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Study of the convective drying of pumpkin ( Cucurbita maxima)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.fbp.2010.09.001

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 Author's personal copy
food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food and Bioproducts Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fbp

Study of the convective drying of pumpkin

(Cucurbita maxima)

Raquel P.F. Guiné a,∗ , Susana Pinho b , Maria João Barroca c

a CI&DETS, Dep. Indústrias Alimentares, ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal
b Dep. Indústrias Alimentares, ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal
c CERNAS, ISEC, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Portugal

a b s t r a c t

The main goals of the present work are, on one hand to study the influence of drying operation in some chemical
properties of pumpkin, and, on the other hand, to study the drying kinetics, by applying different kinetics models to
the experimental drying data.
In this way, pumpkin was dried by convection for different air temperatures, ranging between 30 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C. The
chemical properties that were analysed in the fresh and dried pumpkin were: moisture content, total and reducing
sugars, acidity, proteins, lipids, crude fibre and ash.
The results enable concluding that the convective drying at the lowest temperature, 30 ◦ C, induces reductions of
14% in proteins, 65% in total sugars and 36% in fibre. Furthermore, the drying temperature seems to have a negligible
effect on the nutritional characteristics of the pumpkin, since the results for the drying at 30 ◦ C are quite similar to
those for the drying at 70 ◦ C.
With respect to the other subject analysed, the drying kinetics, the results show that the increase on the operating
temperature strongly accelerates the drying process, so that the process at 30 ◦ C takes 8 h while at 70 ◦ C the drying
is finished after only 2 h. The experimental data for moisture ratio was fitted to different models, and the best were
Page and modified Page.
© 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Drying kinetics; Pumpkin drying; Chemical composition; Moisture diffusivity

1. Introduction and technological applications. Pumpkin is a good source of

Botanically the pumpkin is a squash fruit most commonly
orange in colour when ripe, that has been used traditionally
both as human and as animal feed. In culinary terms, it is
widely regarded as a vegetable. It is very appreciated when
cooked or pureed, and has numerous culinary uses either as a
vegetable or as an ingredient in pies, soups, stews, breads, and
many other dishes. Pumpkin is a seasonal crop, and since fresh
pumpkins are very sensitive to microbial spoilage, even at
refrigerated conditions, they must be frozen or dried (Doymaz,
2007).
The knowledge of the nutritive value of food, particularly
fruits and vegetables, is necessary in order to encourage the
increase in their consumption, and their use for nutritional
carotene, water-soluble vitamins and amino acids. It is rel-
atively low in total solids, usually ranging between 7% and
10% (Arévalo-Pinedo and Murr, 2006; Alibas, 2007). This chem-
ical composition, rich in antioxidants and vitamins allows the
pumpkin to have an important health-protecting effect. In
fact, the range of values of lipophilic substances as carotenoids
present in pumpkin varieties can contribute significantly to
the uptake of provitamin A and especially lutein, a carotenoid
with special physiological functions (Murkovic et al., 2005).
The yellow to orange colour of the pumpkin flesh arises from
this group of substances. Additionally, the good performance
of the pumpkin-fibre products in relation to water and glu-
cose highlights the possibility of their use as food ingredients
(Escalada et al., 2006).

