The Impact of Sun and Electric Oven Drying Methods on the Chemical Composition of Some Fruits and Vegetables

Elghazali, Mohamed Nagati; Osman, Amna Abbas; Abdullah, Enas Adel; Abdrabu, Eman Abdelhamid

doi:10.21608/aujst.2025.348150.1159

The Impact of Sun and Electric Oven Drying Methods on the Chemical Composition of Some Fruits and Vegetables

Document Type : Original papers

Authors

¹ Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural, Aswan University

² faculty of agriculture and natural resources, department of food science and technology

³ Department of Home Economics, Faculty of Specific Education - Aswan University

⁴ Home economies, specific education, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt

10.21608/aujst.2025.348150.1159

Abstract

Fruit and vegetable samples as carrot, orange flesh sweet potato, apple and strawberry are considered high nutritional and economic value. The aim of this investigation studying the effect of sun or electric oven at 55ºC drying methods on nutritional quality and phenolic compounds. The results showed that the Moisture, lipids, protein, ash and pH of all samples are decreased more after sun drying compared to electric oven drying but carbohydrates, crude fiber, total sugars, reducing and non-reducing sugars and acidity are more increased in all samples after drying electric oven drying as compared to sun drying. Vitamin C and β-carotene are higher in fresh and dried carrot compared to other fresh and dried samples, also fresh and dried strawberry have highest level of total phenolic compound and total amino acids content compared to the others. The fresh carrot contains the highest contents of calcium, iron and magnesium and fresh orange sweet potato contain highest contents of zinc compared to other fresh fruits and vegetables. Drying process caused decreased in phenolic compound, vitamins, and amino acids content in all fruits and vegetables This is because the drying temperature caused denaturation of proteins and also caused the activity of the polyphenol oxidase enzyme, then vitamins are sensitive to heat, they were also lost after drying. besides the sun drying caused more decreased compared to electric oven drying. In contrast the electric oven drying caused more increase in minerals content compared to sun drying. Dried fruits and vegetables have high nutritional value and natural flavors in food industries.

Keywords