JOURNAL OF READY TO EAT FOOD

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

G. D. Patia*, I. L. Pardeshib and K.J. Shindec
a
M. Tech. Scholar, bAssociate Professor, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, College of Agricultural
Engineering and Technology, cAssistant Professor of Mathematics, College of Agicultural Engineering and
Technology, Dr. PDKV Akola, India.

Abstract
Green leafy vegetables (GLVs) are highly perishable but can be
preserved by various methods including dehydration which is eco-friendly
and easily adoptable. An investigation was undertaken to study the
dehydration of GLVs (fenugreek, coriander, spinach, mint, shepu and curry
leaves) and its effect on quality. Microwave drying characteristics of GLVs
*Corresponding Author: were assessed at five different microwave output powers ranging from 135-
675 Watts (W) were used for drying GLVs. The Results indicated that, as
G. D. Patil the microwave output power increased to 675 W from 135 W, the drying
time decreased significantly by 64%. GLVs dried in 135, 270 and 405 W
Email: ganeshpatil281289@gmail.com power possessed higher protein (21.34, 20.21, and 19.42 g/100gdm) than
that in case of 540 and 675 W microwave output power. The coriander,
fenugreek and shepu dried at lower output power in microwave oven,
Received: 08/02/2015 possessed significantly higher calcium (296.14, 264.97 and 277.22
mg/100g, respectively) than GLVs dried at higher microwave output power.
Revised: 12/03/2015 Chlorophyll content was found to be higher in microwave oven dried shepu
(58.23%) and coriander (82.81%) at 135 W microwave output power.
Accepted: 31/03/2015 Microwave oven dried GLVs could be stored for about 3 weeks in
packaging material of metalized polyester (MP), under extreme condition
(45°C, 95% RH). However, the shelf life of these GLVs dried in
microwave oven could be predicted to be minimum six months if stored in
metalized polyester (MP) at 65% RH and 30 °C temperature.

Keywords: Green leafy vegetables, Dehydration, Page model, Shelf life,

Chlorophyll.

1. Introduction of India. As Gopalan (1996) rightly puts it, food

India is blessed with an array of leafy
vegetables: some are cultivated and many are gathered.
Green Leafy Vegetables (GLVs) represent an excellent
component of the habitual diet in the tropical and
temperate countries. Numerous types of GLVs are
consumed; few of them are to fenugreek, mint
(pudina), coriander, spinach, shepu and curry leaves.
Green leafy vegetables add variety to a monotonous
diet, have an alternative taste, attractive in appearance
and contribute a pleasing aroma. Besides, they are
known to be the most inexpensive sources of several
vital nutrients. This group of foods are rich sources of
different vitamins in the form of beta-carotene,
ascorbic acid, riboflavin, folic acid; minerals like
calcium, iron, potassium, sodium and phosphorous
(Karva, 2008).
Micronutrient deficiencies specially Vitamin A
(VAD) and iron (ID) are the major nutritional problems
approach is excellent strategy to combat nutritional
deficiencies and is superior to pharmacological
approach as the former provides a package of nutrients
and health promoting components like fibre, unlike
sole nutrients in the latter. In this context, GLVs being
inexpensive, affordable, sustainable and culturally
acceptable and fit very well into the routine diet and
can serve as a means to address these micronutrient
deficiencies.
Drying is one of the traditional methods of
preservation, which converts the vegetables into light
weight, easily transportable and storable product.
Advantage of this method is that the vegetable can be
used throughout the year as it can be easily converted
into fresh like form by rehydrating it. In addition to
increasing variety in the menu, reducing losses, labour
and storage space, dehydrated vegetables are simple to
use and have longer shelf-life than fresh vegetables

