Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

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Food Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem

Effect of vacuum and ethanol pretreatment on infrared-hot air drying of T

scallion (Allium fistulosum)
⁎
Xule Wanga, Yabin Fenga, Cunshan Zhoua,b, , Yanhui Sunb, Bengang Wua,
Abu ElGasim A. Yagoubc, Elmuez Alsir A. Aboagariba
a
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, People’s Republic of China
b
School of Biological and Food Engineering, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, 239000, People’s Republic of China
c
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zalingei, P.O. Box: 06, Zalingei, Sudan

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study examined the effects of vacuum, ethanol pretreatment, and infrared-hot air drying methods on the
Scallion characteristics and quality of scallion slices. The pretreatment of scallion includes four conditions: 1) Control:
Vacuum soaking in distilled water under normal pressure, 2) Ethanol: soaking in 75% ethanol under normal pressure, 3)
Ethanol Water + VC: soaking in distilled water under a vacuum of 0.6 bar, 4) Ethanol + VC: soaking in 75% ethanol
Pretreatment
under a vacuum of 0.6 bar. The pretreatment times were 5, 10, 20 and 30 min. The drying process was done in an
Infrared-hot air drying
infrared hot air drying oven at 60 °C. The ethanol pretreated samples exhibited better rehydration, odor, vitamin
C retention, bactericidal effect and significantly reduced drying time. Water + VC samples showed better
scallion morphology and color. Ethanol + VC samples showed the combined advantages of ethanol and
Water + VC pretreatments. Therefore, Ethanol + VC pretreatment can significantly improve the drying rate and
quality of scallion.

1. Introduction but its high energy consumption and high operation cost restrict its
application in the food industry (Prosapio & Norton, 2018; Ratti, 2001).
The scallion is rich in nutrients, not only the seasoning vegetables Therefore, it is imperative to develop a drying process that improves
that essential to daily life, but also has a variety of significant health product quality, saves energy and protects the environment as well.
care effects. Scallion contains a lot of vitamins and minerals, which can Infrared-hot air drying combines the characteristics of high effi-
effectively treat cold, headache, fever, diarrhea, etc., and can effec- ciency of infrared radiation, small thermal inertia, and the hot air
tively prevent stomach cancer and various cancers (Hsing et al., 2002; convection heat transfer. The material directly absorbs the infrared
Seguchi & Abe, 2004). radiation energy, the temperature rises and spreads to the surface, and
The scallion is mainly composed of roots, stems, and leaves. Due to is dried by hot air convection to improve the drying rate and dried
the great difference in the structure of scallion leaves and stems, scal- product quality (Adak, Heybel, & Ertekin, 2017; Chen et al., 2018).
lion dehydration processing is currently the main processing route. The Some researchers have applied infrared-hot air technology to the drying
nutrients in the scallion are mostly located in the scallion stems, and the of fruits and vegetables. Nuthong, Achariyaviriya, Namsanguan, and
market demand and processing and production are mainly scallion Achariyaviriya (2011) used infrared-hot air drying technology to dry
stems. Therefore, the test materials are selected from the scallions stems the longan. The results showed that the drying rate increased with the
(Zhai et al., 2015). increase in infrared power, and the drying wind speed also had a sig-
Usually, in order to extend its shelf life and make storage easier, nificant effect on the drying rate. A study on vegetable infrared-hot air
scallion need to be dried. At present, hot air drying is still a mainstream drying indicated that combination drying of carrot and potato at 80 °C
drying technology because of its simple structure, convenient opera- with air at a velocity of 1 m/s and a temperature of 40 °C reduced the
tion, and low processing cost. However, this method has the dis- drying time by 48%, besides consuming less energy (63%) compared to
advantages of poor product quality and loss of nutrients (Ando et al., hot air heating (Hebbar, Vishwanathan, & Ramesh, 2004).
2019; Onwude, Hashim, Abdan, Janius, & Chen, 2019). Vacuum freeze- Pretreatment of fruits and vegetables before drying can effectively
drying can maintain the quality of materials to the maximum extent, accelerate the subsequent drying rate, improve drying quality, protect

