Effect of ultrasonic pre-treatment of water absorption characteristics of chickpeas (Cicer Arietinum)

In this study, the chickpea seeds were exposed to ultrasonic irradiation at vibration amplitude setting 40%, 70% and 100% of nominal power for 3 and 10 min at 24 kHz. Water absorption characteristics, moisture content, leaching loss and soaking water conductivity of chickpea at five different soaking temperatures (25, 30, 40, 50 and 60◦C) and various soaking times up to 10 h were studied. The soaking rates of treated samples were compared with untreated seeds. Peleg’s model was used to describe the hydration kinetics of chickpea seeds during soaking process at different temperatures by weight gain method. Ultrasonic treatment was very effective in water uptake of seeds and was observed that ultrasonic pre-treatment could decrease the soaking time by up to 4 h. The Peleg constant K1 decreased from 10.810-3 to 0.9910-3 h %-1 with increasing temperature from 25 to 60◦C and constant K2 increased linearly from 6.7210-3 %-1 to 9.910-3 %-1with increasing the temperature. The leaching loss and conductivity value also increased significantly when the soaking temperature increased. In soaking process, leaching loss changed from 1.66/100 g to 12.27/100 g and conductivity changed from 367 to 1867 μS/cm as soaking temperature increased from 25 to 60◦C