Modeling drying characteristics of teasel gourd: Effects of temperature on moisture diffusion and powder properties
1Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu-638401, India. 2Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, PEI, Canada. 3 Department of Food Technology, Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. 4Department of Food Technology, Nehru Institute of Technology, Kaliyapuram, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Corresponding e-mail:vchella@gmail.com; chelladurai@bitsathy.ac.in
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2025.v27i04.129
Teasel gourd is one of the major crops in the bitter gourd family, and studying its drying characteristics might help develop equipment and processes for making value-added and pharmaceutical products. A study was conducted to determine the drying characteristics of teasel gourd and the physical characteristics of powder produced from teasel gourd. Sliced teasel gourd samples were placed in a tray dryer. A drying study was conducted at 40, 50, and 60 ºC, and drying kinetics were plotted. To describe the drying behaviour of teasel gourd, five thin-layer drying models were fitted to the experimental data. The findings illustrated that water activity and angle of repose decreased with increasing temperature, while drying rate, moisture diffusion, and moisture ratio increased. The results demonstrated that the powder produced at each drying temperature had good flowability and low cohesiveness. Among the most common drying models, the Logarithmic model effectively described the sliced teasel gourd drying process, with R2 values of 0.999, 0.997, and 0.995 at 40, 50, and 60 ºC, respectively. The powder’s strong flow qualities can be utilized to make capsules, while teasel gourd slices can be served as chips.
