Cold plasma technique as a pretreatment for drying fruits: Evaluation of the excitation frequency on drying process and bioactive compounds.

Abstract The present work aims to evaluate the effect of different excitation frequency (200, 500 and 800 Hz) of cold plasma technique as a pretreatment for drying tucuma. SEM images showed changes on the pretreated tucuma’s surface, favoring the drying rate and diffusivity of water as well as reducing the drying time. Marginal variation of color and reduced drying time were observed in the samples treated using 200 and 800 Hz. The pretreatment improved the concentration of phenolic (45.3 mg GAE g−1) and antioxidant compounds (799.8 µM ET) (p-value