⁎
Corresponding author at: School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, People’s Republic of China.
E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Zhou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.05.145
Received 8 March 2019; Received in revised form 20 May 2019; Accepted 21 May 2019
Available online 22 May 2019
0308-8146/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Wang, et al. Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

nutrients, protect color, etc. (Feng et al., 2019; Lech et al., 2015; Wu, 2.3.2. Vacuum pretreatment (Water + VC) and vacuum combined with
Guo, Wang, Pan, & Ma, 2018). Fruit and vegetable infiltration treat- ethanol pretreatment (Ethanol + VC)
ment refer to immersing into the high osmotic pressure solution under Water + VC and Ethanol + VC processes were performed by
certain temperature conditions and using the semi-permeable nature of soaking separately 200 g of scallion slices of 5 mm thicknesses in dis-
the cell membrane to transfer the water in the fruit and vegetable to the tilled water and 75% ethanol solution at a ratio of 1:8 (w/w). Vacuum
solution to achieve the purpose of removing part of the water (0.6 bar) was applied to the soaked slices for different times ranged
(Fernandes, Gallao, & Rodrigues, 2008; Gomes Correa, Pinheiro Braga, between 5 min and 30 min. The temperature of the system was main-
Hochheim, & Silva, 2012; Lewicki & Michaluk, 2004). Ethanol as a tained at 25 ± 1 °C, throughout the whole time of the process. At the
solution can also accelerate the drying rate of subsequent drying. end of the process, the excess amount of soaking liquid was drained and
Funebo et al. (2002) found that 95% ethanol-treated apples showed a the residual water or ethanol on the slice surface was dried using paper
faster drying rate and better rehydration than the unpretreated apples, towels. The treated slices were weighed, wet basis. All the pretreatment
which was caused by the dissolution of apple cell wall compounds by experiments were repeated three times.
ethanol. Rojas and Augusto (2018) confirmed that ethanol treatment
changed the cell wall thickness and did not negatively affect the mi- 2.4. The infrared-hot air drying process
crostructure and viscoelasticity of fruits and vegetables.
The air in the intercellular space prevents the water in the cell from The infrared-hot air drying process was done in a device working
being excluded. The vacuum can remove the air in the intercellular under operation conditions of the infrared-hot air drying radiation
space due to expansion. When the pressure is restored, the gap is filled distance of 11 cm, three 225 W infrared heat tubes, drying temperature
with the osmotic solution, which increases the mass transfer area. On of 60 ± 2 °C, and the wind speed of 2 m/s. During the infrared-hot air
the other hand the excessive osmotic solid intake by the foodstuff cre- drying, the untreated and pretreated samples were removed from the
ates an extra resistance to the outward water transfer. To increase the drying apparatus and weighed every 15 min until the moisture content
dehydration rate under vacuum, a high osmotic pressure solution can reached below 7%, wet basis. Thereafter, the dried samples were cooled
be used. Otherwise, the vacuum pretreatment can be done with distilled to room temperature in a desiccator with silica gel and then kept in
water before starting the osmotic dehydration process. (An et al., 2013; sealed polyethylene bags for subsequent quality characteristics analysis
da Silva et al., 2016; Zielinska, Zielinska, & Markowski, 2018). (Fig. 1).
However, the effect of vacuum and ethanol pretreatment on the
quality and drying rate of combined infrared and hot air dried scallions 2.5. Analytical methods
has not been reported. The main purpose of this study is to apply
ethanol and vacuum pretreatment to the combined infrared and hot air 2.5.1. Mass transfer determination
drying of scallion; in terms to improve the quality and the drying rate of The mass transfer phenomena during the pretreatments of scallion
scallion products, and provide a theoretical basis to select the suitable samples (Control, Ethanol, Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC) were
drying process of scallion. evaluated by calculating water loss (WL) and solid loss (SL). Each
sample was monitored at different pretreatment times (5, 10, 20 and
30 min). The moisture content was determined gravimetrically by
2. Material and methods drying the sample in a vacuum oven at 60 °C until a constant weight
was achieved (AOAC, 2000). The WL and SL of the sample were cal-
2.1. Raw material culated as follows:

