Osmotic Dehydration of Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus) in Sugar and Salt Solution

Abstract

Cucumber is common name for a widely cultivated Cucumis sativus, in the Cucurbitaceae family . Osmotic dehydration is a preservation method that offers a high quality product by means of water removal without phase change. This work deals with the studies of osmotic dehydration characteristics of Cucumber in different concentration of osmotic solutions such as salt (2%,4%,6%) and sugar (30%,40%,50%) of 2000 ml water. Cucumber slices samples were osmotically dehydrated in osmotic solutions such as salt and sugar with different concentrations at room temperature and treatment under untreated, citric acid 0.25%, KMS 0.25% and blanching. The Physio-chemical was done for the sample and osmotic dehydrated cucumber slices. The moisture content, dry matter content, dehydration ratio and rehydration ratio were determined and plotted and colour index, whiteness of fresh and all treatment respectively. From the results it was observed that in the case of moisture content and dry matter content, sugar solution is more effective whereas in the case of rehydration ratio salt solution is best. Therefore applying a combination of these osmotic agents can increase the dehydration effect more. The present study also shows the optimum concentration of osmotic agents at room temperature as 4% for salt solution and 40% for sugar solution. Also proximate analysis such as moisture Name : Anand Kumar I.D. No. : 5343/20 Semester and year of admission : 1st semester 2020-21 Degree : Master of Technology Major : Agriculture Process and Food Engineering Department Degree awarding university : : Agricultural Engineering( Process and Food Engineering) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.) Thesis title : Osmotic dehydration of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) in sugar and salt solution. Name of advisor : Dr. Jaivir Singh content, ash content determination were performed for raw and osmotic dehydrated cucumber and compared it with normal dried cucumber. Moisture content, ash content present in osmotic dehydrated cucumber was found to be less than that of raw cucumber and higher than the normal dried cucumber. This implies that osmotic dehydration retains the nutritive properties of cucumber than normal drying. Some of these benefits include being able to store cucumber for longer period of time and preventing microbial spoilage from occurring.