LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136

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LWT - Food Science and Technology

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Osmotic dehydration of physalis (Physalis peruviana L.): Evaluation

of water loss and sucrose incorporation and the quantification
of carotenoids

udia Leites Luchese a, *, Poliana Deyse Gurak b, Ligia Damasceno Ferreira Marczak a
Cla
a
Chemical Engineering Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), RS, Brazil
b
Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), RS, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The rapid growth in demand for physalis production is associated with its nutraceutical and medicinal
Received 19 November 2014 characteristics. However, one aspect that hampers its commercialization is the high perishability. In
Received in revised form present work it is proposed to submit Physalis peruviana L. for osmotic dehydration, to evaluate the
16 April 2015
effects of temperature (40e70
C) and osmotic sucrose solution concentration (40e70 g 100 g1 so-
Accepted 26 April 2015
Available online 7 May 2015
lution). Moisture content and total sugar content analysis were performed along the osmotic dehy-
dration process and the total content of carotenoids was analyzed for the fresh fruit and after 10 h of
processing. Water mass diffusivity ranging between 1.4e2.9  1010 m2 s1 and the effective mass
Keywords:
Effective mass diffusivity
diffusivity of sucrose ranged from 0.7 to 1.1  1010 m2 s1. Among all conditions studied in the
Scanning electron microscopy experimental design, the osmotic dehydration was more efficient when performed at a temperature of
Bioactive compounds 70
C and an osmotic solution concentration of 70 g 100 g1 of solution. In these conditions, there was
Water activity the highest water loss and a statistically significant reduction in the water activity of this fruit. However,
Colorimetric analysis the greatest loss of total carotenoids (approximately 50%) was observed. Under this experimental
condition, the tissue matrix of physalis suffered structural changes, as proven through scanning electron
microscopy analysis.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The physalis genus includes approximately 100 species, and the
main species are Physalis angulata Linnaeus, Physalis pubescens L.,
Physalis alkekengi L. and Physalis peruviana L.; the last species is the
most well-known and studied. Physalis peruviana L. originates from
the region of the South American Andes and belongs to the family
Solanaceae; it grows in different soil types and has low re-
quirements for fertilization (Ceden ~ o & Montenegro, 2004; Puente,
Pinto-Mun ~ oz, Castro, & Corte

s, 2011; Ramadan, 2011). The physalis
fruit is characterized as a spherical berry, with a diameter between
1.25 and 2.50 cm and a mass between 4 and 10 g. The physalis is
protected by the calyx, which completely covers the fruit during its
development and ripening (Mayorga, Knapp, Winterhalter, &
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: claudialuchese@yahoo.com.br (C.L. Luchese), poligurak@
hotmail.com (P.D. Gurak), ligia@enq.ufrgs.br (L.D.F. Marczak).
Duque, 2001; Tapia & Fries, 2007). Physalis peruviana L. has been
known for centuries, but its potential for intensive cultivation has
only recently begun to be explored, mainly due to the presence of
bioactive compounds, such as ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds,
phytosterols and carotenoids. Other compounds are also present in
physalis, and its medicinally active components have been studied,
including withanolides (Chandrasekaran, Dayakar, Veronica,
Sundar, & Maurya, 2013; Fang, Liu, & Li, 2012), withaesteroides

