Journal of Food Engineering 71 (2005) 403–407

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Sun drying of figs: an experimental study

Ibrahim Doymaz *

Department of Chemical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34210 Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey

Received 9 June 2004; accepted 3 November 2004

Available online 22 December 2004

Abstract

In this work, the sun drying behaviour of figs was investigated. Drying experiments were conducted for figs (Ficus carica) grown
in Iskenderun-Hatay, Turkey. The constant rate period is absent from the drying curve. The drying process took place in the falling
rate period. The drying data were fitted to the different mathematical models such as Lewis, Henderson and Pabis, Page, Logarith-
mic, Two-term, Two-term exponential, Verma et al. and Wang and Singh models. The performance of these models was investigated
by comparing the determination of coefficient (R2), reduced chi-square (v2) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the
observed and predicted moisture ratios. The results showed that the Verma et al. model was found to satisfactorily describe the
sun drying curve of figs with a R2 of 0.9944, v2 of 0.000483 and RMSE of 0.062857.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sun drying; Fig; Mathematical models; Non-linear regression

1. Introduction The fig (Ficus carica, Moraceae) probably originated

Drying of fruit and vegetables is one of the oldest
forms of food preservation methods known to man
and is the most important process for preserving food
since it has a great effect on the quality of the dried
products. The major objective in drying agricultural
products is the reduction of the moisture content to a le-
vel which allows safe storage over an extended period.
Also, it brings about substantial reduction in weight
and volume, minimising packaging, storage and trans-
portation costs (Okos, Narsimhan, Singh, & Witnauer,
1992). In spite of many disadvantages, sun drying is still
practised in many places throughout the world such as
tropical and subtropical countries. Solar energy is an
important alternative source of energy and preferred
to other energy sources because it is abundant, inex-
haustible and non-pollutant. Also, it is renewable, cheap
and environmental friendly (Basunia & Abe, 2001).
*
Tel.: +90 212 449 17 32/18; fax: +90 212 449 18 95.
E-mail address: doymaz@yildiz.edu.tr
in Western Asia, and spread to the Mediterranean (Tous
& Ferguson, 1996). Figs have a great importance in
nutrition due to being important sources of carbohy-
drates. They contain essential amino acids and are rich
in vitamins A, B1, B2 and C and minerals. Fresh figs
are very sensitive to microbial spoilage, even in cold stor-
age conditions; thus, they must be preserved in some
way. The fruit usually is consumed fresh locally or in
dried, canned, and preserved forms. Several countries
import dried figs or fig paste. The main exporters of dried
figs and paste are Turkey and the USA (Sadhu, 1990).
The fig is a moderately important world crop, with an
estimated annual production of 1,077,211 tons of fruit
(FAO, 2003). The biggest fig producer is Turkey, and
has approximately 23.5% of the total production of the
world, and about 51.6% of this crop is sold as dried fruit.
The total production of figs in 2003 was 280,000 tons and
Turkey exported 42,095 tons of dried figs with an income
of about 78,064,000 US$ (Table 1). Therefore, dried figs
have a high economic value for Turkish agriculture.
Most of the figs in Turkey are produced in the Aegean

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2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.11.003
404 I. Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 71 (2005) 403–407

Nomenclature

a, b, c, g constants in models M0 initial moisture content (kg water/kg dry

Deff effective diffusivity (m2/s) matter)
k, k0, k1 constants in models N number of observations
k2 slope n constant, positive integer
MRexp,i experimental moisture ratio R2 determination of coefficient
MRpre,i predicted moisture ratio r radius (m)
M moisture content at time t (kg water/kg dry t drying time (h)
matter) z number of constants
Me equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg
dry matter)

