Effect of ethyl oleate pretreatment on blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.): drying kinetics, antioxidant activity, and structure of wax layer

Blueberry belongs to the genus vaccinium, which is rich in a variety of biologically active components beneficial to the human body. Drying of blueberry is a slow and energy-intensive process because of its waxy skin, which has low permeability to moisture. Therefore, chemical pretreatment of ethyl oleate (AEEO) was adopted to accelerate moisture diffusivity. The results showed that the drying rate of blueberries was increased significantly by AEEO treatment, and the drying time can be shortened by 17.17–40.70%. After AEEO dipping, the effective diffusion coefficient increased from 5.461 × 10−9 to 1.067 × 10−8 m2/s at 60 °C. Six semi-theoretical thin-layer models were used to estimate the curves of air-drying of blueberry, and Wang–Singh model was found to perform better than other models. Besides, the rehydration and retention of nutritional contents were also improved by AEEO dipping. The total phenolics, total flavonoids, total anthocyanin content, and ABTS*+ scavenging activity of blueberry were increased by 37.74%, 21.01%, 47.83%, and 30.75%, respectively. The result of SEM observation and cell-membrane permeability indicated that AEEO could break down the wax layer of blueberry, change the crystal structure of wax layer, and increase cell permeability, which resulted in shorter drying time and higher quality of blueberry.