Abstract
Onion (Allium cepa), a very commonly used vegetable, ranks third in the world production of major vegetables. Apart from imparting a delicious taste and flavour due to its pungency in many culinary preparations, it serves several medicinal purposes also. Processing and preservation of onion by suitable means is a major thrust area since a long time. The various kinds of treatments followed for dehydration of onion such as convective air drying, solar drying, fluidized bed drying, vacuum microwave drying, infrared drying and osmotic drying are reviewed here. These techniques are mainly used for preservation and value addition of onion. Several researchers have tried for decades to model the drying kinetics and quality parameters, which are also compiled here briefly.
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Abbreviations
- a, b:
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.10)
- aw :
-
Water activity of product
- Ax :
-
Exchange area (m2)
- C, Y:
-
Optical index
- C’:
-
Thiosulphinate concentration (μmol/g)
- c1, c2, c3, c4 :
-
Model parameter values for equation (4.11)
- d1, d2, d3, d4 :
-
Model parameter constants for equation (4.13)
- db:
-
Dry basis (g/g solid)
- dp :
-
Dry matter fraction
- exp:
-
Exponential
- g1, g2, g3, g4, g5, g6 :
-
Model parameter values for equation (4.12)
- H:
-
Absolute humidity (kg/kg dry basis)
- K:
-
Reaction rate constant for equation (4.1)
- k, c:
-
Reaction rate constant for equation (4.3)
- K′:
-
Reaction rate constant for equation (4.8)
- Ls :
-
Dry border strip width (m)
- M:
-
Moisture content (% dry basis)
- m1,m2,m3,m4,m5,m6 :
-
Model parameter constants for equation (4.14)
- R:
-
Universal gas constant (kJ/mol Kelvin)
- t:
-
Time
- T:
-
The absolute temperature (Kelvin)
- V:
-
Air flow velocity (m/s)
- Vs :
-
Actual volume of single particle (m3)
- wb:
-
wet basis (g water/g material)
- X:
-
Moisture content (g/g solid)
- Xx :
-
Amount of water removed per unit mass of dry matter through the walls x
- 0:
-
Initial states
- e:
-
Equilibrium
- p:
-
Product
- x:
-
Relative to surface x
- α:
-
Water content ratio X/X0
- α0, α1, α2, α3 :
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.4)
- β0, β1, β2, β3,β4 :
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.6)
- δ0, δ1, δ2, δ3, δ4 :
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.7)
- γ0, γ1, γ2, γ3 :
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.5)
- η0, η1, η2, η3, η4 :
-
Empirical constants for equation (4.2)
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Mitra, J., Shrivastava, S.L. & Rao, P.S. Onion dehydration: a review. J Food Sci Technol 49, 267–277 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-011-0369-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-011-0369-1