Table 1 southern Turkey, situated between the Mediterranean

Turkish fresh and dried fig production and exports by years (IGEME, Sea to the west and Syria to the South-East. Its geo-
2003)
graphic coordinates are 3552 0 to 3704 0 North, 3540 0
Years Fresh Dried Export Income to 3635 0 West and it is hot and dry in summer. The
production production quantity (·1000 US$)
average diameter and weight of the samples were
(tons) (tons) (tons)
5.42 cm and 50.2 g, respectively. The moisture contents
1995 300,000 49,975 42,738 79,994
of the fresh samples were obtained by the Association
1996 290,000 50,155 35,972 69,334
1997 243,000 45,255 33,997 62,000 of Official Analytical Chemists, method no. 934.06
1998 255,000 50,981 37,253 71,630 (AOAC, 1990). The initial moisture content was close
1999 275,000 47,800 40,222 70,277 to 74 ± 0.5% (wet basis).
2000 240,000 48,675 36,759 59,802 Ambient air temperatures were measured by an
2001 235,000 48,028 39,284 66,216
iron–constantan thermocouple, which was used with a
2002 250,000 53,200 35,935 72,375
2003 280,000 46,500 42,095 78,064 manually controlled 8-channel automatic digital ther-
mometer, with a reading accuracy of ±0.1 C (Meter
Electronic, Turkey).
region. This region has a 60% share of fresh figs produc-
Fig samples were distributed uniformly in a single
tion which are dried under the sun. The ‘‘Sari lop’’ type,
layer in the sample tray, and then exposed immediately
which is the more widely produced variety in Turkey, is
in the sun. The samples, about 300 g, were spread over
also the main variety for dried figs. Figs are spread over
the tray. Each experiment started at 8.00 a.m. and
either the ground or on a platform in a thin-layer directly
continued until 20.00 p.m. Moisture loss was measured
exposed to the sunlight.
at 4-h intervals during drying for the drying curves
Recently, there have been much research on the
determined using a Mettler balance (model BB3000),
mathematical modelling and experimental studies of
which has 0–3000 g measurement range with an accu-
the drying behaviour of various fruits, such as grapes
racy of ±0.1 g. No measurement was made during the
(Dincer, 1996; Doymaz & Pala, 2002; Kostaropoulos
night. Drying was continued until the sample reached
& Saravacos, 1995), apricots (Mahmutoglu, Pala, &
the desired moisture level (25 + 0.5%, wet basis). Dried
Unal, 1995; Togrul & Pehlivan, 2004), figs (Babalis &
samples were packed in low density polyethylene
Belessiotis, 2004), prickly pear (Lahsasni, Kouhila,
(LDPE) bags, which were sealed thermally. The experi-
Mahrouz, & Jaouhari, 2004), plum (Doymaz, 2004a; Sa-
ments were repeated three times to obtaining accurate
barez, Price, Back, & Woolf, 1997), and mulberry (Doy-
results, after that average values were used.
maz, 2004b; Maskan & Gogus, 1998). Studies on the
drying of figs are scarce in the literature. Therefore,
the present study was undertaken to study the drying
kinetics of figs in direct exposure to the sun, to calculate 3. Results and discussion
the effective diffusivity of the samples and to fit the
experimental data to eight thin-layer drying models. The experiments were performed in August 2003, in
Iskenderun-Hatay, Turkey. The variation of ambient
2. Material and methods air temperatures during sun drying of fig samples under
natural convection in a typical day is shown in Fig. 1.
Fresh figs (Ficus carica) were obtained from Iskende- During the drying experiments, the temperature of the
run-Hatay, harvested by hand. Hatay is a province of ambient air ranged from 35 to 47 C. The air tempera-
 I. Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 71 (2005) 403–407 405

50 0.14

Drying rate (kg water/kg dry matter.h)

0.12
46
Ambient air temperature (°C)

0.1
42
0.08

38 0.06

0.04
34
0.02

30 0
8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00
0 20 40 60 80 100
Day times Drying time (h)
Fig. 1. Variation of ambient temperature during sun drying of figs on Fig. 3. Drying rate of figs changes with drying time.
a typical day of August 2003 at Iskenderun-Hatay.