Scallion (initial moisture content of 90.79 ± 0.54%) was pur- (So − so) − (St − st )
WL(%) = × 100%
chased from a local supermarket and stored in the refrigerator at So (1)
4 ± 1 °C. Before conducting an experiment, the scallion stem was so − st
washed and cut into a cylinder shape of a height of 0.5 ( ± 0.1) cm and SL(%) = × 100%
So (2)
an average diameter of 2.1 ( ± 0.1) cm. According to preliminary ex-
periments, the cylinder-shaped stem was sliced into the thicknesses of where So (g) is the initial mass of the sample before pretreatment, St (g)
5 mm by using an industrial food slicer (SS-250, SEP Machinery is the mass of the sample after pretreatment, so (g) is the dry mass of the
Company Ltd., Guangzhou, China) (Fig. 1). sample before pretreatment, and st (g) is the dry mass of the samples
after pretreatment.

2.2. Infrared-hot air dryer 2.5.2. Drying characteristics

2.5.2.1. Moisture ratio. The drying kinetics use the change of moisture
The Infrared-hot air dryer (Fig. 1) (Jiangsu University and Nanjing ratio (MR) with time to analyze the variation in the drying process. The
Tengfei Co., Ltd., Jiangsu, China) was equipped with six 225 W infrared moisture ratio of drying samples at any time was calculated according
heat tubes. The distance between the infrared heat tubes and the drying to the following equation: (Aral & Bese, 2016)
table is adjustable to 6,11, and 16 cm.
Mt − Me
MR =
Mo − Me (3)
2.3. Pretreatment experiments Where Mo, Mt and Me are the initial, instantaneous (for a given time
of the process) and the equilibrium moisture contents, respectively. The
2.3.1. Water (control) and alcohol (Ethanol) pretreatments equilibrium moisture content was obtained by drying a sample until a
A total weight of 200 g of scallion slices of 5 mm thicknesses was constant weight, using a hot air oven set at 105 °C (Feng et al., 2018).
separately soaked in distilled water and 75% ethanol solution at a
constant temperature of 25 ± 1 °C, and for different times ranged be- 2.5.2.2. Drying rate. The drying rate (DR) was calculated using the
tween 5 min and 30 min. Material to liquid ratio was 1:8 (w/w). At the following formula:
end of the process, the excess amount of soaking liquid was drained and
the residual water or ethanol on the slice surface was dried using paper Mt1 − Mt 2
DR =
towels. The treated slices were weighed, wet basis. t2 − t1 (4)

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X. Wang, et al. Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing the whole process flow of drying scallion slices by infrared-hot air, IR + AD.

where t1 and t2 are the drying time (min), respectively, DR is the drying 300 µL of the extract was mixed with 300 µL of acetate buffer and
rate between the time t1 and t2, (g/g·min), and Mt1 and Mt2 are the dry 2400 µL of 2,6-dichloroindophenol sodium salt hydrate. The absor-
basis moisture content (g/g). bance of the mixture was measured at 520 nm in the micro-plate reader
The dry basis moisture content was calculated according to Eq. (5). (brand). Ascorbic acid was used as a reference standard and results
were expressed as mg ascorbic acid (AA) per liter of scallion extract (mg
Wt − G
Mt = AA/L) (del Socorro Cruz-Cansino et al., 2015).
G (5)

where Wt is the total mass at any time (g) and G is the dry matter mass 2.5.6. Electronic nose analysis
(g). E-nose system (FOX 3000, Alpha MOS, Toulouse, France) with 12
sensors was used to discriminate fingerprints of different odors of the
2.5.3. Surface color pretreated, dried samples. (Wang, Hu, Pei, Mugambi, & Yang, 2018)
The surface color of dried scallion slices was measured using a
Colorimeter (Hunter Associates Laboratory, Inc., America). The overall 2.5.7. Light microscopic analysis
color change, ΔE, was calculated using Eq. (6) (Feng et al., 2018). The untreated (fresh) and pretreated (control, ethanol, Water + VC,
Δ E= (L∗ − Lo )2 + (a∗ − ao )2 + (b∗ − bo )2 and the Ethanol + VC) scallion samples were longitudinally cut into
(6)
10 μm thick sections using a razor blade. Then an optical microscope
where L*, a* and b* are the measured values of fresh scallion; Lo, ao and (H550S, Nikon Corporation, Japan) equipped with a digital camera
bo are the measured values of dried scallion. The measurements were (DSU3, Nikon Corporation, Japan) was used to analyze the structure of
carried out using 6 different scallion samples for each batch. the samples (Feng et al., 2019).