rez-Castorena, Luna, Martínez, & Maldonado, 2012) and phys-
(Pe
alins (Hsu et al., 2012; Soares et al., 2006). These compounds pre-
sented important pharmacological properties, including
antimicrobial, antibacterial, antitumor, antinflammatory, hep-
atoprotective, immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive prop-
erties e in addition to demonstrating effectiveness for the
inhibition of unwanted responses in autoimmune diseases and al-
lergies as well as the transplantation of organs.
Colombia is the world's leading producer of the fruit of physalis.
However, since 2009, Brazil and Chile have appeared as active
competitors, mainly due to promising results regarding the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2015.04.060
0023-6438/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136
cultivation, production and marketing of this fruit. Despite
increased production, a factor that hampers international market-
ing is its high perishability. According to the Colombian Institute for
Technical Standards and Certification (1999), commercialization of
the fruit is recommended within 12 h after harvest; otherwise, it
must be stored at a temperature of 4
C and a relative humidity of
90%. Currently, osmotic dehydration is widely used for fruit pro-
cessing by the direct immersion of the product in a hypertonic
medium. This process can also be used as a pretreatment for a
number of conventional processes, such as drying using hot air, to
improve the final quality, reduce the energy costs or develop new
products. The main driving force for water removal in osmotic
dehydration processes is the osmotic pressure difference between
the fruit and the hypertonic solution, and the complex cellular
structure of the fruit serves as a semipermeable membrane
(Azoubel & Murr, 2004; Porciuncula, Zotarelli, Carciofi, & Laurindo,
2013; Rastogi & Raghavarao, 1997; Rodrigues & Fernandes, 2007).
However, the osmotic dehydration process presents some disad-
vantages related with the management and destination of osmotic
solutions after use, a long time of the process and the high water
activity of the final product (Moraga, Moraga, & Martínez-
Navarrete, 2011).
Because of the short shelf life of fresh physalis after harvesting,
the presence of large amounts of bioactive compounds and its
high water content, osmotic dehydration is an alternative tech-
nology to reduce the post-harvest of this fruit. In addition, several
studies (Chandrasekaran et al., 2013; Fang et al., 2012; Hsu et al.,
2012; Li et al., 2013), were found in the literature regarding the
characterization of the bioactive compounds of physalis and their
antioxidant activity in vitro and in vivo however, there was a lack
of studies evaluating technologies for physalis' processing and
preservation. Thus, the aim of this study was to estimate the
water loss and the gain of solids in order to evaluate the effective
diffusivity of water and sucrose at different temperatures and
concentrations of an osmotic solution from the analytical solution
of Fick's second law in spherical coordinates for the osmotic
dehydration of physalis. In addition, this study aimed to evaluate
a number of quality parameters before and after 10 h of the os-
motic dehydration process, such as the total carotenoid content,
the overall color difference, browning index and the water
activity.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Osmotic dehydration
Physalis peruviana L., imported from Colombia, were purchased
from a local market, always from the same producer. They were
selected according to their quality attributes: uniform diameter
(1.5e2.5 cm), degree of maturation (9e12
Brix) and freedom from
defects. The fruits showed initial moisture content of approxi-
mately 82% (wet basis) or 4.7 g water g1 initial dry solids. Osmotic
solutions were prepared with distilled water and commercial su-
crose to a final concentration of 40 ± 2; 55 ± 3 and 70 ± 2 g sucrose
100 g1 solution (Andrade, Neto, No
brega, Azoubel, & Guerra,
2007), according to a 22 experimental design, with three repli-
cates at the center point. Osmotic dehydration was carried out in an
acrylic tank connected to a thermostatic bath to maintain a con-
stant temperature (40 ± 1
C; 55 ± 2
C and 70 ± 2
C; Khoyi &
Hesari, 2007). A sample-to-solution ratio of 1:20 was used to
guarantee that the concentration of the osmotic media could al-
ways be considered constant. The osmotic medium was agitated
vigorously and continuously with a mechanical agitator (FISATOM,
model 713, S~ ao Paulo, SP, Brazil) at 1800 rpm to ensure the specified
concentration on the surface of the food. The osmotic dehydration
1129
process was performed for a period of 0e10 h under constant
conditions.
2.2. Analytical determinations
2.2.1. Moisture content
The moisture content was determined by a gravimetric method
in triplicate, according to AOAC 930.04 (AOAC, 1990a, 1990b). The
water loss (WL) was calculated using Eq. (1) according to Souraki,
Ghavami, and Tondro (2014).
Wo  Wt

WL ¼ g water g1 initial mass of fruit (1)
mo
where Wo represents the initial moisture mass in fresh physalis, Wt
represents the moisture mass for processed samples at any time t
and mo represents the initial mass of fruit in nature.
2.2.2. Sucrose content
The sugars extraction was performed by immersion of samples
(2.5 g) in a water bath heated to 100
C for 45 min, followed by
centrifuging (30 mine6000 rpm), after the solution was filtered
through a 0.22 mm membrane filter before injection (Zuleta &
Sambucetti, 2001). The sugar content was determined by HPLC
(High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, PerkinElmer Corp.,
Series 200, Norwalk, CT, USA). The column used was a Rezex RHM
Monosaccharides, and the precolumn was a Holder KJO-4282, both
from Phenomenex (Macclesfield, Cheshire, U.K.). The sample was
eluted using a mobile phase of Milli-Q purified water at a flow rate
of 0.5 mL min1 and a column temperature of 80
C. A refractive
index detector (PerkinElmer Corp., Series 200, Norwalk, CT, USA)
was used for quantification. Identification of sugars was based on
the retention time (glucose and fructose standards were 12.3 and
13.2 min, respectively), and quantitation was carried out using
external calibration using glucose standard. The analysis of sugar
content was conducted in triplicate at predetermined times (0, 1, 2,
3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 h). The solid gain (SG) was calculated using Eq. (2)
according to Souraki et al. (2014).


