Drying Characteristics of Indigenous Ginger Rhizomes under Cabinet Dryer: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The seasonal production of indigenous ginger rhizomes as well as its rising consumption due to the medicinal and nutritional values as necessitated a need to study the drying characteristics of the product. Processing ginger into dried form helps to cut down on post-harvest losses that generally occur during storage and increase the product shelf life. Drying of ginger can also increase supply, improve seasonal food choice, generate income and decrease excessive dependence on imported processed ginger. Both experimental and analytical studies of thin layer process of drying are essential for performance evaluation and improvement of drying systems. The experimental study objective is to evaluate the drying characteristics of two varieties of ginger rhizomes (Umudike ginger I and II - UG I and II) under blanched and unblanched and various treatment configurations (whole-peeled, whole-unpeeled, split-peeled, split-unpeeled) using cabinet dryer at temperature of 50^oC. The highest drying rate for blanched samples was observed for split-peeled, followed by split-unpeeled, whole-peeled and whole-unpeeled. Even though blanching increases the drying rate, no significant difference between the blanching periods for the two varieties under study. The result suggests that the UG I and UG II ginger varieties exhibit same drying characteristics under similar drying conditions. In addition, the study further suggests that the general objective concerning experimental and analytical studies of thin-layer drying of ginger rhizomes for cabinet drying of the two ginger varieties were met.