Effect of Solar Drying on Physico-chemical and Antioxidant Properties of Mango, Banana and Papaya

Fruits play an important role in human nutrition, but due to their high perishable nature they cannot be stored for longer period. As drying is the ancient method of preservation, therefore, solar tunnel drying is done to evaluate the effect of drying on physico-chemical and antioxidant activity of mango, banana and papaya fruits. Fruits viz. mango and papaya were cut into slices while banana were made into rings (thickness of 1 ± 0.1 cm) and kept at a temperature of 60 ± 2 °C for 6 h under solar tunnel drier. During drying the removal of moisture content increased the physico-chemical properties viz. total soluble solids, acidity, reducing and total sugars of all the fruits. The antioxidant compounds, total phenols and total carotenoids were increased while heat sensitive vit-C decreased. However, the antioxidant activity, after drying, was increased in mango from 68.6 to 86.3 %, in papaya from 64.1 to 80.4 % and in banana from 59.5 to 73.2 %, respectively. Thus, solar tunnel drying is an inexpensive method of preserving the fruits efficiently and effectively for longer period of time.