St  So
SG ¼ g sugar g1 initial mass of fruit (2)
mo
where ðSt Þ represents the sugar content for processed samples at
any time t; ðSo Þ represents the sugar content initially present in
samples and ðmo Þ represents the initial mass of physalis in nature.
2.2.3. Mathematical modeling
According to Crank (1975), the solution of Fick's Second Law for
unsteady-state diffusion in terms of spherical coordinates,
assuming the diffusion to be radial, is given by Eq. (3):
WLt  WL∞ SGt  SG∞ 6 X
∞
1

¼ ¼1 2 exp n2 p2 Fo (3)
WLo  WL∞ SGo  SG∞ p n¼1 n2
where WL represents the water loss (g water g1 initial mass of
fruit) and SG represents the solute gain (g sugar g1 initial mass of
fruit); the sub-indices t, o and ∞ represent the values at dehydra-
tion time t, time equal zero (physalis in nature) and at equilibrium,
respectively. n represents the number of terms in the sum; r is the
average radius of samples (m); t represents the processing time (s);
and Def is the water or solid effective mass diffusivity (m2 s1). Fo is
the Fourier Number for diffusion, according Eq. (4):
Def t
Fo ¼ (4)
r2
1130 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136
Values of the Fourier number were obtained by non-linear
regression analysis combining Equations (3) and (4) and taking
into account the first five terms of the series, using the initial
condition and boundary conditions according to Mercali,
Marczak, Tessaro, and Noren ~ a (2011). The same equation was
used for solids uptake. The following assumptions were used in
the development of the model: samples of physalis were spher-
ical (average radius); initial water and solute concentrations in
the physalis were uniform; the process was isothermal; simul-
taneous counter-current flows occurred; only the diffusion of
water from the physalis and the diffusion of sugar into the
physalis were considered (other mass transfers did not occur);
shrinkage was negligible; and external resistance to mass transfer
was negligible.
2.2.4. Total carotenoid content
The analysis of carotenoids in physalis was performed only at
the initial time point and after 10 h of process. The carotenoids
were exhaustively extracted with cold acetone, partitioned into
petroleum ether and washed with distilled water (Rodriguez-
Amaya, 2010). The quantification of total carotenoids was carried
out using a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu®, Model 1800 UVeVi-
sible, Stanford, CT, USA) with a wavelength of 450 nm. The results
were expressed as all-trans-b-carotene using an absorptivity of
2592 because all-trans-b-carotene is the predominant carotenoid in
physalis.
2.2.5. Determination of water activity
Experimental values of water activity performed in duplicate
were obtained using an electronic hygrometer (Aqualab 3 TE -
Decagon, Pullman, USA), calibrated with saturated salts solutions,
according to the AOAC method n. 978.18 (1990).
2.2.6. Colorimetric analysis
The CIELAB color space includes an index of lightness (L*) and
two color coordinates (a* and b*). The color parameter L* is related
to the luminosity. The color parameter a* has negative values for
greenish colors and positive values for reddish ones, whilst color
parameter b* has positive values for yellowish colors and negative
values for bluish colors. The total color difference (DE*) was

permeability of the fruit's waxy skin, thus accelerating water
calculated according to Heredia, Alvarez,
lez-Miret, and
Gonza
Ramírez (2004) and browning index was calculated according to
Buera, Lozano, and Petriella (1985). In present work color mea-
surements were performed in triplicate for fresh samples and for
samples triturated after 10 h of osmotic dehydration using a
colorimeter (Minolta, Model CR 400, Konica Minolta Sensing,
Japan) with D65 as an illuminant and an observer angle of 10
(CIE,
1978).
2.2.7. Scanning electron microscopy analysis
A cross-section in the peduncle region of fresh physalis and in
the sample osmotically dehydrated after 10 h (temperature of 70
C
and concentration of the osmotic solution of 70 g sucrose 100 g1
solution) was done. The samples were placed on aluminum stubs
with sticky double-side conductive metal tape without special
treatment and were examined using a Hitachi microscope (Model
TM 3000, Germany), with an acceleration potential of 5 keV. The
image acquisition was performed by TM 3000 Microscope
software.
2.2.8. Statistical analysis
Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were carried out using STATIS-
TICA 8.0 (Statsoft Inc., Tulsa, USA) with a 95% significance level
(p < 0.05).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Initial characteristics of Physalis peruviana L.
In Table 1 the characterization of the samples in nature is shown,
contents of moisture and sugars, as well as the water activity and
content of soluble solids initially present are showed.
3.2. Water loss
It can be observed in Fig. 1 (water loss values against the im-
mersion times) that the treatments conducted with 55
C/55 g1
sucrose 100 g1 solution and 70
C/40 g sucrose 100 g1 solution
have very similar rates of dehydration. The osmotic treatment with
70
C/70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution demonstrated the greatest
water loss (approximately 40%); because of this, and in order to
investigate differences in the structure of the physalis before and
after 10 h of the osmotic treatment, a cross section of the region
near the peduncle of the physalis was analyzed by MEV. These
microscopic images are presented in Fig. 2 and it is possible to see a
considerable increase of the number of pores present on the surface
of the physalis tissue after processing when compared with the
fresh sample. Therefore, under this experimental condition, there
was a change in the structure of physalis that facilitated the
transport of water from the fruit to the osmotic solution. As seen in
Fig. 2, microstructural changes occurred in the fruit due to osmotic
dehydration; consequently, an increase in the permeability of the
physalis' skin occurred.
In most studies on the osmotic dehydration of fruits, the
beginning of the process is characterized by an initially high rate of
water loss, followed by a slower rate of water loss in the later stages
of the process (Andrade et al., 2007; Azoubel & Murr, 2004; Mercali
et al., 2011). This behavior was not observed during the physalis
osmotic dehydration at 40
C, regardless of the concentration of the
osmotic solution. Some authors (Puente et al. 2011; Restrepo,

