As
can be seen in this figure, it is also obvious that air tempera-
ture is the most important factor affecting the drying rate.
Similar results were reported by Doymaz (2006).
In order to normalize the drying curves, the data involving
dry basis moisture content versus time were transformed to a
dimensionless parameter called as MR versus time (Fig. 3). As
discussed in the previous section, the moisture content data at
the different experimental run were converted to the most
useful MR expression and then curve fitting computation with
the drying time was carried out on five drying models evalu-
ated by the previous workers (Table 1).The results of statistical
analyses undertaken on these models for convective drying are
given in Table 2.The models were evaluated based on R2,c2 and
RMSE (Ertekin and Yaldiz 2004; Günhan et al. 2005). These
curve fitting criteria for the temperatures were shown in
Table 2. For the convective drying of betel leaves, the Page and

TABLE 2. MODELING OF MOISTURE RATIO WITH DRYING TIME DURING CONVECTIVE DRYING OF BETEL LEAVES AT 40, 50 AND 60C

Model Temperature (C) R2 c2 RMSE MBE

Lewis 40 0.9996 4.32072E-05 0.0064 -0.0013
50 0.9912 0.00088 0.0285 0.0046
60 0.9929 0.00085 0.0275 0.0086
Page 40 0.9997 3.93827E-05 0.0059 -0.0016
50 0.9985 0.00017 0.0120 -0.0011
60 0.9963 0.00051 0.0199 0.0033
Modified Page 40 0.9997 3.93827E-05 0.0059 -0.0016
50 0.9985 0.00017 0.0120 -0.0011
60 0.9963 0.00051 0.0199 0.0033
Henderson and Pabis 40 0.9996 4.24727E-05 0.0061 -0.0009
50 0.9925 0.00082 0.0263 0.0065
60 0.9932 0.00093 0.0269 0.0099
Logarithmic 40 0.9996 4.25676E-05 0.0059 1.1990E-11
50 0.9935 0.00078 0.0246 -1.4998E-07
60 0.9957 0.00069 0.0214 -2.1466E-08

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 397
MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY

TABLE 3. COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT DRYING MODELS WITH

DRYING COEFFICIENTS (CONSTANTS) AT DIFFERENT DRYING
TEMPERATURES

Model Temperature (C) Model constants

Lewis 40 k = 0.0152
50 k = 0.0327
60 k = 0.0397
Page 40 k = 0.0163; n = 0.9829
50 k = 0.0639; n = 0.8071
60 k = 0.0628; n = 0.8580
Modified Page 40 k = 0.0152; n = 0.9829
50 k = 0.0331; n = 0.8071
60 k = 0.0397; n = 0.8581
Henderson 40 a = 0.9946; k = 0.0151
and Pabis 50 a = 0.9639; k = 0.0311
60 a = 0.9847; k = 0.0389
Logarithmic 40 a = 0.9962; k = 0.0150; c = -0.0026
FIG. 3. VARIATION OF MOISTURE RATIO WITH DRYING TIME OF BETEL 50 a = 0.9561; k = 0.0326; c = 0.0134
LEAVES DRIED BY CONVECTIVE DRYING AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES 60 a = 0.9667; k = 0.0422; c = 0.0264