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer
(Chauhan and Sharma, 1993) along with concentration
of nutrients.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Selection and Procurement of Green Leafy
Vegetables
Most commonly utilized GLVs viz. coriander
(Coriandrum sativum) L. (Apiaceae), fenugreek
(Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), shepu (Anethum
graveolens), spinach (Spinacia oleracea), curry leaves
(Murraya koenigii), and mint (Mentha sachalinensis),
were selected and procured from the local market of
Akola city.
2.2 Method of Drying and Drying
Temperatures
Microwave oven drying at different output
power ranging from 135 to 675 W was selected for
dehydrating the GLVs.
2.3 Effect of Dehydration on Nutrient
Composition
Nutrient content of dehydrated GLVs were
analyzed using standard methods.
2.3.1 Moisture
The moisture content of the fresh and
dehydrated GLVs was determined by AOAC method
(Anon, 1990). The difference between weights before
and after exposing to hot air oven at 70°C for 72 hrs is
considered as moisture. The percentages of moisture
were calculated as follows.
(1)
Where,
W1 =Weight of the sample before drying, g
W2 = Weight of sample after drying, g
2.3.2 Chlorophyll
The chlorophyll content of the dehydrated
GLVs was measured using the method of McKinney
(1941). Chlorophyll is extracted in DMSO (Dimethyl
Sulphoxide) by heating and absorption at 645 nm and
663 nm and was read in a spectrophotometer.
2.3.3 Protein
Total nitrogen of moisture free samples will be
estimated by micro-kjeldhal method employing auto
analyzers (Kelplus pelican model). Organic nitrogen
would be digested with concentrated sulphuric acid in
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the presence of a catalyst, converted into ammonium
sulphate and distilled to obtain nitrogen. Further
nitrogen will be multiplied with conversion factor
(6.25) to obtain crude protein (Anon, 1990).
2.3.4 Calcium
Calcium will be determined by precipitating it
as calcium oxalate and titrating the solution of oxalate
in dilute H2SO4 against standard KMnO4 employing
AOAC (1990).
2.4 Mathematical Modeling Of Moisture
Removal during Drying of GLVs on
Microwave Oven
As in most studies carried out on drying,
diffusion is generally accepted to be the main
mechanism during the transport of moisture to the
surface to be evaporated. The solution of Fick’s
equation, with the assumptions of moisture migration
being by diffusion, constant diffusion coefficients and
temperature for an infinite slab (initial shape) (Brooker,
et al., 1974) is,
 M − Me  8 ∞
1  Π 2 (2n + 1) 2 Deff t 
MR =   = 2 ∑ (2n + 1) exp −



 Mo − Me  Π
2
n =0  4l 2  (2)
Where M, Mo and Me are the local, initial and
equilibrium moisture content (kg/kg dm), respectively,
l is the half of the thickness of flat strip (m), t is the
time (min) and Deff is the effective diffusivity (m2/s).
The different simplified drying equations derived from
Equation 2 are enlisted in Table 1(Pardeshi et al., 2009;
Pardeshi and Chattopadhyay, 2010; Pardeshi and
Chattopadhyay, 2014).
The reduced χ-square, modeling efficiency (EF)
and mean relative deviation modulus (Po, %) were used
as the primary criterion to select the best equation to
account for variation in the drying curves of the dried
samples (as in drying by Ozdemir and Devres, 1999;
Sarsavadia et al., 1999). Reduced χ-square is the mean
square of the deviations between the experimental and
calculated values for the models and was used to
determine the goodness of the fit. The lower the values
of the reduced χ-square, the better the goodness of the
fit is. The EF also gives the ability of the model and its
highest value is 1. The values of Po (%) are acceptable
below 10% (Ozdemir and Devres, 1999; Pardeshi et
al., 2009). These statistical values can be calculated as
follows:
N
∑ (MR exp i − MR prei ) 2
χ2 = i =1
N '− n' (3)
 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

N' N'

