Effect of Some Different Drying Methods on the Chemical Analysis of Citrus By-Products

This study is aimed at determined the effect of some different drying methods (microwave, solar and oven drying) on the chemical analysis of selected citrus by-products was assessed by proximate and minerals analysis. From analyze the proximate analysis, the results proved that there are significant differences (P<0.05) between the moisture content in the samples dried using different drying methods. Consequences to the chemical composition of the samples include ash, protein, and fat. Results reflect that there are significant differences (P<0.05) between the different drying methods. The trend of the results in this study generally indicates that oven drying retains higher levels of crude protein than solar-drying. The crude fiber content different types of citrus peel as affected significantly (P<0.05) decreased to different drying methods. The result revealed that microwave drying procedure was the highest effect on the retention crude fiber content of different citrus peel type. The results revealed that the oven-drying resulted in an overall affected significantly (P<0.05) increase in lignin compared with solar and microwave drying. While the mineral determination gave the data Ca, K, Na and Mg were the predominant mineral elements in the different samples. Besides, the analysis showed that the potassium and calcium are the most abundant minerals of the selected citrus peels. The effect of some different drying methods on the minerals content of citrus by-products The results showed that the calcium (Ca) and zinc (Zn) content of the selected citrus peels were increased significantly (P<0.05) by drying with the solar-dryer compared with control. The results clearly showed that there was significant (P<0.05) reduction in the contents of the citrus peels samples under study when the three methods of drying were used.