modified Page models were found to be the best descriptive found to be 0.999. So, it was concluded that the corresponding
model. Generally, R2 varied between 0.9996 and 0.9997 for polynomial equations could be used to indicate the effect of
40C, between 0.9912 and 0.9985 for 50C and between 0.9929 drying air temperature on the constants k and n.The values of k
and 0.9963 for 60C.From Table 2,it was determined that for all and n could be calculated at any particular temperature using
the three drying air temperatures, the R2 value was highest and these equations, and in turn, MRs can also be estimated.
c2 and RMSE values were lowest for Page model and modified So based on the analysis mentioned above, the accepted
Page model. Hence, Page and modified Page models could give Page model constants and coefficients were expressed in
better prediction than other models and satisfactorily terms of the drying air temperature (x) as
described drying characteristics of betel leaves at all the three
temperatures under experiment. Although both these models k = −0.000 x 2 + 0.026 x − 0.660 (at R 2 = 0.999)
could predict satisfactorily, looking at the simplicity of the
equation, it is recommended to consider the Page model as the n = 0.001x 2 − 0.119 x + 3.952 (at R 2 = 0.999)
best fit model for the present work. The coefficients of the dif-
ferent models fitted at the different temperatures are reported
in Table 3. The accuracy of the established model for the con-
vective drying process was evaluated by comparing the pre-
dicted MR with the observed MR. The performance of the
model for all the drying temperatures has been illustrated in
Fig. 4. The predicted data generally banded around the
straight line which showed the suitability of the Page model in
describing the drying behavior of betel leaves in convective
drying.This is in line with the use of Page’s model for drying of
green bean (Doymaz 2005), kiwi fruits (Simal et al. 2005) and
cooked soybean (Gowen et al. 2008).
The fitting procedure showed that the results of the Page
model could be used to predict the drying behavior of betel
leaves at these three drying temperatures only, but these did
not indicate the effect of drying air temperature.To account for
the effect of the drying air temperature on the constant k and n
of Page model, these constants were regressed with respect to
drying air temperature. The second-order polynomial equa- FIG. 4. COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL AND PREDICTED MOISTURE
tions were found to be best fitted, for which the R2 value was RATIO BY PAGE MODEL

398 Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES

TABLE 4. VALUES OF EFFECTIVE MOISTURE DIFFUSIVITY OBTAINED the compounds taking place at higher temperature. The
FOR BETEL LEAVES AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES ascorbic acid content, an index of vitamin C of the dried
Drying Effective moisture diffusivity leaves, was found to be reduced irrespective of the drying
temperature (C) (Deff) (m2/ min) method. The reduction ranged between 10 and 20% for all the
40 2.43E-09 cases. From an initial value of 551.6 g/100 g dry matter, it
50 3.31E-09 reduced to the lowest value of 401.22 g/100 g dry matter in
60 3.41E-09 case of drying at 60C. Thus, it may be inferred that at higher
temperature, there is a possibility of loss of ascorbic acid. In
the present case, shade drying preserved maximum ascorbic
acid. Loss of chlorophyll was observed to be minimum in
Values for Deff for different temperatures are presented in shade-dried leaves (10–15%). The loss of chlorophyll during
Table 4. Effective moisture diffusivity values ranged from sun drying was due to the well-known fact of the instability of
2.43E-09 at 40C to 3.41E-09 m2/min at 60C. It can be seen that chlorophyll under sunlight. Loss of chlorophyll was more
the values of Deff increased greatly with increasing tempera- than 50%, when leaves were dried in the dryer. This might be
ture. Similar variations were also observed during drying of due to the sensitivity of chlorophyll toward heat. These results
black tea (Panchariya et al. 2002) and aloe (Simal et al. 2000). are in accordance with the findings of Ramana et al. (1988)
For the hot-air drying, the effective moisture diffusivity was who studied the effect of drying on color of green, leafy veg-
greatly improved when air temperature was increased from 40 etables. All the dehydrated leaves suffered loss in their essen-
to 50C than from 50 to 60C. The effective moisture diffusivity tial oils which are presented in Table 5. The essential oil
during the hot-air drying at 60C from the present study was content in the fresh leaves was 9.52% on dry basis. Its reten-
little higher than the effective moisture diffusivity reported in a tion was best in shade-dried samples followed by sun drying
previous study where experiments were conducted on mint and drying air temperature at 40C. The loss of volatile oil was
leaves (Therdthai and Zhou 2009). found to be increased with increase in drying air temperature.
The results confirm the findings of Venskutonis (1997).
However, the statistical analysis indicated no significant dif-
Effect of the Drying Air Temperature on the
ferences in the biochemical qualities among the drying condi-
Quality Parameters
tions at 95% probability level, except those at drying air
The relative change in the values of biochemical parameters temperature of 50 and 60C.
(moisture free basis) of the betel leaves after drying by differ-
ent methods can be observed in Table 5. The pH value of the
Effects of Drying Methods on the Color of
fresh betel leaves was found to be 5.08 that falls in the acidic
Betel Leaves
range. It was observed that there was a negligible variation in
pH value of the dried betel leaves. It was also observed that Mean surface color values of betel leaves dried under the dif-
there was decrease in the pH with the increase in the drying ferent drying conditions and fresh are shown in Table 6. From
air temperature. The total sugar content changed from an the point of view of color coordinates L*, a* and b*, whiteness
initial value 6.02 g/100 g dry matter to a range of 5.92 g/100 g or brightness/darkness value, L*, and the value for yellowness
to 6.31 g/100 g depending on the drying method. These (b*) of the fresh betel leaves were not significantly different
changes may be explained on the basis of some conversions of from the values of shade-dried leaves. On the other hand, the
value for greenness (a*) of the fresh leaves differed signifi-
cantly from the values for shade-dried leaves. Nevertheless, all
TABLE 5. COMPARISON OF THE DIFFERENT QUALITY PARAMETERS
the coordinates L*, a* and b*, values of the fresh leaves, dif-
(DRY BASIS) OF THE FRESH AND DRIED LEAVES USING DIFFERENT
DRYING METHODS
fered significantly from the values obtained from convective
and sun-dried leaves (P < 0.05). These results are in close
Dried leaves
agreement with the findings of Demir et al. (2004) for parsley.
Hot-air dried Application of drying increased the rate of color deteriora-
Quality Fresh Sun Shade
parameters leaves 40C 50C 60C dried dried tion. (-)a* values of fresh leaves indicated the greenness.
pH 5.08a 4.98a 5.11a 5.16a 5.00a 4.88a
(+)a* values in results showed that the drying produced more
Total sugar 6.02a 6.12a 6.26a 6.31a 5.92a 6.10a brown product. The increase in (+)a* values with drying tem-
Ascorbic acid 551.6a 470.9b 446.9c 401.2d 472.5b 496.8b perature supports this result. The degree of color change was
Chlorophyll 5.69a 2.90b 2.20b 1.60b 2.56b 5.22a dependent on drying temperature and method. Rudra et al.
Volatile oil 9.52a 6.22b 3.48c 2.12c 5.68b 8.78a (2008) opined that high temperature could lead to the
Values with the same letter in a same row are not significantly different at replacement of magnesium in the chlorophyll by hydrogen,
a probability, P < 0.05. thereby converting chlorophylls to pheophytins.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 35 (2011) 394–401 © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 399
MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AIR-DRIED BETEL LEAVES K. RAYAGURU, W. ROUTRAY and S.N. MOHANTY

