Abstract

Hot air drying (HAD), freeze-drying (FD), and swell-drying (SD, coupling instant controlled pressure drop, DIC, to standard hot air) were applied to strawberries (Fragaria var. Camarosa). The total phenol, total flavonoid, and total anthocyanin contentswere evaluated versusthe drying methods. The correlations between the bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity were investigated. The obtained results showed that the differences in phenol levels were no quite comparing the three drying techniques; however, great variations were reported for anthocyanin and flavonoid content.

A strong correlation between the antioxidant activity and anthocyanin content was found in SD strawberries. Also, it was observed that saturated steam pressure (P) of DIC texturing operation, had a significant effect on the studied parameters compared to the thermal holding time (t). The optimum conditions of DIC were P = 0.35 MPa for t = 10 s to obtain the highest levels of phenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins, as well as antioxidant activity.

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