PAPER TITLE :COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF OVEN AND SUN DRYING METHODS ON THE PROXIMATE AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF PLANTAIN (MUSA PARASIDIACA) FLOUR

FUTA JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE | VOLUME 13 NUMBER 3 2017

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : *Otutu, O.L., Oyedele, D.S., Adepeju, A.B. and Maha, A. A.
  • Abstract:

ABSTRACT
Drying is the most energy consuming process in all processes on the farm and is essentially important for preservation of agricultural crops for future use. This study investigated the effect of drying methods on the chemical, physical (bulk and tap density), functional (water absorption, oil absorption and hydration capacities) and pasting properties of plantain flour. Plantain was dried at different temperatures (sun-drying, 60?C, 70?C, 80?C) and thickness and the dried plantain chips were made into flour. Statistically significant difference in all the data were determined by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) while Least Significant Difference (LSD) were used to separate the means. The proximate composition of the plantain flour ranged from 1.54 – 3.27%, 4.75 – 12.80%, 8.88 – 9.45%, 4.60 – 6.95%, 0.98 – 1.67% and 68.95 – 79.33 % for ash, moisture, protein, fat, fibre and carbohydrate respectively. The values for the bulk density tap density and flowability of sun and oven dried plantain flour ranged from (0.46 – 0.56) g/ml, (0.62 – 0.69) g/ml and (18.65 - 25.89) respectively. The water absorption, oil absorption and hydration capacities varied from (19.17 – 44.83), (28.33 – 32.50) and (2.47 – 25.64) % respectively. The peak viscosity (-2.52 - 4.38RVU), trough (-3.862 – 7.063 RVU), breakdown (2.02 – 3.08 RVU), final viscosity (2.38 – 4.49 RVU), setback (1.51 – 2.94 RVU) and peak time (1.65 – 4.15 min) varied with drying methods and thickness. Oven dried plantain flour samples generally have desirable functional and pasting properties.
Keywords: Evaluation, Oven, Sundrying, Functional properties, Plantain flour,