Baltazar, Joshua D.

September 24, 2019

Bs Biology II- Block 6
“Critique Paper: Infrared Drying as a Quick Preparation Method for Dried Tangerine Peel”

Objective
The objective of the study was to use infrared drying method as an alternative way or drying
a tangerine peel. Something that is reliable and time-saving methodology to produce high- quality
dried tangerine peel. The abstract itself has the objective of the study including the results that
summarizes the whole research. Moreover, the study not only shows effective and most efficient
method of drying, but also shows significant result in preservation of nutraceutical components
like vitamin c. It came to my attention that such studies were not given any attention especially in
products like this. Up until now, especially those people who stick to traditional method of drying
(sun drying), they don’t give much attention to such innovation and method that could actually
help them in producing such products that are efficiently dried while preserving the nutraceutical
components that are actually the one needed. At this point, even by showing the percentage of
efficiency of using Infrared Drying, we could infer that using or still applying the Sun Drying
method could actually not make us more efficient but also less productive due to time period that
it actually takes to produce dried products like the tangerine peels used in medicines. Establishing
such method could not just make the production industry more efficient in converting resources to
usable products but also provides high-quality products that are beneficial for us consumers.
Overall, the Objective in the abstract part was very clear and looking the abstract itself could
actually make the reader more interested in reading such journal because at the very beginning, it
shows significant data presentation (usage of percentage as an estimate to the real result) to catch
the attention of the readers like me. With the 96% shortened percentage in time comparing Infrared
drying and Sun drying could actually help us to have the intuition on what the study was all about
and its results. The abstract is short, it should be, but full of information that is necessary for it to
be an introductory statement that summarizes the whole study. It acts as the eye-catcher and attracts
the readers to see further what the reasons behind the percentage or in this part the conclusion
could be, which I think was done significantly by writing such inducive paragraph to portray the
very purpose of an abstract.
Introduction
The introduction was very informative especially in the purposes of tangerine peels not
only as an agroindutsrial waste but as a resource in the medical field. The introduction started with
the abundancy of such fruit in china and generally, as a fruit consumed by humans. Tangerine
peels, considering that they are agroindustrial waste, could not only be considered as waste but
also in pharmaceutical purposes as well because not only that it is also rich in minerals that we
consume, but also rich in resources that can be used to make medicine like in the Chinese
traditions. It was also given importance that drying tangerine peels can be done during September
to December which give us the approximate time consumed in drying tangerine peels using the
traditional way or the sun drying (later on, was given the attention to change such method to more
efficient and reliant method of preserving nutraceutical components of tangerine peels. It has been
reported that it can alleviate indigestion, improve cardiac circulation, and suppress inflammatory
syndromes of the respiratory tract such as bronchitis and asthma. Fresh tangerine peels were
reported to have fewer biological functions than dried tangerine peels. Such medicinal purposes
were provided to us, moreover, they also added some nutraceutical components such as hesperidin,
synephrine, and vitamin c which are not only rich in tangerines but also a nutrient supply that we
need to be able to maintain our immune system. They also included in the introduction the
importance on investigating the variation of such functional components during the drying of
tangerine peels which I think part of the objective and the methodology as a form of comparison
to different methods of drying. They also included the uncontrolled factors that could actually
affect during the study such as the weather and environments variations (Natural disasters, insects,
and dusts) that could actually affect the research itself. The study aims to find an alternative method
of drying that considers the nutraceutical components in the tangerine peels. It is clear to us that
the primary objective of the study was to find an alternative way of drying as different methods
could be done to achieve this. Before moving on to the next part, I was actually having a little
flashback of my research regarding this which is Bioplastic out of corn husks and fish scales which,
part of the process, was to dry the corn husk and when obtaining data from water solubility test,
drying the small amount of bioplastic. In our study, we used the oven to dry our product and for
me, it was really time consuming in which it took us approximately a day to finish only a set of
samples considering we have 4 sets of samples. Using this method that this research is suggesting,
could not only help future studies but also other research present now to be more efficient and less
time-consuming way of obtaining the core of the research which are the datas.