s, & M

Corte arquez, 2009) reported that the processing of physalis
is difficult in several experimental conditions due to their waxy
skin. Because of this, V
asquez-Parra, Ochoa-Martínez, and Bustos-
Parra (2013) evaluated the effect of physical and chemical pre-
treatments before drying process using hot air to increase the
diffusion.
3.3. Water effective mass diffusivity
Moisture contents at equilibrium were determined using the
method described by Rastogi and Raghavarao (2004) plotting the
rate of moisture change (dWL/dt) against the average water loss;
Table 2 presents these values only for the treatments that demon-
strate considerable water loss, and also the determination co-
efficients (R2), which were above 0.825. Table 2 also presents the
water effective mass diffusivity (Dw ) for the three treatments that
ef
showed considerable dehydration; the values obtained vary from 1.4
to 2.9  1010 m2 s1. As discussed previously, the experimental
conditions 70
C/40 g sucrose 100 g1 solution and 55
C/55 g1
sucrose 100 g1 solution presented very similar water loss results
Table 1
Characterization of Physalis peruviana L. in nature.
Analysis Mean ± standard deviation
Moisture (g water g1 initial dry solids) 4.7 ± 0.3
Moisture (g water g1 initial mass of fruit) 0.82 ± 0.05
Water activity 0.980 ± 0.005
Soluble solids content (
Brix) 12.1 ± 1.3
 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136 1131

Fig. 1. Water loss (g water g1 initial mass of fruit) against immersion time during osmotic dehydration of physalis, where  temperature of 40
C and osmotic concentration of
40 g/100 g solution; B temperature of 40
C and osmotic concentration of 70 g/100 g solution; ▪
temperature of 55
C and osmotic concentration of 55 g/100 g solution; :
temperature of 70
C and osmotic concentration of 40 g/100 g solution; C temperature of 70
C and osmotic concentration of 70 g/100 g solution.

Fig. 2. Micrograph of a cross-section peduncle region of fresh physalis (A) and after 10 h of osmotic dehydration at temperature of 70
C and concentration of the osmotic solution of
70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution (B), up to 180, obtained by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

and, as expected, led to similar values for water effective mass
diffusivity. The standard deviation of the condition 70
C/70 g1
sucrose 100 g1 solution was very high (±0.9), therefore, the result
of the statistical analysis should be examined with precaution. Based
only on the mean value, the water effective mass diffusivity for this
condition is almost two fold higher than the values for the other
conditions, even though, according to the statistical analysis, there is
not difference. The osmotic process conducted at 40
C, independent
of sucrose concentration, led to small water loss values; thus, the
water effective diffusivity in these conditions was not estimated.

Table 2
2 1
Moisture content at equilibrium ðWL∞ g water g1 initial mass of fruitÞ and water effective mass diffusivity ðDw
ef Þ in m s of physalis after 10 h of osmotic dehydration of
physalis with the determination coefficients (R2) for different experimental conditions.

Temperature (
C) Concentration osmotic solution (g 100 g1) WLw

∞ R2 Dw
ef  10
10
(m2 s1) R2
a
70 40 14.2 0.896 1.5 ± 0.4 0.959
16.9 0.878
a
55 55 13.4 0.892 1.4 ± 0.3 0.956
14.6 0.926
17.7 0.933
16.4 0.951
70 70 55.8 0.989 2.9 ± 0.9a 0.936
58.3 0.825

Mean ± standard deviation.