TABLE 6. EFFECT OF DRYING AIR TEMPERATURE AND METHOD ON SURFACE COLOR VALUE OF BETEL LEAVES

L a b DL2 Da2 Db2 DE2 DE

a a a
Fresh 40.81 -8.54 20.3 0 0 0 0 0
40 34.46b 1.65b 16.92b 40.32 103.84 11.42 155.58 12.47b
50 29.65c 2.72c 15.88b 124.55 126.79 19.54 270.87 16.46c
60 26.82c 3.44c 15.42b 201.36 143.52 23.81 368.69 19.20d
Sun 32.53b 1.98b 16.63b 68.56 110.67 13.47 192.70 13.88b
Shade 38.21a -0.88b 18.65a 6.76 58.68 2.72 68.16 8.26a

Values with the same letter in a same column are not significantly different at a probability, P < 0.05.

The statistical analysis of DE values of dried leaves indi-
cated that this is lowest for shade-dried leaves and were sig-
nificantly (P < 0.05) different as compared to those dried
under the sun and convective drying. However, the differ-
ences between the leaves dried under the sun and dried at 40C
were not significant (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
The following conclusions were drawn from this study.
(1) Predictions by the Page model are in good agreement
with the data obtained from the convective drying experi-
ment. The relationship between the drying rate constant and
drying air temperature was established to be a polynomial
relationship. Effective moisture diffusivity values ranged
from 2.43E-09 at 40C to 3.41E-09 m2/min at 60C.
(2) Overall analysis of the drying behavior and quality char-
acteristics of dried leaves suggested that although in shade
drying maximum nutrient preservation could be possible, it
took a quite long period to be dried. Furthermore, the tradi-
tional method of shade and sun drying are weather depen-
dent and are most unhygienic, because of which, they are
highly prone to microbial contamination. On the other hand,
drying the leaves at 40C is a quicker controlled method and it
also preserved a considerable amount of nutritional as well as
volatile components. Hot-air drying above 50C could not
preserve most of the essential components and hence is not
recommended.
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