title: Effects of drying process on the physicochemical properties of nopal cladodes at different maturity stages.
abstract: Chemical proximate analysis was done in order to determine the changes of nutritional characteristics of nopal powders from three different maturity stages 50, 100, and 150 days and obtained by three different drying processes: freeze dried, forced air oven, and tunnel. Results indicate that nopal powder obtained by the process of freeze dried retains higher contents of protein, soluble fiber, and fat than the other two processes. Also, freeze dried process had less effect on color hue variable. No changes were observed in insoluble fiber content, chroma and lightness with the three different drying processes. Furthermore, the soluble fibers decreased with the age of nopal while insoluble fibers and ash content shows an opposite trend. In addition, the luminosity and hue values did not show differences among the maturity stages studied. The high content of dietary fibers of nopal pad powder could to be an interesting source of these important components for human diets and also could be used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry.
authors.affiliation: División de Investigación y Posgrado, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Cerro de las campanas s/n, C.P. 76010, Querétaro, Qro, México. margaconpad@gmail.com
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Contreras-Padilla
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez-Cortez
authors.forename: María Del Carmen
authors.initials: Mdel C
authors.lastname: Valderrama-Bravo
authors.forename: Isela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rojas-Molina
authors.forename: Diego Germán
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Espinosa-Arbeláez
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Suárez-Vargas
authors.forename: Mario Enrique
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-García
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D003890:Desiccation / Q000379:methods*; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000032:analysis; D005612:Freeze Drying / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D029747:Opuntia / Q000737:chemistry*; D011208:Powders / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004043:Dietary Fiber; D011208:Powders