∗
Corresponding author at: Quinta da Alagoa, Estrada de Nelas, Ranhados, 3500-606 Viseu, Portugal. Tel.: +351 232 446600;
fax: +351 232 426536.
E-mail addresses: raquelguine@esav.ipv.pt, raquelguine@gmail.com (R.P.F. Guiné).
Received 12 February 2010; Received in revised form 20 August 2010; Accepted 1 September 2010
0960-3085/$ – see front matter © 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fbp.2010.09.001
 Author's personal copy
food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428
Nomenclature
De effective moisture diffusivity (m2 /s)
D0e diffusivity for an infinite temperature (m2 /s)
E activation energy for moisture diffusion
(kJ/mol)
MR moisture ratio (dimensionless)
r radius (m)
R determination coefficient (dimensionless)
Rg gas constant (J/(mol K))
t time (s)
T temperature (◦ C).
W moisture content at time t (g water/g dry solid)
W0 initial moisture content (g water/g dry solid)
We equilibrium moisture content (g water/g dry
solid)
z length (m)
Drying constitutes an alternative to the consumption of
fresh fruits and vegetables, and allows their use during the
off-season. It is one of the most widely used methods for food
preservation, and its objective is to remove water from the
food to a level in which microbial spoilage and deterioration
reactions are greatly minimized. Moreover, besides providing
longer shelf-life, it also originates smaller space needs for
storage and lighter weight for transportation. The drying of
agricultural products can be undertaken in closed equipments
(solar or industrial dryers) to guarantee the quality of the final
product (Doymaz, 2007).
Different drying methods are used in the drying of fruits
and vegetables: solar drying, air drying, microwave drying,
vacuum drying, spray drying, among others. Air drying is the
most common method, despite having some important dis-
advantages. This drying method can have a strong impact on
the quality of the dehydrated product, leading to some injuries
such as the worsening of the taste, colour and nutritional
value, decline in the density and water absorbance capacity
and shifting of the solutes from the internal part of the drying
material to the surface, due to the long drying period and high
temperature. Moreover it is long-lasting and involves a high
energy consumption (Alibas, 2007).
From the engineering point of view, drying is a com-
plex thermal process which involves simultaneous coupled
unsteady heat and mass transfer phenomena occurring inside
and at the border of the product being dried. Many math-
ematical thin-layer models have been proposed to describe
the drying process of agricultural material. Among them,
the semi-theoretical models are widely used (Akpinar, 2006;
Doymaz, 2007).
In the present work the drying of pumpkin is analysed in
terms of chemical properties and also in terms of drying kinet-
ics. With respect to the first objective, essays were made for
convective drying at different temperatures ranging from 30 ◦ C
to 70 ◦ C, and the resulting products were analysed and com-
pared with the fresh product. Regarding the second objective,
the drying data (variation of moisture content along drying
time) was fitted to different kinetic models found in scientific
literature. Furthermore, the diffusivities were estimated for
the present operating conditions. These are important, since
no values have been reported so far in the literature for the air
drying of pumpkin of the variety studied in this work (Cucurbita
maxima).
423
Fig. 1 – Schematic view of the drying chamber used in the
experiments.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Drying procedure
The pumpkin used in this study is a C. maxima variety known
as “abóbora menina” which is the most cultivated and con-
sumed pumpkin in Portugal. The pumpkin was bought in a
local market, was peeled, and the seeds were removed, so
that the samples were prepared from the pulp. To obtain the
dried samples the pumpkin was cut into cylinder elements
and dried in a ventilated chamber (WTB-Binder) (Fig. 1) with
an air flux of 300 m3 /h at constant temperatures of 30 ◦ C,
40 ◦ C, 50 ◦ C, 60 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C, until they reached a safe mois-
ture content under 5% (wet basis). Periodically three samples
were removed from each oven in order to measure their aver-
age water content with a Halogen Moisture Analyser, model
HG53, from Mettler Toledo, which was previously calibrated
in terms of optimal operating parameters for this type of
food.
2.2. Operational optimization of the Halogen Moisture
Analyser
The Halogen Moisture Analyser HG53 from Mettler Toledo
allows a various wide range of operating parameters, depend-
ing on the objectives of the analysis and the properties of the
product to be analysed. Therefore, the selection of the most
appropriate conditions should precede its application to a cer-
tain type of product. In this way, the moisture of the fresh
pumpkin was previously determined by a standard method
(drying until constant weight in a drying chamber at atmo-
spheric pressure at 105 ◦ C; AOAC, 1990) and an average value
calculated from three replicates was used as reference for the
product at use. Later, the moisture contents of samples of
the same pumpkin were determined in the Halogen Moisture
Analyser, varying two operating parameters: temperature and
speed. The temperatures tested were 105 ◦ C, 110 ◦ C, 115 ◦ C and
120 ◦ C, and the speeds were 2 and 3 (in a scale of 1–5, in which
1 is very fast and 5 is very slow).
2.3. Determination of the chemical composition
The drying process was carried out at temperatures between
30 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C, as described earlier (Section 2.1). However, to
analyse the effect of this operational condition on the nutri-
tive value of dried pumpkin only the samples obtained with
 Author's personal copy
424 food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428

2001):
Table 1 – Kinetic models from literature (Yaldýz and
Ertekýn, 2001; Togrul and Pehlivan, 2003; Lahsasni et al.,
∂W 1
∂  ∂W
 ∂
 ∂W