a
Same values within column are statistically equals (p > 0.05).
1132 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136
V
asquez-Parra et al. (2013) evaluated the effect of different
pretreatments on the process of convective drying of physalis for
10 h at 60
C and an air velocity of 2 m s1. The effective diffusivity
of water values ranged from 0.66 to 0.74  1010 m2 s1. Vega-
Ga
lvez, Puente-Díaz, Lemus-Mondaca, Miranda, and Torres (2012)
also studied the physalis drying using hot, and the effective diffu-
sivity of water ranged from 4.7 to 14.9  1010 m2 s1. Azoubel and
Murr (2004) osmotically dehydrated tomatoes cherries in ternary
solutions (containing several different salt and sucrose concentra-
tions) at 25
C and found 4.3e17.7  1010 m2 s1. Khoyi and Hesari
(2007) studied the osmotic dehydration of apricot using the con-
ditions: concentration of sucrose (50, 60 and 70
Brix), temperature
(30, 40, 50 and 60
C) and solution and sample ratio (5:1, 10:1 and
15:1) and found the water effective mass diffusivity varied between
11.2 and 41.4  1010 m2 s1. Silva, Silva, Mariani, and Darche (2012)
evaluated the loss of water during the osmotic dehydration of
acerola (Malpighia punicifolia) for 12 h in a solution of 65
Brix at
27
C without agitation, using different ratios for fruit solution (1:4,
1:10 to 1:15) and the value obtained was 1.7  1010 m2 s1. It
should be emphasize that some differences in the water effective
diffusivity can be explained by the use of various fruits with
different degrees of maturation and structural forms, as well as the
different experimental conditions. These values are consistent with
values found in present work.
The statistical analysis to evaluate the influence of water loss
(WL) during the process of osmotic dehydration was realized
through the analysis of Pareto diagram and it was possible to verify
that all effects were significant and showed a positive effect.
Temperature was the factor with the greatest statistical signifi-
cance, followed by the interaction between the variables (TxC), and
finally the osmotic solution concentration. The model proposed
encoded to represent water loss during the physalis osmotic
dehydration (R2 ¼ 0.982) within the ranges of temperature (z1 ) and
concentration of osmotic sucrose solution (z2 ) may be represented
by Eq. (5):


WL g water g 1 initial mass of fruit ¼ 12:8 þ 11:9z1 þ 6:6z2
þ 6:7z1 z2
(5)
Fig. 3. Solute gain (g sugar g1 initial mass of fruit) against immersion time during osmotic dehydration of physalis, where  temperature of 40
C and osmotic concentration of
40 g/100 g solution; B temperature of 40
C and osmotic concentration of 70 g/100 g solution;
temperature of 70
C and osmotic concentration of 40 g/100 g solution; C temperature of 70
C and osmotic concentration of 70 g/100 g solution.
3.4. Solute incorporation and sucrose effective mass diffusivity
The mass diffusion of sucrose during the osmotic dehydration of
physalis was performed by the analysis of monosaccharide by HPLC
(g sugar g1 initial mass of fruit) and the results are shown in Fig. 3.
These curves show that highest solute uptake occurred in the
experimental condition with temperature of 70
C and osmotic
solution concentration of 70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution. From Fig. 3
it is also possible to observe that, in the experiments conducted at a
temperature of 40
C, regardless of the osmotic solution concen-
tration, there was no incorporation of soluble solids in the fruit.
These two experimental conditions, temperature of 40
C and os-
motic solution with both 40 and 70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution,
showed almost no changes in solute uptake over 10 h of osmotic
dehydration, as had been shown previously for WL.
Furthermore, the experiment conducted at a temperature of
70
C and a solution concentration of 40 g sucrose 100 g1 solution
showed similar gains in solid content when compared with the
experiment carried out at a temperature of 55
C and an osmotic
solution concentration of 55 g sucrose 100 g1 solution (the central
point condition), and some overlapping values can be seen in Fig. 3;
these results are similar to the WL results discussed previously. The
evaluation of the drying curves shows that higher process tem-
peratures promote an increase of sucrose incorporation. According
to Rastogi and Raghavarao (2004), this effect occurs because the
rise of temperature promotes a reduction in osmotic solution vis-
cosity and an increase in the effective diffusivity of sucrose. Sucrose
gain (SGsuc ; in g sugar g1 initial mass of fruit), was experimentally
determined in samples at different immersion times for all of the
experiments, and the solute content at equilibrium conditions
(SGsuc
∞ ) were determined using the same method described for the
water loss. The determination coefficients were above 0.827 and
these results are presented in Table 3.
As seen in Table 3, the results obtained for the effective mass
diffusivity of sucrose ðDsuc ef
Þ are in the range of
0.7e1.1  1010 m2 s1. These data were statistically analyzed using
the t-Test for comparison of the means, and it was found that for the
process realized in temperature 70
C and concentration of osmotic
solution 70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution was different statistically
(p < 0.05) from the other experimental conditions (temperature of
▪ temperature of 55
C and osmotic concentration of 55 g/100 g solution; :
 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136 1133

Table 3
Sucrose content at equilibrium ðSG∞ g sugar g1 initial mass of fruitÞ and effective mass diffusivity for sucrose ðDsuc
ef
Þ in m2 s1 after 10 h of osmotic dehydration of physalis
with the determination coefficients (R2) for the different experimental conditions.

Temperature (
C) Concentration of osmotic solution (g 100 g1) SG∞ R2 Dsuc

ef
 1010 (m2 s1) R2

70 40 2.9 0.864 0.9 ± 0.4a 0.935

3.4 0.989
55 55 2.2 0.881 0.7 ± 0.3a 0.934
2.3 0.877
3.3 0.966
2.8 0.813
70 70 12.1 0.827 1.1 ± 0.5a 0.925
13.3 0.836

Mean ± standard deviation.

a
Same values within column are statistically equals (p > 0.05).

