The variation of mineral content in celery root during the treatment in two osmotic solution

Abstract

© 2019, Consulting and Training Center - KEY. All rights reserved. In this study, the changes in the content of potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron of celery root during osmotic treatment were evaluated and compared for different process conditions. The main objective was to investigate the possibility of enhancing the mineral content of treated material using sugar beet molasses as osmotic medium. Celery (Apium graveolens) has been known as a traditional medicinal plant or spice, and as an excellent source of minerals is vital for the maintenance of human health. During conventional drying of celery, high temperature and the presence of oxygen, can negatively affect the composition of the minerals. In order to preserve health benefits substances, osmotic treatment which involves immersion of the raw material in concentrated solutions on the mild temperatures, has been suggested. Osmotic treatment implies three simultaneous flows: migration of water from the submerged material into the surrounding solution, penetration of dissolved substances from the solution into the plant tissue and leaching out of the tissue`s own solutes. Due to the rich nutrient and mineral composition, molasses as osmotic solution might contribute an improvement to the nutritive quality of the treated products. Osmotic treatment of celery root in two osmotic solutions (mixture of sucrose and sodium chloride aqueous solution and sugar beet molasses), at three temperatures (20, 35 and 500C), and immersion periods (1, 3 and 5 h) was performed. The influence of used osmotic agent, temperature and immersion time of the change of mineral content of the samples was investigated. The content of analyzed mineral matters in fresh and treated samples was determined by atomic absorption spectro-photometer according to the standard methods. The results revealed observable improvement of the mineral content of celery root treated in molasses, while the samples treated with sucrose and sodium chloride solution showed reduction of the examined mineral matters. After 5 h of osmotic treatment in molasses, on the 500C, the content of minerals in samples (mg/100 g) was increased: for K from initial 365.85 to final 766.52; for Mg from 22.42 to 36.98, for Ca from 44.12 to 57.36 and for Fe from 0.76 to 0.91. It can be concluded that molasses due to the rich mineral composition contributes to improving the nutritive quality of the treated products.