3.1. Modeling of the drying curves

ture reached in its highest values between 10.00 a.m. and
15.00 p.m.
The sun drying curve obtained were fitted with eight
Drying curves of fig are presented in Figs. 2 and 3. It
thin-layer drying models such as Lewis, Henderson and
is apparent that moisture ratio decreases continuously
Pabis, Page, Logarithmic, Two-term, Two-term expo-
with drying time. As indicated in these curves, there
nential, Verma et al., and Wang and Singh models
was no constant rate period in drying of figs. All the dry-
(Table 2). In these models, the moisture ratio (MR)
ing process occurred in the falling rate period, starting
was simplified to M/M0 instead of (M
Me)/
from the initial moisture content (74 ± 0.5%, wet basis)
(M0
Me), where M0, M and Me are initial, after time
to final moisture content (25 ± 0.5%, wet basis). In the
(t) and equilibrium moisture contents, respectively.
falling rate period the material surface is no longer
Because the relative humidity of the drying air continu-
saturated with water and drying rate is controlled by
ously fluctuated under sun drying conditions (Diamante
diffusion of moisture from the interior of solid to the
& Munro, 1993).
surface (Diamante & Munro, 1993). These results are
The regression analysis was performed using the
in agreement with the observations of earlier researchers
Statistica computer program. The determination of
(Doymaz, 2004b; Lahsasni et al., 2004; Togrul &
coefficient (R2) was one of the primary criterions for
Pehlivan, 2004).
selecting the best model to define the drying curves of
figs. In addition to R2, the various statistical parameters
such as reduced chi-square (v2) and root mean square
error (RMSE) were used to determine of fitness. The
1.0 higher R2 values and the lower v2 and RMSE values
show the best fitting parameters (Ozdemir & Devres,
Experimental
1999; Akpinar, Bicer, & Yildiz, 2003). These parameters
0.8 Verma et al. model can be described in the following:
PN
ðMRexp;i
MRpre;i Þ2
Moisture ratio

2
0.6 v ¼ i¼1 ð1Þ
N
z
" #1=2
0.4 1 XN
2
RMSE ¼ ðMRpre;i
MRexp;i Þ ð2Þ
N i¼1
0.2
where MRexp,i is the ith experimentally observed mois-
ture ratio, MRpre,i is the ith predicted moisture ratio,
0.0 N is number of observations and z is number of
0 20 40 60 80 100 constants.
Drying time (h) Non-linear regression was used to obtain each
Fig. 2. Experimentally determined and predicted moisture ratios of parameter value of every model. R2, v2 and RMSE val-
figs versus drying time. ues obtained for figs are summarised in Table 3. The
406 I. Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 71 (2005) 403–407

Table 2
Mathematical models tested for the moisture ratio values of the figs
Model name Model equation References
Lewis MR = exp(
kt) Ayensu (1997)
Henderson and Pabis MR = a exp(
kt) Akpinar et al. (2003)
Page MR = exp(
ktn) Karathanos and Belessiotis (1999)
Logarithmic MR = a exp(
kt) + c Yaldiz et al. (2001)
Two-term model MR = a exp(
k0t) + b exp(
k1t) Togrul and Pehlivan (2004)
Two-term exponential MR = a exp(
kt) + (1
a)exp(
kat) Midilli and Kucuk (2003)
Verma et al. MR = a exp(
kt) + (1
a)exp(
gt) Verma et al. (1985)
Wang and Singh MR = 1 + at + bt2 Wang and Singh (1978)