∑ ( MR exp i − MR exp mean ) 2 − ∑ ( MR prei − MR exp i ) 2

EF = i =1 i =1  3723.67 
N' = exp 23.0603 − 
∑ ( MRexp i − MRexp mean ) 2  222 .857 + T  (Geankoplis, 1983)
i =1 (4)
KA= permeability of the packaging material (kg m-2
100 N ' MRexp i − MR prei day-1 Pa-1)
P0 (%) = ∑ MR
N ' i =1 A’ = area of the package (m2)
exp i
(5)
RH = relative humidity in which package is placed
where MRexpi is the ith experimental moisture
(fraction)
ratio, MRprei is the ith predicted moisture ratio, N’ is the
aW = water activity (fraction) of the product at T °C = f
number of observations, n’ is the number of constants
(M)
in drying model and MRexpmeanis the mean value of
aWc= critical water activity and is less than or equal to
experimental moisture ratio (Midilli and Kucuk, 2003)
RH
and L is the characteristic dimension of the material M = Moisture content of the dried vegetables (kg water
(Diamente and Munro, 1991), i.e., thickness of green
per kg dm)
leafy vegetable in this case and a, b, c, k1, ko, k, n, g
i and c = are the suffix for initial and critical
and h are model constants.
conditions, respectively.
2.5 Storage of Dehydrated Green Leafy
3. Results and Discussion
Vegetables
Storage studies on the final products prepared
by optimized process conditions were conducted at
3.1 Standardization of Microwave Power for
different relative humidities, temperatures and Drying of GLVs
packaging materials. Two types of packaging materials Effect of varied Microwave powers (W) on total
viz., polypropylene polyethylene (PP) and metalized time taken for dehydration during drying is elicited in
polyester (MP) were used for storage studies, as these Table 2. With increase in power, the time taken for
materials are known to be fairly good moisture and drying decreased. Irrespective of GLVs, drying in
oxygen resistant and are being used commercially for microwave oven at 135, 270 W power required
packaging of dehydrated leafy vegetables. The water significantly greater time of 25-30 minutes when
vapor transmission ratio was determined for each compared to time of drying as 25, 20, 10 min
packaging material. respectively, at 405, 540, and 675 W power, which
were on par with each other. Both spinach and
coriander leaves needed maximum time of 30 and 25
2.6 Shelf Life Calculation
min, respectively to dry to crispness which was
Shelf life of the product ‘θ’ (days) i.e. period
significantly higher than curry leaf and shepu leaves
required for the moisture content of the dehydrated
irrespective of microwave powers. Among the leafy
green leafy vegetables to increase from an initial value
vegetables, spinach required significantly higher time
of Mi (kg water per kg dm) to its critical value Mc
of 30 min to dry at 135 W power followed by coriander
where it lost its crispness (kg water per kg dm) is
(25 min). On the contrary, at 540 and 675 W power,
expressed in Eq. 6. The value of the integral of same
coriander had taken lower time of 20 min and 15 min,
can be estimated numerically (Das, 2005).
Mc respectively for drying.
W M
θ= * s ∫
P K A A' M i RH − aW 3.2 Effect of Microwave Dehydration/ Drying
(6)
If the initial and critical aW are known, then Eq. on Nutrient Composition of Green Leafy
6 could be simplified to a following form (applicable Vegetables
for aWc< RH), Dehydration a process of moisture removal is
Wgain presumed to concentrate the nutrients and destroying
θ=
K A A' P * aWc − aWi( (7)
) the heat labile ones. Hence, an experiment was planned
to find out the effect of microwave dehydration on
where, θ = shelf life (days) nutritive value of GLVs. The protein content of
Ws= dry matter in the product (kg) dehydrated GLVs presented in Table 3, indicates that,
Wgain= weight gain due to moisture uptake fenugreek after dehydration in microwave oven at 135
= Ws (Mc – Mi) and 270 W power possessed significantly higher
P* = saturation vapor pressure of water at T °C (Pa) amount (20.01 and 19.50 g/100gdm) compared to
fenugreek dried at higher power, while coriander and-

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

Table 1: Mathematical models applied to drying curves

Sl.No. Model name Model Reference

1. Lewis MR = exp ( − kt ) Sarsavadia et al., (1999)

( − kt n )
2. Page MR = exp Guarte (1996)

MR = exp[ − ( kt )
n
]
3. Modified Page Overhults, et al., (1973),
[ − ( k ( t / L2 ))n ]
4. Modified Page-II MR = exp Diamente and Munro (1991)

