Study on Drying of Black Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Grains: Physical-Chemical and Bioactive Quality

The present study aimed to assess the drying kinetics of black rice and fit different mathematical models (empirical and diffusive) to the experimental data, and evaluate the effect of drying air temperature on the physical-chemical and bioactive compounds quality of black rice. Drying air temperatures ranged from 40 to 80 oC and the drying air speed was 1.5 m/s. Physical-chemical characterization of the product was based on the following parameters: moisture, water activity, ashes, total protein content, pH, total acidity, lipids, total carbohydrates, total anthocyanins, flavonoids, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity. Among the empirical models, Page showed the lowest mean squared deviations (MSD) and highest coefficients of determination (R2). For the diffusion model, the values of effective mass diffusivity and convective heat transfer coefficient increased with increasing drying air temperature, and the Biot number indicated that the first-type boundary condition would also describe well the drying process. Physical-chemical parameters and bioactive compounds differed between the temperatures used, and the temperature of 60 oC led to the best relationship between drying time and preservation of product characteristics.