Materials and Methodology

The materials started off with the chemicals that will be needed in conducting the
methodology and the location of where such products were also stated in this part. With the
material pretreatment, the precision of the documentation of where and when the orange peels
were well documented which also affects the results. With the drying processes and conditions, it
was explained that using abbreviation such as SD for sun drying, FD for freezing drying, HAD for
Hot-air Drying, VD for Vacuum Drying, and IRD for medium- and short-infrared drying to make
the whole process easily identifiable. With the SD, the time duration where the tangerine peels
were placed were from 9 am to 4 pm which where the sun is all through out, present. With the FD,
every 2 hours the sample were taken out to monitor it’s drying process in which the temperature
is under -30𝑜 𝑐. With the HAD, it was performed using an oven at 60, 70, 80 and 90 degrees Celsius
with fixed air velocity of 2.1 m/s and the samples were taken out every after 10 minutes of the
process. With the VD, vacuum dryer was used with 60, 70, 80 and 90 degrees Celsius as well but
taken out every 20 minutes respectively. With the IRD, the drying was also performed with the
same temperature level but taken out every 5 minutes and weighted. Drying kinetic, this part
explains how the time consumed with the different sets of temperature and different methods affect
the drying process of the tangerine. Such part was explained with a simple schematic diagram that
shows the flow of the research and the computations to see the significance of different factors
affecting the drying process of the tangerine subjected to different methods. Such part was also
considered as the statistical part of the study. With the determination of the functional group: Total
phenolics and content and total flavonoids content, Folin-ciocalteu method and colorimetric
method were used to determine the content of phenols and total flavonoids. With the hesperidin
and synephrine content, HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) with some
modification was used in determining the hesperidin and synephrine content. With the Vitamin C
content, 2 methods were used in such part which is the HPLC method and 2,6-dichloroindophenol
titration method. Using the 2,6-dichloroindophenol titration method, a pink colorization will
appear when such chemical was applied to 10 mL diluted supernatant was titrated which will last
for only 15 seconds. With the antioxidant capacity assays, MeOH and sonication was done to
identify the antioxidant capacity assays. And finally, with the statistical analysis, the measurements
were performed in triplicate and was analyzed by the SPSS, ANOVA, and LSD Method.

Results and Discussion

With the results and discussions, the FD and SD needed to be subject to FD and SD
about 1320 min and 3000 min to reach final moisture content needed. HAD, VD, and IRD ranged
from 150 to 200 min, 280 to 400 min, and 75 to 100 min. the drying time decreased with the
increase in temperature. The SD was the most time consuming among them all followed by FD,
VD, and HAD. IRD was the fastest method to dry tangerine peels among the different methods.
SD may be relatively low due to low and unstable temperature and the sample susceptibility to air
humidity. The different methods have their own downfall particularly in the vacuum oven in which
the only the surface moisture was removed leaving the inside intact making it more time
consuming to remove the moisture inside. Such results were inclined with the research of the
potatoes which can be seen in the references. Effect of Different Drying Methods on Main
Compositions of Tangerine Peels, a table was represented by the percentage of how the different
minerals were preserved when the tangerine peels were subjected to different drying methods. The
tangerine peels had the most soluble solids after IRD and FD treatment, while the peels of SD
treatment were low which makes the IRD and FD suitable to store soluble solids. With the vitamin
c and glycoside content, the samples of SD had the lowest total sugar content while FD has the
highest one. The organic acids degrade much more rapidly during sun drying. Overall FD and IRD
were the best method to preserve soluble solid, reducing sugar, total sugar, crude fiber, and
titratable acids of tangerine while SD is better at preserving the minerals which is aligned with
another research which is with the strawberry. With the effects of different drying methods on total
phenolics content and total flavonoids content of tangerine, medical used was also mentioned
which I think was one of the important parts of the research and relatively significant of the purpose
of the tangerine peels in the medical field. Also, with the other part of the results, unpredictable
errors and situations are inevitable as mentioned in the introduction. In concluding the Results and
discussion, they inferred that IRD was more suitable drying method to obtain high antioxidant
activities due to the lower temperatures and shorter drying time necessary for the desired moisture
content compared to the other drying methods.
Conclusions
The conclusion should be relatively short, and the journal doesn’t disappoint. The whole
result and objective were met in this part in which it ended up with the IRD as the most appropriate
choice for drying the tangerine peels compared to other methods. IRD was not only beneficial in
preserving the nutraceutical components but also shortened the drying time to a greater extent; the
part where it was stated in the abstract regarding the 96% efficiency of such method to the others.
Even though, at some point in the data, it wasn’t able to meet higher probability rate than the
others, generalizing all of the data, this method makes the overall cut of efficiency and less time-
consuming factor that the researcher is looking for. Overall, the conclusion was subjective to what
the data pertains and generalizing all of the findings to cut the whole research of with the final
verdict.

Others (Conflicts of Interest, Author’s Contributions, Acknowledgements, References)

Conflict of Interest
What seem to be fascinating about the conflict of interest was that they weren’t able to
experience any troubles when conducting such research and I think thorough planning and proper
execution of plans made the whole research possible without any hindrance of any problems except
the limiting factors mentioned above (Weather and environmental variations).
Author’s Contribution
Well, teamwork makes such research completely successful and without any partner, such
research is difficult to be performed. Both equally contributed to the creation of the study and both
accepts the success of the study.
Acknowledgement
In a research, other significant people also helped in your research especially your proctors,
instructors, mentors, and friends who motivated you in creating such piece. Without their help, it
could be a very challenging part to discovery everything in a short period of time. With a simple
act of acknowledging their efforts in mentoring you and suggesting something to you is already
part of appreciating all of the efforts they have also given to you in the success of your study.
References
The references are properly written (the format was followed) and the order of the
references are actually based on the flow of the research which I think helps me to keep in track
on what part is this came from or what research is this idea from. Also, the number of references
was actually many which I think, at first glance, make the research reliable to read and the
references are actually significant to the whole study. What was shown there are the thing that are
necessary for the research nothing less, nothing more.