Pretreated Indian Gooseberry (Emblica officinalis) Segments: Kinetic, Quality and Microstructural Parameters

This study examines the effect of different drying methods on the drying kinetics, quality characteristics and microstructure of pretreated Indian gooseberry segments. The time needed to dry segments was 260, 290, 525 and 690 min in vacuum, tray, sun and freeze-drying methods, respectively. The dried samples showed a decline in the ascorbic acid content in contrast with both fresh and pretreated samples, and maximum loss was observed in tray-dried sample. The dried samples showed a decrease of 5.54–19.88% and 2.89–12.81% in the total phenolic and naringin content in different drying methods. LC–ESI–MS analyses revealed that ascorbic acid, chlorogenic acid, vanillic acid, gallic acid, syringic acid, myricetin, kaempferol, naringin, corilagin and ellagic acid were the major compounds present in the fruit extract. SEM analysis revealed that the freeze-dried sample had porous, non-shrunken and regular cell structure with several cavities. Freeze-dried sample was observed the best followed by vacuum drying with respect to all quality parameters. © 2021, The Institution of Engineers (India).