Acerola is a tropical fruit whose residues from its processing contain amounts vitamin C, phenolic and other bioactive compounds at the same level of the fruit pulp and juice. In this work we used a novel system for acerola waste drying, which is composed by a new rotary dryer (developed by our research group), named roto-aerated dryer, equipped with a new pre-drying system using infrared radiation. In addition, a pretreatment with ethanol was performed to improve the process performance. The ascorbic acid content, total phenolic content, total flavonoid contents, and antioxidant activity were quantified before and after drying. The main phenolic acids and flavonoids were identified by high performance liquid chromatography. Operating conditions that promoted high moisture removal (91.2%) and that yield to a product with high antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ = 11.6 ± 0.3 µg/mL) and low water activity (0.374) were identified. The pretreatment with ethanol led to an increase of up to 72% of the moisture reduction. Therefore, the drying results revealed that this novel dryer system combined with the ethanol pre-treatment is a good alternative for dehydration, reducing the process time and maintaining a high antioxidant activity.

Graphic Abstract

中文翻译：

---

红外辐射辅助的新型旋转干燥机用于西印度樱桃残留物的干燥

Acerola是一种热带水果，其加工过程中的残留物所含的维生素C，酚类和其他生物活性化合物的含量与果肉和果汁相同。在这项工作中，我们使用了一种新型的针叶木废料干燥系统，该系统由新型旋转干燥机（由我们的研究小组开发）组成，称为旋转曝气干燥机，配备了新的利用红外线辐射的预干燥系统。另外，用乙醇进行预处理以改善工艺性能。在干燥前后定量抗坏血酸含量，总酚含量，总黄酮含量和抗氧化活性。通过高效液相色谱法鉴定了主要的酚酸和类黄酮。促进高水分去除的运行条件（91。₅₀  = 11.6±0.3 µg / mL）和低水活度（0.374）。用乙醇进行预处理可使水分减少量最多增加72％。因此，干燥结果表明，这种新颖的干燥机系统与乙醇预处理相结合，是脱水，减少处理时间并保持高抗氧化活性的良好选择。

图形摘要