2.5.4. Rehydration ratio 2.5.8. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis

The rehydration ratio (RR) is a method to investigate the degree of The three-dimensional (3D) profile of untreated (fresh) and pre-
damage to cells in the drying process. It is defined as the ratio of the treated scallion samples was measured by atomic force microscopy
weight of the absorbed water to that of the dried sample. The dried (MFP-3D-SA, Asylum Research, America).
scallion sample was soaked in distilled water at room temperature
(25 °C). Then, the sample was drained with a filter paper immediately 2.5.9. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic
and weighed. Soaking, draining and weighing procedure was repeated resonance imaging (MRI)
until a constant mass of the sample was recorded. The rehydration ratio The water status of the untreated (fresh) and pretreated scallion
was calculated by Eq. (7) (Lin, Wang, Xu, Wei, & Zeng, 2018). slices was analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mag-
WA netic resonance imaging (MRI). A scallion sample was placed in a
RR = 25 mm glass tube and inserted into the low field pulse NMR analyzer
WB (7)
(PQ001, Niumag Electric Corporation, Shanghai, China). The height of
where WA and WB are the weights of the sample before and after re- measurements was controlled in 20 mm. Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill
hydration, respectively. (CPMG) sequences were used to measure the spin–spin relaxation time
(T2). Optimal pulse parameters were: P1 = 6 μs, SF = 20 kHz,
2.5.5. Determination of ascorbic acid SW = 100 kHz, TD = 700, 028, DR = 1, DRG1 = 3,
The ascorbic acid content of the dried scallion sample was obtained TW = 1500,000 ms, NS = 4, and NECH = 7000. Each measurement
by extracting 0.5 g of the sample with 5 mL of 0.4% oxalic acid (v/v) for was performed in triplicate.
1 h. The extract was centrifuged at 5000 rpm (Centrifuge 5810, The 2D proton density images from a transverse section of the
Vaudaux-Eppendorf AG, Schönenbuch, Switzerland) at 25 °C for 5 min. pretreated scallion samples were analyzed by the MRI. Typical pulse

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X. Wang, et al. Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

parameters were as follows: TE = 20 ms, TR = 500 ms, matrix 25

K K
Solids loss K
size = 256 × 256, FOV = 100 × 100 mm, slice width = 2.6 mm, slice
20 Water loss J J
thickness = 3 mm and number of averages = 16 (Wang et al., 2018) IJ
I
15 H
2.5.10. Microbial content
Bacterial contents of the untreated (fresh) and treated (pretreated 10

Percentage(%)
and pretreated, dried) scallion slices were calculated using the Plate
5 f g f g h i
Count Agar method. The scallion slices were aseptically weighed and A d e
a bB c c a ab ab c
placed in sterile physiological saline solution at a ratio of 1:3 (w/w) and 0
shaken for 1 min. The wash solution was then diluted and surface plated C
-5 D
(0.1 mL) on a sterile Plate Count Agar for the bacterial growth. After
incubation for 24 h at 37 °C, bacterial colonies were counted. The po-
-10 E
pulation size of total bacteria is reported as a mean of three replicated F
G G
samples and expressed as a log value of CFU (colony forming unit) per -15
gram of scallion. The bacterial reduction level was calculated based on Control Water+VC Ethanol Ethanol+VC
the difference in bacterial counts between the untreated and treated -20
garlic samples (Feng et al., 2018). 5 10 20 30 5 10 20 30 5 10 20 30 5 10 20 30(min)

2.6. Statistical analysis (A)

1.2 130
d
120

Data were means ( ± SD) of three replicated samples. The data were 1.1 110
100
c
b
1.0
90

statistically analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software (IBM, Chicago, IL, USA).