70
C and solution concentration of 40 g sucrose 100 g1 solution
and temperature of 55
C and solution concentration of 55 g su-
crose 100 g1 solution). Studies of dehydrated physalis found in the
literature used drying by air convection, and for this reason, only
the effective diffusivity of water was calculated. Silva et al. (2012)
evaluated the process of osmotic dehydration of acerola (Mal-
pighia punicifolia) for 12 h in a solution of 65 g sucrose 100 g1
solution at 27
C, without agitation, using different ratios of fruit to
solution (1:4, 1:10 and 1:15) and effective mass diffusivity (Def)
values ranged between 2.8 and 8.4  1010 m2 s1. Abra~ ao et al.
(2013) evaluated the sucrose effective diffusion coefficient for
pumpkins osmodehydrated with different temperatures (40, 50
and 60
C) and sucrose solution concentrations (40, 50 and 60
Brix)
and found values ranged between 5.1 and 11.2  1010 m2 s1
Souraki et al. (2014) studied the osmotic dehydration of apples
slabs in sucrose solution; the experiments were carried out in the
sucrose solutions of different concentrations (30, 40 and 50%) and
temperatures (30, 40 and 50
C) and the sucrose effective diffusivity
was 1.4e1.9  1010 m2 s1. All these values are comparable to the
values obtained in the present work.
The statistical analysis to evaluate the influence of sucrose
incorporation in physalis during the process of osmotic dehydra-
tion was realized through the analysis of Pareto diagram and it was
possible to verify that all effects were significant and showed a
positive effect on sucrose incorporation. The temperature is the
factor with the greatest statistical significance, followed by the
interaction between the variables (TxC), and finally the concen-
tration of the osmotic solution. The model proposed encoded to
represent incorporation of sugar (SG) during the process of osmotic
dehydration of physalis (R2 ¼ 0.947) within the ranges of temper-
ature (z1 ) and concentration of osmotic sucrose solution (z2 ) may
be represented by Equation (6):


SG g sugar g 1 initial mass of fruit ¼ 2:72 þ 2:17z1 þ 1:39z2
þ 1:47z1 z2
(6)
3.5. Quantification of total carotenoids
The fresh samples presented 255 ± 21 mg all-trans-b-carotene
g1 sample (dry basis). De Rosso and Mercadante (2007) found
81 mg total carotenoids g1 fruit using HPLC, and Ramadan and
Mo €rsel (2007) found 160 mg all-trans-b-carotene g1 sample us-
ing the same analysis method used in the present work. This high
variation in the total carotenoid content in fruits is influenced by
the variety of the fruit, its ripeness, its growing conditions and the
season of the year in which the fruits are produced (Rodriguez-
Amaya, 2010). The normalized total carotenoid results are
described in Table 4.
Table 4 shows that the greatest loss of total carotenoids,
expressed as all-trans -b-carotene, was approximately 50%, and this
loss occurred during the experiments conducted with a higher
temperature (70
C). In the experiment with a temperature of 55
C,
there was a loss of approximately 28% in total carotenoids.
Furthermore, the results show that at a temperature of 40
C,
regardless of the concentration of sucrose used in the osmotic so-
lution, the osmotic dehydration of physalis after 10 h yielded no
loss of the total carotenoid content initially present in this fruit.
Statistical analysis of the Pareto diagram shows that the osmotic
solution concentration did not present a significant influence on
the amount of total carotenoids content after processing. However,
the temperature showed a significant influence (p < 0.05) on the
analysis of this compound, with a negative effect on the loss of
carotenoids, indicating that the higher the temperature, the greater
the loss of carotenoids during the process. Even though in the os-
motic dehydration process some nutrients (vitamins, minerals,
sugars, organic acids) could be diffuse to the osmotic solution by
lixiviation (Mercali et al., 2011; Rastogi & Raghavarao, 2004;
Rodrigues & Fernandes, 2007) in a minor extend, the results
showed that total carotenoids were mainly degraded by tempera-
ture and not by the osmotic solution concentration. In order to
analyze the behavior of carotenoid degradation during osmotic
dehydration, the physalis extracts before and after 10 h of process
were monitored by scanning the UV visible spectrum. The hypo-
chromic effect was observed under more severe dehydration

Table 4
Results of normalized total carotenoids of the fresh physalis (t0) and the fruit after 10 h (tf) of immersion in osmotic dehydration for all experiments.