2004). = De r + De r (2)
∂t r ∂r ∂r ∂z ∂z
Model Equation
where De is effective moisture diffusivity, r is the cylinder
Newton MR = exp(−kt)
Page MR = exp(−ktn ) radius, z is the height and t is the time, expressed in seconds.
Modified Page MR = exp(−(kt)n ) Assuming a uniform initial moisture content and a
Henderson and Pabis MR = a exp(−kt) constant effective diffusivity throughout the sample, the ana-
Logarithmic MR = a exp(−kt) + c lytical solution of Eq. (2) is given by:
Wang and Singh MR = 1 + at + bt2
4 ∞  
W − We b2 t
the lowest and highest temperatures (30 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C) were = exp −De n2 (3)
W0 − We b2n r
characterized in terms of chemical composition. n=1

The fresh and dried pumpkin was analysed in respect to

where (W − We )/(W0 − We ) is the moisture ratio (MR) (Crank,
moisture content, acidity, total sugars, lipids, proteins, ash and
1970; Faustino et al., 2007).
crude fibre. The chemical analyses of both fresh and dried pulp
Considering only the first term of the series in Eq. (3), the
pumpkin were done, in triplicate, from milled samples.
solution of the Fick’s Equation becomes:
The moisture content was determined using the Halogen
Moisture Analyser (HG53, Mettler Toledo). Total and reduc- 

W − We 4 b21
ing sugars and acidity was estimated according to previous = 2 exp −De t (4)
W0 − We b1 r2
established methodologies (AOAC, 1990). Protein content was
estimated by the micro-Kjeldhal digestion procedure. Lipid
and a plot of ln(MR) versus time for each temperature will give
was gravimetrically quantified after ether extraction in a Soxh-
a straight line whose slope can allow to estimate the value of
let apparatus and crude fibre by sequential hot digestion of the
diffusion coefficient for each temperature.
sample with dilute acid and alkaline solutions (AOAC, 1990).
The dependence of the effective diffusivity from tempera-
ture is assumed to be an Arrhenius function (Vega et al., 2007),
2.4. Use of empirical models do describe the drying
of the type:
kinetics

The data obtained experimentally for the five different tem-
peratures studied was plotted in the form of moisture ratio
(MR) versus time, being MR defined as:
W − We
MR = (1)
W0 − We
where W, We and W0 are, respectively, the moisture content at
time t, the equilibrium moisture content and the initial mois-
ture content, all expressed in dry basis (g water/g dry solid). We
was considered to be 0.02 g water/g dry solid, and corresponds
to the drying for a very long period when the equilibrium with
the surrounding atmosphere was achieved. The experimen-
tal sets of (MR, t) were fitted using the software Sigma Plot
(Version 8.0, SPSS, Inc.) to six different empirical models from
literature, shown in Table 1. To evaluate the quality of each
estimation, the determination coefficient, R, was used.
2.5. Estimation of the diffusion coefficients
Fick’s second law equation for non steady-state diffusion,
assuming that the samples used can be approximated to cylin-
ders, the diffusion is expressed by (Crank, 1970; Yang et al.,
E
De = D0e exp − (5)
Rg (T + 273.15)
where D0e is the diffusivity for an infinite temperature, E is
the activation energy for moisture diffusion, Rg is the gas con-
stant (Rg = 8.31451 J mol−1 K−1 ) and T is the drying temperature
(expressed in ◦ C). A plot of ln(De ) as a function of (1/(T + 273.15))
will produce a straight line with slope equal to (−E/R) and inter-
cept equal to ln(D0e ), from which the parameters E and D0e can
be estimated.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Optimization of the Halogen Moisture Analyser
The moisture of the fresh pumpkin was first determined
by oven drying until constant weight. The medium value
obtained from three replicates (91.57%, 92.20% and 91.80% (wet
basis)), was 91.86% and was used as the reference for the selec-
tion of the most suitable operating parameters for this food
product.
In Table 2 the values obtained for the moisture of the fresh
pumpkin from the Halogen Moisture Analyser are presented,

Table 2 – Results obtained for the operational calibration of the Halogen Moisture Analyser.
Speed Temperature (◦ C) Moisture content (%) Duration (min:sec)

105 86.96 21:20

110 87.22 20:30
2
115 88.31 16:50
120 87.43 14:40
105 91.02 33:20
110 90.87 24:30
3
115 90.49 17:10
120 91.05 16:40
 Author's personal copy
food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428 425

Table 3 – Chemical characterization of fresh pumpkin, per 100 g of edible portion.