Drying time(min)
80
70
a

Comparisons between groups were done with one-way ANOVA and 0.9 60
50

0.8
40
differences among means were considered significant at p < 0.05,
Moisture ratio(g·g-1)
30
20

according to Tukey’s test. 0.7 10

0

C
l

C
tro

no
0.6

+V

V
ha
on

l+
er
Et

no
C

at

ha
W

Et
3. Results and discussion 0.5 Control Ethanol
Water+VC Ethanol+VC
0.4
3.1. Effect of different pretreatments on the mass transfer of scallion slices 0.3
0.2
Fig. 2-A shows the effect of different pretreatments on water loss
0.1
(WL) and solid loss (SL) of the scallion slices. The scallion slices pre-
0.0
treated with Water + VC showed a negative water loss value, and the
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
water content increased significantly (p < 0.5) with increasing pre- Pretreatments Drying time(min)
treatment time. After 10 min of the pretreatment process, the rate of
increase in the water content slowed down. The increase in water (B)
content of the scallion pretreated with Water + VC probably arose from
0.40
the vacuum ability to expand and discharge the gas located in the cell Control
gap and as the normal pressure was restored the water filled the ori- 0.35
Ethanol
ginal space. This can be proved by the results of the optical microscopic 0.30 Water+VC
images (Section 3.4). The ethanol and Ethanol + VC pretreatment of Ethanol+VC
0.25
scallion slices showed a good osmotic dehydration effect, and the water
Drying rate(g·(g·min)-1)

loss (WL) increased significantly (p < 0.5) with increasing the pre- 0.20
treatment time. However, the WL values of scallion slices after 10 min 0.15
of the ethanol and Ethanol + VC pretreatments were 15.06% and
0.10
19.96%, respectively. Afterwards, the rate of WL increase slowed down.
The high concentration gradient was promoted the transfer of moisture 0.05
from the scallion to the ethanol solution; resulting in the WL. The
0.00
control scallion sample showed WL in the first 10 min of pretreatment
and afterwards the moisture content increased. This might be because -0.05
the rate of water-soluble substances in the scallion at the beginning was -0.10
Pretreatments
greater than the rate of water transfer to the inside of the scallion. Si-
-0.15
milar results were shown on carrot (Wang et al., 2018) and melon 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
(Fernandes et al., 2008) samples. As can be seen, the scallion slices
pretreated with Ethanol + VC showed a better water loss than the Moisture content on dry basis(g·g-1)
sample pretreated with ethanol, as the vacuum treatment effectively
(C)
accelerated the outflow of intracellular water. It was found that appli-
cation of the vacuum treatment during osmotic dehydration enhanced Fig. 2. The changes in moisture ratio and drying rate of different pretreated
WL in apricot and pineapple fruits by ∼24.2%, compared with atmo- scallion samples during infrared-hot air drying. (A) Control denotes to water
spheric pressure treatment (Lerici, Pinnavaia, Rosa, & Bartolucci, 2006; pretreated scallion. (B and C) control denotes to water pretreated dried scallion.
Shi, Fito, & Chiralt, 1995). The solid loss (SL) of scallion slices pre-
treated with water or alcohol under atmospheric pressure did not affect to changes in the structure of cell wall, increased permeability, and
significantly (p > 0.05) with the application of vacuum treatment promoted the loss of larger molecules (solid) (Wang et al., 2018). The
(Fig. 2-A). The results indicated the scallion slices immersed in ethanol scallion slices immersed in distilled water have a small SL, probably due
have higher SL than that in distilled water. This might be attributed to to the loss of water-soluble substances.
the reason that alcohol could dissolve compounds on the cell wall, led

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X. Wang, et al. Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