Temperature of solution (
C) Concentration of osmotic solution (g 100 g1) Mean ± standard deviation

Carotenoids (tf)/Carotenoids (t0)

40 40 1.11 ± 0.01a
40 70 1.10 ± 0.09a
55 55 0.72 ± 0.05b
70 40 0.57 ± 0.04c
70 70 0.50 ± 0.06c
a,b and c
e Values within column followed by the same later are not significantly different (p > 0.05).
1134 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136

Table 5
Colorimetric parameters (L*, a* and b*, CIELAB scale) and the overall color difference (DE*) for samples of fresh physalis (t ¼ 0 h) and samples after 10 h (t ¼ 10 h) of the osmotic
dehydration for each of the experimental condition.

Mean ± standard deviation

Temperature Concentration of L* a* b* DE*

(
C) osmotic solution
Physalis in After 10 h p value Physalis in After 10 h p value Physalis in After 10 h p value
(g 100 g1)
nature nature nature

40 40 28.36 ± 0.22 28.96 ± 0.35 0.56 6.19 ± 0.20 6.78 ± 0.33 0.42 13.41 ± 0.30 14.36 ± 0.41 0.61 1.26 ± 0.22a
40 70 30.32 ± 2.76 29.16 ± 0.35 0.31 6.78 ± 0.46 7.00 ± 0.38 0.59 15.64 ± 3.45 15.41 ± 1.37 0.91 1.20 ± 0.38a
70 40 29.80 ± 1.67 29.17 ± 0.42 0.15 6.55 ± 0.11 7.30 ± 0.56 0.16 14.61 ± 1.55 14.69 ± 0.76 0.87 0.97 ± 0.22a
55 55 28.90 ± 1.48 28.97 ± 0.66 0.90 6.35 ± 0.81 7.87 ± 0.45 0.05 13.96 ± 1.77 15.02 ± 0.77 0.15 1.86 ± 0.34a
70 70 28.40 ± 0.40 27.71 ± 0.39 0.93 5.81 ± 0.19 7.73 ± 0.38 0.06 13.18 ± 0.46 12.73 ± 0.69 0.68 2.09 ± 0.29a

Mean ± standard deviation.

a
Values within column followed by the same later are not significantly different (p > 0.05).

condition (70
C and 70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution) while the
hypsochromic effect, associated with the displacement to lower
wavelengths, was not observed in the experimental conditions
tested.
Tonon, Baroni, and Hubinger (2007) evaluated the content of
total carotenoids expressed by lycopene during osmotic dehydra-
tion of tomatoes (variety Deborah) cut into halves, using ternary
solutions (NaCl and sucrose) with a temperature between 20 and
40
C. The content of total carotenoids initially present in the fruit
was preserved even after 6 h of processing. This result is in
agreement with results found in this study for a temperature of
40
C. Furthermore, Sanjinez-Argandon ~ a, Cunha, Menegalli, and
Hubinger (2005) found a reduction of approximately 12% of the
total carotenoid content in guava halves (Psidium guajava L.) that
were submitted to osmotic dehydration for 2 h at a temperature of
40
C and an osmotic solution with a concentration of 60 g sucrose
100 g1 solution. Next, the samples were subjected to osmotic
dehydration, followed by hot-air drying for 4 h at a temperature of
60
C and an air velocity of 1 m s1; the loss of carotenoids after this
process was approximately 44%. Furthermore, it was found that the
loss of carotenoids was much more pronounced when the samples
were dried using hot air without osmotic dehydration pretreatment
(approximately 75%). It is suggested that the increase in the loss of
this compound is due to damage to the guava tissues, caused
mainly by high drying temperature, greater exposure to oxygen and
the low relative humidity of the drying air, increasing the rate of
degradation of this pigment.
3.6. Colorimetric analysis
The colorimetric parameters for all experimental conditions are
displayed in Table 5; the statistical analysis showed that there were
no significant differences.
Despite the high WL and total carotenoids content in the ex-
periments carried out in temperatures above 55
C, the overall
color difference (DE*) values ranged from 0.97 to 2.09 (Table 5),
indicating that even after 10 h of osmotic dehydration the overall
color difference found in this study is acceptable. Therefore, the
samples showed no overall visually detectable difference in
colorimetric analysis for all experimental conditions, since the
values are below 3.0 (Lee & Coates, 2003; Melgosa, Pe
rez, Yebra,
Huertas, & Hita, 2001). Processes involving high operating tem-
perature can promote the cooking of the samples, characterized, for
example, by changes in its coloration (Lee & Coates, 2003). It can be
seen by colorimetric analysis performed in present work that the
color variation of the samples at the beginning (in nature) and after
10 h of processing showed no statistically significant changes; even
during the osmotic dehydration process conducted temperature of
70
C this phenomenon was not detected. Furthermore, browning
index was calculated (according to methodology described by
Buera et al., 1985) for fresh samples (t ¼ 0 h) and physalis after 10 h
of osmotic dehydration, and it was found that the samples showed
no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) for all the experi-
mental conditions analyzed, regardless the temperature and the
osmotic solution concentration used in the osmotic dehydration
process of physalis. These results are displayed in Table 6.
3.7. Water activity
Puente et al. (2011) reported values of water activity for fresh
physalis ranging between 0.985 and 0.989, which is consistent with
the values found in this work. By analyzing the results shown in
Table 7, it can be seen that only the temperature condition of 70
C
and a concentration of 70 g sucrose 100 g1 solution showed a
statistically significant reduction in the value of water activity, even
after 10 h of osmotic dehydration.
Tonon et al. (2007) evaluated the influence of temperature
(20e40
C), the composition of the osmotic solution (ternary so-
lutions of commercial sugar and salt) and the stirring rate on the
process of mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of tomato
halves after 6 h and obtained products with a high water activity.
The authors emphasized that the dehydration process can be
considered an effective method to maintain the quality of the
product; however, the final product obtained cannot be considered
a commercially stable product and requires further steps to
enhance its stability, such as hot-air drying or freezing.
Based on the results obtained in the present work, the experi-
mental conditions with temperature of 70
C led to a high