5. Henderson and MR = a exp( − kt ) Guarte (1996)

Pabis
6. Logaritmic MR = a exp( − kt ) + c Yaldız and Ertekin (2001)
( − k 0t ) ( − k1t )
7. Two term MR = a exp + b exp Madamba, et al., (1996),

8. Two term MR = a exp + (1 − a) exp ( − kat )

( − kt )
Yaldız and Ertekin (2001)
exponential
9. Diffusion MR = a exp ( − kt ) + (1 − a) exp ( − kbt ) Yaldız and Ertekin (2001)
approximation
t
−c ( )
10. Diffusion equation MR = a exp L2
Diamente and Munro, (1991)
( − kt ) ( − gt )
11. Verma et al. MR = a exp + (1 − a) exp Verma et al., (1985), Yaldız and Ertekin (2001)
( − kt ) ( − gt ) ( − ht )
12. Modified Henderson MR = a exp + b exp + c exp Karathanos (1999)
and Pabis

MR = a exp ( − kt ) + bt
n
13. Midilli et al. Midilli, et al., (2002)

14. Wang and Singh MR = 1 + at + bt 2 Ozdemir and Devres (1999), Wang and Singh (1978)

15. Thompson t = a ln(MR) + b[ln(MR)]2 Thompson, et al., (1968), Yaldız and Ertekin (2001)

Table 2: Time taken for drying of GLVs at different power on microwave oven drier

Microwave oven drying in power (Watt)

GLVs 135 270 405 540 675
Final Final Final Final Final
Time Time Time Time Time
MC % MC % MC % MC % MC %
(min) (min) (min) (min) (min)
wb wb wb wb wb
Fenugreek 30.00 6.25 25.00 6.05 25.00 5.78 20.00 5.25 15.00 4.56
Coriander 30.00 6.05 25.00 5.89 25.00 5.50 20.00 5.05 15.00 4.05
Spinach 30.00 7.05 25.00 6.85 25.00 5.55 20.00 5.27 15.00 4.25
Mint 30.00 6.25 25.00 5.71 20.00 5.26 20.00 4.95 15.00 4.78
Shepu 25.00 5.50 20.00 5.02 20.00 5.00 15.00 4.89 10.00 3.89
Curry
25.00 5.78 25.00 5.25 20.00 5.05 20.00 4.87 15.00 4.56
leaves
Mean 28.33 6.15 24.17 5.80 22.50 5.36 19.16 5.05 14.16 4.35
SEM± 1.05 - 0.83 - 1.11 - 0.83 - 0.83 -
CD@ 5% 2.43 - 3.33 -- 2.50 - 3.08 - 3.08 -
f-test NS - 0.55 - NS - 0.65 - 0.40 -

mint contained significantly lower protein of 17.56 and to GLVs dried at 135, 270 and 405 W power in
19.05 g/100gdm dried at 135 W power. On the microwave oven. Calcium content of all the dried
contrary, when all GLVs dried in a microwave oven at GLVs shown in Table 4, reveals that the microwave
540 and 675 W power had lowest protein as compared oven dried fenugreek, coriander and spinach at the 135,