In conclusion, pretreating scallion with etanol or ethanol under directly dried samples. This suggested that the direct drying process
vacuum beyond 10 min did not change significantly the WL and SL, so changed the scallion color to brown and yellow, and once again proving
10 min was chosen as the optimum pretreatment time for the sub- the positive role of ethanol, Water + VC and the Ethanol + VC pre-
sequent experiments. treatments in inhibiting the activity of enzymes responsible for pro-
moting the browning reactions. Related studies have also found that
3.2. Effect of different pretreatments on the drying characteristics of scallion vacuum and osmosis pretreatment can effectively inhibit the occur-
slices rence of enzymatic browning reactions in fruits and vegetables sup-
posed to be happening in the time of the drying process (Gomes Correa
The change in moisture ratio values of the pretreated scallion slices et al., 2012; Zielinska et al., 2018).
in terms of the change in time of the infrared-hot air drying (IR-AD)
process are shown in Fig. 2-B. The moisture ratio of the pretreated and 3.3.2. Rehydration ratio
untreated dried samples gradually decreased (p < 0.5) with Rehydration is an important parameter for evaluating the quality of
prolonging the drying time. The results revealed that the decrease in samples after drying fruits and vegetables. The rehydration ratio (RR)
moisture ratio of the Ethanol + VC sample was the fastest, and that of of different pretreated dried scallion samples increased significantly
the control sample was the slowest. The Ethanol + VC, ethanol, the (p < 0.05) with the increase in rehydration time (Fig. 3-A). The re-
Water + VC and the control samples had drying time values of 63, 83, hydration ratio of dried samples pretreated with ethanol and
97 and 110 min, respectively. At the same temperature, the drying time Ethanol + VC was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of the
values of the Ethanol + VC, ethanol, and the Water + VC sample were untreated and Water + VC pretreated dried samples. The higher RR in
shortened by 42.73, 24.55, and 11.82%, respectively, compared to the the dried samples pretreated with ethanol and Ethanol + VC was as-
control. Accordingly, the vacuum osmotic dehydration pretreatment cribed to the support provided to scallion cytoskeletal structure by the
was greatly shortened the drying time. infiltrated ethanol solutes after the pretreatment process, thereby
The drying rate of pretreated scallion samples during the IR-AD avoiding excessive shrinkage caused by drying, and thus the rehydra-
process is shown in Fig. 2-C. In the initial stage of drying, the drying tion performance of the sample improved. These results conform to the
rate increased rapidly with the increase in product temperature, and results of other infiltration pretreatments in fruits and vegetables
after reaching the apex, it showed a gradual decline. The reason why (Funebo et al., 2002; Rojas & Augusto, 2018). In addition, the vacuum
the drying rate drops rapidly after reaching the maximum value is that effect could enhance the rehydration of scallion by changing the mi-
after the scallion loses a lot of free water, it takes more energy to re- crostructure of the tissues (Fig. 4) and therefore promoted the phe-
move the bound water, so the rate becomes slower. Due to the action of nomenon of mass transfer.
hot air, the internal moisture cannot be replenished to the surface in
time, and the moisture diffusion rate inside of the material is smaller 3.3.3. Ascorbic acid
than the evaporation rate of the surface, so the material does not have a The results of the ascorbic acid content of the different pretreated
constant-speed drying stage. Similar drying rate behavior was reported dried scallion samples are shown in Fig. 3-B. In general, the ascorbic
on some studies (Nahimana & Zhang, 2011; Zhu & Pan, 2009). acid contents of pretreated dried scallion samples were significantly
(p < 0.05) lower than that of the raw sample, indicating that the in-
3.3. Effect of different pretreatments on quality properties of dried scallion frared-hot air drying caused a large loss of ascorbic acid. The ascorbic
slices acid content of the studied samples followed the order: fresh >
Ethanol + VC > ethanol > Water + VC > control.
3.3.1. Color parameters Ascorbic acid is a very fragile vitamin, which is very susceptible to
The results of color parameters presented in Table 1 showed that the damage by light, heat, oxygen, and moisture content (Davey et al.,
L* values of pretreated, dried scallion samples were larger than that of 2000). As can be seen, application of vacuum during the water (control)
the raw scallion sample (fresh sample). The L* values of control and and ethanol pretreatments led to significantly (p < 0.05) higher re-
ethanol pretreated, dried samples were larger than those of the tention rate of ascorbic acid after the drying process compared with the
Water + VC and Ethanol + VC samples. In this context, the larger dried samples pretreated only with water and ethanol, respectively. In
brightness of the L* value indicated that the vacuum treatment hindered this context, evacuation of the intercellular air by applying the vacuum
the sample contact with air; therefore effectively inhibited the enzy- could play a role in minimizing the loss of ascorbic acid due the oxi-
matic browning reaction. a* > 0 indicates that the sample is reddish dation reaction. On the other hand, the higher retention rate of ascorbic
and a* < 0 indicates that the sample is greenish. Moreover, the a* acid in the dried samples pretreated with ethanol and Ethanol + VC
values of ethanol, Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC pretreated, dried than the dried samples of the control and Water + VC pretreatments
scallion were higher than those of the untreated dried sample (fresh), was possibly resulted from that the ethanol absorbed by the scallion
and water pretreated, dried sample (control); collectively referred as could minimize the water contact with the ascorbic acid and therefore
directly dried samples. This proved that the previously mentioned provided protection to the vitamin against oxidation and solubility in
pretreatments inhibited the browning reaction to some extent. b* > 0 water. In addition, the scallion slices pretreated with ethanol and
stands for yellowish color, and the larger the b* value means more Ethanol + VC showed better water losses than the samples of the con-
yellow color. The b* values of the ethanol, Water + VC, and trol and Water + VC (Section 3.1), which in turn shortened the drying
Ethanol + VC pretreated, dried samples were smaller than those of the time (Section 3.2); thereby the ascorbic acid retention rate of scallion