Fennema et al. (2004) Senser and Scherz (1999) Analysed

Moisture content (g) 80.0–96.0 − 91.9

Protein (g) 0.6–1.8 − 1.6a
Lipids (g) 0.0–0.2 − 0.2
Crude fibre (g) 0.5–1.3 − 1.0
Ash (g) 0.8–1.4 − 1.1
Carbohydrates (g) 4.6–5.6 − 4.7
Reducing sugar (g) − − 2.4
Non reducing sugar (g) − − 2.3
Acidity (mg) − 207 20
Carotenoids (mg) − 2 −
Vitamin A (␮g) − 280 −
Vitamin C (mg) − 12 −
Vitamin E (mg) − 1 −

a
Factor used for the conversion of nitrogen in protein = 6.25.

together with the corresponding operating conditions. From
the results shown is possible to conclude that the operational
conditions that enable to obtain the closest values to the refer-
ence moisture content are: temperature of 105 ◦ C and speed 3
(showing 91.02%) or temperature 120 ◦ C and speed 3 (showing
91.05%). These two sets of conditions could be used. However,
when looking at the time necessary to do the analysis one
quickly realizes that the last enables to obtain the results in
half the time (16 min 40 s) when compared to the first (33 min
20 s), and this is a very important factor when the quantity
of samples to analyse is high, such as in the case of monitor-
ing the drying kinetics. Therefore, every analysis made for the
kinetic study was done with the Halogen Moisture Analyser
set to 120 ◦ C and speed 3.
3.2. Chemical composition
Table 3 shows the chemical composition of fresh pumpkin,
either analysed or from references in the literature, for com-
parison purposes. It can be seen that in general terms the
results obtained in the present study are in accordance with
the values referred in the literature, being within the intervals
specified. However, with respect to acidity there are important
differences, being the pumpkin analysed much less acid.
In Table 4 the chemical composition of the pumpkins, fresh
and dehydrated at the lowest and highest temperatures, are
shown to evaluate the effect of drying temperature on the
nutritional value of pumpkin. The values are expressed in
grams per 100 g of dry mass for a better comparison of the
fresh to the dried products. From the values is possible to see
that the chemical compositions of both dehydrated pumpkins
(at 30 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C) are very similar, meaning that for the range
of temperatures studied, the value of the temperature chosen
for the process does not influence significantly the nutritional
value of the final product.
On the other hand, the changes observed by comparing
the fresh with the dehydrated products are somewhat signifi-
cant for most of the components evaluated. In this way, when
comparing the fresh product with that dried at 30 ◦ C, one can
perceive that the drying operation induces reductions of 14%
in proteins, 65% in total sugars and 36% in fibre. The variations
observed in the lipids contents are not significant, since this
product is very poor in this component. These results reveal
that the heat provided during the drying process originates
the degradation of sugars in a very important extension and
causes some protein denaturising.
When these results are compared with those obtained by
Ambrósio et al. (2006), for pumpkin (C. maxima and Cucurbita
moschata) dehydrated in a drum drier (shown in Table 4) is
possible to see that in the present case the dehydrated sam-
ples have comparable lipids contents, higher protein and ash
contents, but less fibre.
3.3. Empirical kinetic models
Fig. 2 illustrates the dry basis moisture content of pumpkin
cylinders during the convective air drying at the different tem-
peratures studied. The batch drying curves obtained for the
temperatures of 30 ◦ C, 40 ◦ C, 50 ◦ C, 60 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C reveal a
similar kinetic behaviour, not showing a constant drying rate
period, as previously observed by Arévalo-Pinedo and Murr
(2006) for the vacuum drying of pumpkin and by Doymaz (2007)
for the forced convective air drying of pumpkin. On the other
hand, the curves evidence a decreasing stabilization time as

Table 4 – Chemical composition of the fresh and dehydrated pumpkin (expressed as a percentage of the dry mass).
Component Fresh product Dehydrated at 30 ◦ C Dehydrated at 70 ◦ C Dehydrated in drum drier
(Ambrósio et al., 2006)

Protein 18.42 (±0.76)a 15.83 (±0.55)a 15.68 (±0.88)a 9.89 (±4.10)

Carbohydrates – – – 73.10 (±18.30)
Total sugars 52.84 (±1.23) 18.66 (±0.78) 17.09 (±0.64) –
Reducing sugars 26.35 (±0.26) 15.83 (±0.13) 14.62 (±0.23) –
Non reducing sugars 25.12 (±0.42) 2.71 (±0.04) 2.31 (±0.13) –
Lipids 2.04 (±0.43) 1.24 (±0.16) 2.06 (±0.11) 2.11 (±0.68)
Fibre 12.24 (±0.32) 7.85 (±0.09) 9.69 (±0.01) 21.03 (±3.55)
Ash 13.99 (±0.01) 17.75 (±0.07) 18.62 (±0.01) 7.09 (±1.33)

a
Factor used for the conversion of nitrogen in protein = 6.25.
 Author's personal copy
426 food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428