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

270 and 405 W power possessed significantly higher
calcium (645.20, 566.17, 620.88 mg/100g dm,
respectively) compared to dried at the 540 and 675 W
power (278.44, 262.63 mg/100g dm, respectively).
The GLVs dried at 540 and 675 W power in
microwave oven had the lowest brightness L value of
41.78 and 40.55 as compared to GLVs dried at 135,
270 and 405 W power, that had the highest brightness
L value of 52.43, 49.23 and 47.15 as shown in Table 5.
This indicates that microwave drying of lower output
power did not affect the colour quality of GLVs
samples as much as higher output power did. GLVs
dried in microwave oven at 135, 270 and 405 W power
had the highest chlorophyll content as compared to
GLVs dried at 540 and 675 W power shown in Table 5.
The fenugreek, coriander and mint had the highest
chlorophyll contents of 4.06, 3.66 and 3.83 mg/g dried
at 135 W power as compared to higher output power.
3.3 Variation in Moisture Ratio with Drying
Time
Table 3: Protein content (g/100 g dm) of dried GLVs on microwave oven dryer
Fig 1 shows the trend of the moisture ratio versus
drying time. Fig 1 consisted of experiments for the
drying of GLVs at different temperatures on
microwave oven drying method (at 135, 270, 405, 540
and 675 W power). The curve shows the moisture ratio
to be higher in initial drying period in all cases;
however, in later stage of drying it decreased at slower
rate. The curve shown in Fig 1 reveals that for all the
GLVs, the moisture ratio decreased at faster rate in
microwave oven drying at 540 and 675 W power
compared to that for GLVs dried at 135, 270, and 405
W power. In this drying method, shepu and curry
leaves dried in a lowest time than other GLVs.
3.4 Mathematical Modeling of Moisture
Removal during Drying of GLVs on
Different Driers
The results of χ2, RMSE, EF and Po(%) values
of 12 models, mentioned in Table 1, for green leafy

Sr. Fresh Microwave Power (Watt)

Vegetables
No. leaves 135 270 405 540 675
1 Fenugreek 41.88 20.01 19.50 18.36 16.90 15.80
2 Coriander 36.57 17.56 15.61 14.22 13.50 11.45
3 Spinach 46.08 21.23 20.33 19.56 18.25 16.20
4 Mint 31.79 19.05 17.45 15.60 12.85 12.20
5 Shepu 36.57 19.90 17.86 16.42 15.78 13.40
6 Curry leaves 38.86 19.85 18.72 17.66 13.52 12.75
Mean 38.62 19.60 18.24 16.97 15.13 13.63
CD@5% 1.27 5.16 3.77 3.24 2.88 3.23
CV% 12.75 6.22 9.12 11.44 14.39 14.27

Table 4: Calcium content (mg/100g dm) dried GLVs on microwave oven dryer

Sr. Fresh Power in (Watt)

Vegetables
No. leaves 135 270 405 540 675
1 Fenugreek 1300.00 278.44 274.88 272.10 262.34 248.90
2 Coriander 1171.43 282.63 278.56 271.89 259.51 245.40
3 Spinach 1389.27 303.84 296.41 282.00 271.30 258.20
4 Mint 1076.92 309.35 297.22 288.40 275.25 260.00
5 Shepu 1165.71 290.72 284.05 280.11 269.87 256.40
6 Curry leaves 1165.71 307.03 298.33 287.36 272.40 261.22
Mean 1211.51 295.34 288.24 280.31 268.45 255.02
CD@5% 0.05 0.47 0.60 0.87 1.02 0.98
CV% 9.29 4.47 3.60 2.55 2.91 2.51

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

Table 5: Effect of dehydration on color L-value and chlorophyll contents of GLVs on microwave oven drier

Power in (Watt)
135 270 405 540 675
Sr.
Vegetables Total Color Total Total Color Total Color Total Color
No. Color L
chl. L chl. chl. L chl. L chl. L
value
(mg/g) value (mg/g) (mg/g) value (mg/g) value (mg/g) value
1 Fenugreek 4.06 49.40 2.56 47.20 1.91 44.26 1.73 43.54 1.35 41.54
2 Coriander 3.66 52.43 3.02 44.15 3.10 46.00 2.26 42.50 1.55 43.50
3 Spinach 3.16 43.82 2.84 41.66 2.35 43.22 1.68 42.21 1.67 41.05
4 Mint 3.83 44.02 3.62 43.32 3.05 41.18 2.06 42.36 1.33 40.55
5 Shepu 3.35 47.22 3.88 44.11 3.56 42.41 2.75 44.02 2.75 41.78
Curry 47.41
6 3.77 3.75 42.54 3.34 44.22 2.88 43.12 1.85 42.34
leaves

Table 6: The comparison of selected drying models considering dependency of constants on drying temperature with respect to
χ2, EF and Po(%) values for GLVs.