Table 1
L*, a*, b* values and the total color difference ΔE of the dried scallion slices after different pretreatments.
L* a* b* ΔE*

Fresh 86.71 ± 1.01a −4.25 ± 0.29a 9.84 ± 0.36a

Control 93.58 ± 0.24b −3.47 ± 0.33b 15.17 ± 0.59b 8.73 ± 0.23a
Ethanol 93.31 ± 0.28b −2.49 ± 0.31c 12.78 ± 0.55c 7.42 ± 0.16b
Water + VC 92.65 ± 0.42c −2.51 ± 0.32c 12.17 ± 0.65d 6.61 ± 0.19c
Ethanol + VC 92.45 ± 0.24c −2.44 ± 0.27c 12.91 ± 0.18c 6.75 ± 0.21c

Note: within the column, means (n = 3) with different letters are significantly different at p < 0.05.

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X. Wang, et al. Food Chemistry 295 (2019) 432–440

6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5

4.0
RR

3.5

3.0
Control
2.5
Ethanol
2.0 Water+VC
1.5
Ethanol+VC

1.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28
Rehydration time(min)
(C)
(A)
2.5

e
Vitamin C content(mg/g, dry basis)

2.0

d
1.5
c
b
1.0
a

0.5

0.0
Fresh Control Ethanol Water+VC Ethanol+VC
Pretreatment
(B) (D)
Fig. 3. Effect of different pretreatments on the quality of dried scallion. Fresh denotes to raw scallion. Control denotes to water pretreated scallion after drying.

was increased. A study on Cherry tomatoes showed similar results (An differences between these pretreated dried samples and the fresh
et al., 2013). sample resulting from the two main components. The ethanol and
Ethanol + VC dried samples were located above the fresh sample, re-
flecting the presence of significant differences between these pretreated
3.3.4. E-nose analysis dried samples and the fresh sample resulting from only PC2 (variance
The response values of the pretreated, dried scallion samples ob- contribution rate of 4.475%). Therefore, no big difference between the
tained by the electronic nose sensor are presented in a radar plot ethanol and Ethanol + VC dried samples and the fresh sample was
(Fig. 3-C). The response values of each sensor of the electronic nose in found.
different samples are different. The maximum response of the sensor
needs to be > 0.6 to display the differentiation effect. The differences in
response values between the fresh sample and the dried samples pre- 3.4. Effect of different pretreatments on the microstructure of scallion slices
treated with water (control) and Water + VC were obvious, indicating
that the volatile substances in the scallion were seriously lost during the The optical microscopic images of the samples of different pre-
drying process. The graphs also showed a close similarity in response treated scallion slices are shown in Fig. 4-A–E. The raw (fresh) and
values between the freh sample and the dried samples pretreated with water pretreated (control) scallion samples have a loose structure and
ethanol and Ethanol + VC, suggesting that these pretreaments played a contains a large amount of intercellular gas (Fig. 4-A, B). After ethanol
role in inhibiting the loss of volatile substances during the drying pretreatment, the cell wall of the scallion was becoming thinner, the
process. cell gap became smaller, and the bubbles were squeezed and con-
Fig. 3-D shows the principle component analysis (PCA) of different centrated. This was probably happening because of the solubilization
pretreated dried products. Each ellipse in the figure represents the data and thinning of compounds of the cell wall by ethanol, and as a con-
collection point of different pretreatment methods. The variance con- sequence the scallion began to permeate and dehydrate. Therefore, the
tribution rates of the two principal components PC1 and PC2 were structure of the scallion was shrunk as the water decreased (Fig. 4-C).
95.185% and 4.475%, respectively. The contribution rate was 99.66%, After pretreatment with Water + VC, the intercellular gas of scallion
and the two main components can basically represent the main char- was expelled and henceforth distilled water was filled the empty in-
acteristic information of the scallion and the overall flavor profile. The tercellular spaces (Fig. 4-D), which was seen in the increase in water
control and the Water + VC dried samples were located on the upper content by 9.45% compared with the control (Fig. 2-A). Similarly, the
right side of the fresh sample, indicating the occurrence of significant empty intercellular spaces resulting from expelling the gas were filled