12 1.2

Experimental points
10 30ºC 1.0 Newton
(kg water / kg dry solids)

40ºC Page
50ºC Modified Page
Moisture content

Moisture ratio, MR
8 60ºC Henderson & Pabis
70ºC
0.8 Logarithmic
Wang & Singh
6
0.6

4
2
0
0 2 4 6
Drying time (h)
Fig. 2 – Batch drying curves for pumpkin at different
temperatures.
the temperature is raised. In fact, the samples took 8.0, 5.5,
4.0, 3.5 and 2.0 h, for the temperatures varying from 30 ◦ C to
70 ◦ C, and reached a final moisture content of 3.5%, 4.6%, 4.1%,
3.2% and 2.7% (wet basis), respectively. As expected, there is
an acceleration of the drying process due to the increase in the
temperature of the drying air from 30 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C. Moreover, the
higher percentage of weight loss occurs in the early stages of
drying, so that in the first 30 min the loss of moisture content
increases from about 40% to 62% when the temperature rises
from 30 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C. The effect of temperature on the drying
kinetic of pumpkin is consistent with others results published
in the literature to the same product dried at temperatures
ranging between 65 ◦ C and 75 ◦ C (Krokida et al., 2003).
The drying kinetics data obtained for the five tempera-
tures studied, in the form of moisture ratio versus time, was
fitted to six different kinetic models commonly cited in the
literature, shown in Table 1. The results of such fittings are
presented for each model in Table 5, which shows the values
of the estimated parameters with the corresponding standard
deviation, as well as the determination coefficient which char-
0.4
0.2
8 10
0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Drying time (h)
Fig. 3 – Fitting of the experimental data at 30 ◦ C with the
different models tested.
acterizes each fitting. From the results obtained it was possible
to conclude that the best models for the case at study are the
Page and Modified Page, with R2 ranging between 0.9519 and
0.9984. On the other hand, the worst model is Wang and Singh,
with R2 varying from 0.8775 to 0.9704. This can also be con-
firmed in Fig. 3, where the Wang and Singh fitting is clearly
distinguished from the other fittings. In fact, the second order
polynomial proved to be less adequate to describe the kinetic
data obtained for the drying of pumpkin. One other observa-
tion that can be made from Table 5 is that for all the models
that proved to be relatively good (i.e., all except the Wang
and Singh) the drying constant (k) increased quite significantly
with the increase in temperature, and this is true for the entire
range of temperatures tested. As a result of the important
effect of temperature on the drying process this parameter
triplicates when the temperature is raised from 30 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C.
Considering that Page is one of the best models applica-
ble to the drying of pumpkin, the experimental values of the
moisture ratio for the different temperatures as well as the

Table 5 – Results of the fittings with the different models.

Model/parameters 30 ◦ C 40 ◦ C 50 ◦ C 60 ◦ C 70 ◦ C

Newton
k (±sd) 0.4979 (±0.0303) 0.6824 (±0.0427) 0.9494 (±0.0981) 1.3922 (±0.0648) 1.9867 (±0.0725)
R2 0.9505 0.9737 0.9513 0.9936 0.9981
Page
k (±sd) 0.6281 (±0.0474) 0.6508 (±0.0609) 0.9689 (±0.1173) 1.3929 (±0.0627) 1.9493 (±0.0904)
n (±sd) 0.7812 (±0.0646) 1.0714 (±0.1141) 0.9497 (±0.1843) 0.9207 (±0.0815) 0.9390 (±0.0852)
R2 0.9730 0.9747 0.9519 0.9945 0.9984
Modified Page
k (±sd) 0.5515 (±0.0358) 0.6697 (±0.0432) 0.9669 (±0.1208) 1.4332 (±0.0826) 2.0358 (±0.1104)
n (±sd) 0.7811 (±0.0645) 1.0716 (±0.1140) 0.9485 (±0.1854) 0.9206 (±0.0815) 0.9389 (±0.0853)
R2 0.9730 0.9747 0.9519 0.9945 0.9984
Henderson and Pabis
k (±sd) 0.4567 (±0.0347) 0.6784 (±0.0548) 0.9261 (±0.1225) 1.3794 (±0.0772) 1.9827 (±0.0890)
a (±sd) 0.9056 (±0.0416) 0.9937 (±0.0476) 0.9730 (±0.0728) 0.9895 (±0.0286) 0.9974 (±0.0203)
R2 0.9661 0.9737 0.9523 0.9937 0.9981
Logarithmic
k (±sd) 0.4330 (±0.0634) 0.5564 (±0.0786) 0.7637 (±0.1945) 1.3388 (±0.1192) 1.9513 (±0.1768)
a (±sd) 0.9135 (±0.0474) 1.0441 (±0.0514) 1.0250 (±0.0944) 0.9967 (±0.0349) 1.0022 (±0.332)
c (±sd) −0.0153 (±0.0376) −0.0725 (±0.0466) −0.0698 (±0.0845) −0.0094 (±0.0215) −0.0053 (±0.0249)
R2 0.9665 0.9806 0.9581 0.9939 0.9981
Wang and Singh
a (±sd) −0.3249 (±0.0222) −0.4567 (±0.0225) −0.6258 (±0.0502) −0.8103 (±0.0620) −1.2624 (±0.1222)
b (±sd) 0.0263 (±0.0034) 0.0514 (±0.0051) 0.0960 (±0.0153) 0.1555 (±0.0215) 0.3909 (±0.0711)
R2 0.8775 0.9665 0.9398 0.9410 0.9704
 Author's personal copy
food and bioproducts processing 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 422–428 427