Sr.
Name of model R2 Po (%) X2 EF
No.
1 Page’s model 0.9927 3.8521 0.0004 0.9952
2 Logarithmic model 0.9840 4.2554 0.0005 0.9828
3 Midilli et al. 0.9655 9.4175 0.0024 0.9666

Table 7: Predicted shelf life of dehydrated green leafy vegetables

Predicted shelf life (days)

Temp Packaging
RH Curry
(0C) material Fenugreek Coriander Spinach Mint Shepu
leaves
30 0.65 PP 61 52 58 66 55 60
30 0.65 MP 222 205 260 304 225 256
30 0.95 PP 35 34 32 37 35 40
30 0.95 MP 76 74 70 105 88 67
45* 0.95 PP 18 16 15 16 17 19
45* 0.95 MP 22 20 23 22 19 24
*Actual observations validated by theoretical predictions.

vegetables dried at 135, 270, 405, 540 and 675 W
microwave power. It could be observed that all the
models exhibited values of coefficient of determination
(R2) more than 0.950 while χ2 and EF values were
between 0.0000 to 0.0216 and 0.7263 to 0.9999,
respectively. The Page’s , Logarithmic and Midilli
models could give Po(%) values below 5 % at all the
drying microwave power, therefore, only these three
models were further analyzed for dependency of their
constants on drying microwave power. It was observed
that after considering the dependency of their
constants, only Page’s model could reveal Po (%) value
below 10%, i.e., 3.8909 % as shown in Table 6. It
could be seen that Page model is indicating values of χ2
as 0.0005, EF as 0.9952and value of R2 as 0.9927. The
values of R2, EF, χ2 and P0 (%) for Midilli model.were
very redundant, may be because the predicted values of
constants of equations with drying microwave power
were very much deviating from their experimental
values. Therefore, Page model could be chosen to
represent the drying process of microwave oven, for
the range of microwave output power 135 to 675 W.
This model represented the experimental values
satisfactorily. When the effect of microwave output
power on Page model’s coefficients by multiple
regressions was examined, the most suitable model was
found to be as given in Equation 8. The test of Po (%)

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer

Fig 1: Variation in moisture ratio with drying time at microwave oven drying method

Fig 2: Moisture content of dried GLVs during storage period

values for deciding capability of models is observed to MR = exp ( − kt

n
)
be most important criteria.
[R2=0.9927; P0 (%) = 3.8521] (8)
Page’s Model
where,

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 Patil and Pardeshi…Drying of Green Leafy Vegetables using Microwave Oven Dryer
k = – 6.5 x 10-7 T3 + 0.00043 T2 – 0.09483 T +
6.944229
n = 1.74 x 10-5 T3 – 0.01162 T2 + 2.573179 T –
188.052 and ‘T’is drying temperature in °C.
It can be seen that, this model was in
goodagreement with the experimental results.
3.5 Storage Studies of the Dehydrated Green
Leafy Vegetables
This section deals with the changes observed in
the product during the storage studies under three
relative humidity, viz., 35, 65, 95% at 30°C and under
95% relative humidity at 45°C. As already discussed in
the above section the product was stored in two types
of packaging material (PP and MP), for above
conditions during storage studies.
3.6 Moisture Content of Dried GLVs During
Storage
Variation in moisture content of the product
stored under different conditions is presented in
graphically represented in Fig 2, for dried GLVs,
respectively. Moisture content was found to increase
rapidly with time in all the cases except, at 30°C with
35% RH where very low increase was recorded. The
variation of moisture content in the product was higher
in case of those packed in high molecular weight high-
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Journal of Ready to Eat Food | January-March, 2015 | Vol 2 | Issue 1 | Pages 18-26
© 2015 Jakraya Publications (P) Ltd
25
density polyethylene (HM) and lower in case of
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4. Conclusions
The drying of GLVs on microwave oven drier
was conducted at five different output powers from 135
to 675 W from its initial moisture of 4.45kg/kg dm up
to moisture content resembling to optimum condition.
Microwave oven drying can greatly reduce the drying
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