Table 3
Curve fitting criteria for the various models and parameters for drying of figs
Model name Model constants R2 v2 RMSE
Lewis k: 0.030468 0.9717 0.002119 0.122045
Henderson and Pabis a: 0.925237,k: 0.027830 0.9838 0.001302 0.095712
Page k: 0.064780, y: 0.791604 0.9912 0.000703 0.075107
Logarithmic a: 0.886485, k: 0.032325, 0.9854 0.001270 0.095909
c: 0.053585
Two-term a: 0.837497, b: 0.164923, 0.9944 0.000526 0.063381
k0: 0.024954, k1: 0.314409
Two-term exponential a: 0.140044, k: 0.186061 0.9912 0.000706 0.074918
Verma et al. a: 0.837681, k: 0.024960, 0.9944 0.000483 0.062857
g: 0.312673
Wang and Singh a:
0.025114, b: 0.000182 0.9512 0.003935 0.157139

best model describing the thin-layer drying characteris- Eq. (3) can be further simplified to a straight-line equa-
tics of figs was chosen as the one with the highest R2 tion as (Riva & Peri, 1986):
values and the lowest v2 and RMSE values. In all cases,

2 
6 p Deff t
the R2 values for the models were greater than 0.95, indi- MR ¼ ln 2
ð4Þ
p r2
cating a good fit. Generally R2, v2 and RMSE values
were between 0.9512 and 0.9944, 0.000483 and The effective diffusivity was calculated using the
0.003935 and 0.062857 and 0.157139, respectively. As method of slopes. Effective diffusivities are typically
expected, the Two-term and Verma et al. models give determined by plotting experimental drying data in
the highest value of R2. However, the results have shown terms of ln (MR) versus time data (Lomauro, Bakshi,
that the v2 and RMSE values of the Verma et al. model & Labuza, 1985). From Eq. (4), a plot of ln (MR) versus
are lower than the other models (Table 3). According to time gives a straight line with a slope (k2) of:
these results, Verma et al. model was successfully p2 Deff
k2 ¼ ð5Þ
applied to the sun drying of figs. Fig. 2 shows compari- r2
son of experimental and predicted moisture ratio values During drying of fig, the effective diffusivity is found
with the Verma et al. model. 2.47 · 10
10 m2/s. This value was lower than the re-
ported diffusivities for figs (Babalis & Belessiotis,
3.2. Determination of effective diffusivity 2004), but within the general range of 10
09–10
11 m2/s
for food materials (Madamba, Driscoll, & Buckle,
The effective diffusivity of the fig is estimated by using 1996). Table 4 shows the Deff of the present study as well
the simplified mathematical FickÕs second model. Ana-
lytical solution of one-dimensional FickÕs law of diffu- Table 4
sion with constant moisture diffusivity for sphere is Effective diffusivities of figs and other fruits
given as (Crank, 1975): Fruits Effective diffusivity (m2/s) References

2 2  Apricot
10
8.90 · 10 –1.30 · 10
09
Mahmutoglu et al. (1995)
6 X1
1 n p Deff t
MR ¼ 2 exp
ð3Þ Grape 7.91 · 10
10–2.50 · 10
09 Doymaz and Pala (2002)
p n¼1 n2 r2 Mulberry 2.32 · 10
10–2.76 · 10
09 Maskan and Gogus (1998)
Prune 4.30 · 10
10–7.60 · 10
10 Sabarez and Price (1999)
where Deff is the effective diffusivity (m2/s) and r is the ra- Fig 7.77 · 10
10–2.45 · 10
09 Babalis and Belessiotis (2004)
dius of the fig (m). For long drying times (setting n = 1), Fig 2.47 · 10
10 Present work
 I. Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 71 (2005) 403–407
as information available in the literature. As a result,
these values are consistent with the present estimated
Deff value for figs.
4. Conclusions
In this study, sun drying of figs was investigated. Dry-
ing of figs occurred in the falling rate period; no con-
stant rate period of drying was observed. To explain
the drying behaviour of figs eight thin-layer drying mod-
els were applied. Among these models, the Verma et al.
model has shown a better fit to the experimental fig data
than the other models. The resulting model gave values
of parameters: R2: 0.9945, v2: 0.000483 and RMSE:
0.062857 for samples in the thin-layer sun drying pro-
cess. According to the results, the Verma et al. model
could adequately describe drying characteristics of fig.
The effective moisture diffusivity value was estimated
from FickÕs diffusional model by 2.47 · 10
10 m2/s.
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