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Fig. 4. Microstructure changes of scallion after different pretreatments. Fresh denotes to raw scallion. Control denotes to water pretreated scallion. The microscopic
images, cell structure diagrams, MRI of water distributions and the AMF 3-D contours of the fresh, control, ethanol, Water + VC and the Ethanol + VC pretreated
samples are referred by A – E, a – e, 1 – 5 and I – V, respectively.

with ethanol after the Ethanol + VC pretreatment (Fig. 4-E). It was water pretreated sample (control) showed a more severe shrinkage
reported that the area and the rate of mass transfer increased as a surface than the untreated sample (fresh). The surface of the samples
consequence of osmotic dehydration of the garlic slices (Feng et al., pretreated with ethanol, Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC did not have
2019). many undulations. In conclusion, the vacuum and ethanol pretreat-
ments can give more support to the cytoskeletal structure. Thus the cell
3.5. D contours shrinkage resulting from the drying process can be avoided.

In order to better study the shrinkage caused by different pretreat- 3.6. Effect of different pretreatments on the water status of scallion slice
ments on the drying of scallions, the AFM three-dimensional contour
maps of the surface of different pretreated samples were analyzed; the The results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the moisture
results are shown in Fig. 4-I–V. As can be seen from the figure, the distribution of fresh and different pretreated samples are shown in Figs.

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microstructure of infrared-hot air drying of scallion. Ethanol + VC

pretreated sample exhibited the largest rates of water loss and solid
loss. The ethanol pretreatment dissolved the compounds on the cell wall
and increased the permeability. The vacuum pretreatment removed the
interstitial gas and reduced the diffusion of intracellular water. The
drying rate of ethanol, Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC samples was
significantly higher than that of the direct Infrared-hot air drying. The
ethanol and vacuum pretreatment hindered the contact of the sample
with air, and accordingly the enzymatic browning reaction was effec-
tively inhibited. The rehydration ratio and color of ethanol,
Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC dried samples were significantly better
than the samples treated with direct infrared-hot air drying. In addition,
the use of ethanol improved the retention of ascorbic acid, flavor and
the cell structure of the scallion. The 75% alcohol solution also had a
bactericidal effect. The ethanol, Water + VC, and Ethanol + VC could
be used as pretreatment techniques for drying scallion. The
Ethanol + VC was the best pretreatment method for infrared-hot air
drying in terms of the sample quality and drying rate.

Declaration of Competing Interest

Fig. 5. Effect of the different pretreatments and drying process on the total
number of bacteria in scallion. Untreated denotes to raw scallion. None.

4-1 and 5 The brighter the MRI signal, the highest the moisture content Acknowledgments
(Lech et al., 2015). As can be seen, the image brightness of the scallion
sample after Water + VC pretreatment (Fig. 4-4) was higher than that The authors are grateful for the support provided by the National
of the fresh sample (Fig. 4-1). This might be attributed to the absorption Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0400903-
of a large amount of water from the surrounding medium, which re- 01, 2016YFD0400705-04), the National Natural Science Foundation of
sulted in displaying a brighter image signal by the sample pretreated China (21676125, 31801552, 31170672), Science and Technology
with Water + VC. The results showed that the images of ethanol and Major Project of Anhui (18030701152), the Policy Guidance Program
the Ethanol + VC pretreated samples (Figs. 4-3 & 4) were lighter than (Research Cooperation) of Jiangsu (BY2016072-03) and the Social
the fresh sample, which might be resulted from the cellular contraction Development Program (General Project) of Jiangsu (BE2016779,
of the ethanol and Ethanol + VC pretreated samples due to the large NY2017015).
water loss by osmotic dehydration.
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