MODELING OF THE WATER ADSORPTION ISOTHERM OF MANGO SLICES (Mangifera indica L.) DRIED UNDER HOT AIR

The general objective of this work is to contribute to the reduction of post-harvest losses of mangoes by the transformation into stable dried products.This research aims to determine the best storage conditions for dried mangoes.Thus, the water adsorption isotherms of mango slices dried under hot air were experimentally determined by the static thermogravimetric method at 25°C.Eight mathematical models from the literature were used (GAB, BET, Hasley, Henderson, Harking and Dura, Oswin, Chung and Pfost, Smith) to describe the hygroscopic behavior of dried mango slices.Regression analysis was performed using MatLab R2016a software to determine the coefficients, model parameters and statistical parameters of the smoothing.The results revealed that the equilibrium is obtained from 35 days for the two samples and the adsorption isotherms determined are of type II characterized by a sigmoidal shape.In addition, the three-parameter (GAB) model showed good agreement with the experimental data (r= 0.999 and 0.997 respectively for slices with thicknesses of 1cm and 1.5cm) at 25°C.The water content of the mono-molecular layer is 2.295% at 25°C for the 1cm slices and 2.289% at 25°C for the 1.5cm slices.The net isosteric heat of adsorption tends towards zero for high water contents (0.052KJ/mol at 44.472% water).The linearity between enthalpy (net isosteric heat) and differential entropy of adsorption shows their compensation.