Table 6
Browning index for samples of physalis in nature (t ¼ 0 h) and physalis after 10 h of osmotic dehydration and the statistical analysis for each experimental condition.

Temperature (
C) Concentration osmotic solution (g 100 g1) Fresh physalis (t ¼ 0 h) Physalis after process (t ¼ 10 h) p value

40 40 78.5 ± 1.6 80.8 ± 2.1 0.08

40 70 86.4 ± 12.2 90.4 ± 8.5 0.66
70 40 81.6 ± 3.8 86.4 ± 4.6 0.24
55 55 80.2 ± 7.8 90.7 ± 3.5 0.10
70 70 75.9 ± 2.0 80.5 ± 3.9 0.14

Mean ± standard deviation. Results with p > 0.05 are not statistically significant.
 C.L. Luchese et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 63 (2015) 1128e1136 1135

Table 7
Results of the water activity for samples of fresh physalis (t ¼ 0 h) and samples after 10 h (t ¼ 10 h) of the osmotic dehydration process for each experimental condition.

Temperature solution (
C) Concentration osmotic solution (g 100 g1) Water activity (aw)

Physalis (t ¼ 0 h) Physalis (t ¼ 10 h)
a
40 40 0.978 ± 0.004 0.979 ± 0.001a
40 70 0.975 ± 0.004a 0.979 ± 0.006a
55 55 0.975 ± 0.003a 0.960 ± 0.002a
70 40 0.973 ± 0.001a 0.967 ± 0.006a
70 70 0.975 ± 0.006a 0.872 ± 0.005b

Mean ± standard deviation.

a,b
e Values within column followed by the same later are not significantly different (p > 0.05).

dehydration, but also a high loss of total carotenoids. Therefore, it is
suggested that the optimum condition to physalis osmotic dehy-
dration occurred in 55
C and osmotic solution concentration of
55 g sucrose 100 g1 solution. In this condition, the loss of total
carotenoids was minimized and there was a considerable water
loss. Concerning the possibility of subsequent studies of physalis
osmotic dehydration, the authors suggest to evaluate the temper-
atures ranging between 55 and 70
C, and 40 g sucrose 100 g1
solution (since the osmotic solution concentration was not signif-
icantly important). The industrial final application should consider
the amount of solute incorporated during the osmotic dehydration,
since it will be strongly dependent of the dehydrated product
destination. For example, if the osmotically dehydrated fruit is
going to be used in the production of candy, it will be desirable that
it contains a high amount of sugar. Instead, if the dried fruit is to be
used in supplement infant food, it is desirable that it contains a low
content of sugar incorporated.
4. Conclusions
In present work the variables temperature (40e70
C) and con-
centration of osmotic sucrose solutions (40e70 g 100 g1 solution)
were evaluated, as well as interaction between these variables
during the process of osmotic dehydration physalis. The study of the
dehydration kinetics for determination of moisture and sucrose
content in equilibrium using the model of Rastogi & Raghavarao
showed a satisfactory performance (R2 > 0.82). The results obtained
by the solution of Fick's Second Law for diffusion for the effective
diffusivity of water found in the range 1.4e2.9  1010 m2 s1, and
the effective diffusivity of sucrose ranged from 1.4 to
2.0  1010 m2 s1. The experimental conditions for the most effi-
cient processing of physalis by osmotic dehydration were a tem-
perature of 70
C and an osmotic solution concentration of 70 g
sucrose 100 g1 solution applied for 10 h while stirring. Under these
conditions the water loss was approximately 40%. However, it is
important to highlight that the process of osmotic dehydration of
physalis in some experimental conditions can be hampered due to
the structure of the fruit, especially because of its waxy skin.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support received from
CAPES (Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal para o
Ensino Superior), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnolo
gico) and FAPERGS (Fundaç~
ao de Amparo a  211e214.
Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul). Special thanks go to
Isabel Cristina Tessaro and Giovana Domeneghini Mercali for their
suggestions during this research.
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