1.2 ima) in the range of temperatures from 50 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C, which

vary from 1.13 × 10−9 m2 /s to 5.70 × 10−9 m2 /s.
30ºC
1.0 The value obtained for the diffusion coefficient at an infi-
40ºC
50ºC nite temperature, D0e was 0.028 m2 /s, and the activation energy
Moisture ratio, MR

0.8 60ºC for moisture diffusion, E, was found to be 33.74 kJ/mol. This
70ºC
latter value is lower when compared to the value reported
0.6 by Doymaz (2007), 78.93 kJ/mol, for the forced convective air
drying of pumpkin. This difference can be attributed to the
0.4
varieties used: C. maxima in the present study and Cucurbita
pepo L. in the work of Doymaz (2007).

0.2
4. Conclusions
0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 From the chemical analyses made was possible to conclude
Drying time (h) that drying induces important reductions in total sugars, fibres
and proteins, when the products dehydrated at 30 ◦ C or 70 ◦ C
Fig. 4 – Fitting of the experimental data at all temperatures
are compared to the fresh pumpkin.
with the Page model.
As to the influence of the drying temperature on the pro-
cess, it was observed that increasing the drying temperature
predictions obtained to each case using this model are illus-
from 30 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C leads to a diminishing of 75% in the drying
trated in Fig. 4. As it can be seen the Page model proved to
time. The results obtained from fitting the experimental data
give good fits for the different drying temperatures, along the
to the empirical kinetic models tested allowed to conclude
entire drying periods (varying from 2 to 8 h). However, at the
that the models that best describe the dehydration kinetics
final stages the model tends to give higher predictions than
for pumpkin in the range of temperatures from 30 ◦ C to 70 ◦ C
the values observed experimentally. In this way, models such
are Page and Modified Page.
as Newton, Henderson and Pabis or Logarithmic, show a bet-
For the drying process modelled in terms of Fick’s diffu-
ter adjustment at the final stages of drying (see Fig. 3), despite
sion law, the values obtained for the diffusion coefficient at
showing an overall fitting slightly less good, having in mind
an infinite temperature, D0e , and activation energy for moisture
the lower values of R2 (see Table 5).
diffusion, E, were, respectively, 0.028 m2 /s and 33.74 kJ/mol.

3.4. Diffusion model

If Fig. 5 the effective diffusivity of pumpkin is represented in
the range of temperatures studied (between 30 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C).
The experimental points were obtained for each tempera-
ture separately, by applying linear regression to the data in
the form of ln(MR) versus time plots. The line expressing the
variation of diffusivity with temperature was obtained from
applying linear regression to the data in the form ln(De) versus
1(T + 273.15). From the graph in Fig. 5 is possible to verify the
increase in diffusivity when the temperature is raised. For the
range of temperatures studied, the effective diffusivity varies
between 4.08 × 10−8 m2 /s at 30 ◦ C and 2.35 × 10−7 m2 /s at 70 ◦ C.
These values are higher that those found by Arévalo-Pinedo
and Murr (2006) for the vacuum drying of pumpkin (C. max-
-14
Values for each temperature
Fitting (R2 = 0.9205)
-15
ln(De)
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