Nan Thandar Myo¹*, Than Than Soe¹, Ei Han Kyaw² and Myo Min Aung¹

¹Department of Food Science and Technology, Yezin Agricultural University, Nay Pyi Taw
²Department of Agronomy, Yezin Agricultural University, Nay Pyi Taw

*Corresponding Author: Nan Thandar Myo, Department of Food Science and Technology, Yezin Agricultural University, Nay Pyi Taw.

Received: August 01, 2025; Published: August 27, 2025

Abstract

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) is a tropical fruit that belongs to the Leguminosae family. The value-added products of tamarind are leather, concentrated juice, paste, sauce, jelly and candy. Fruit leather is dehydrated fruit-based confectionary dietary product which is often eaten as a snack. The experiment was carried out at the laboratory of Food Science and Technology Department, Yezin Agricultural University, Nay Pyi Taw from September 2024 to August 2025. The experimental design was 2 × 5 factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. The first factor was drying methods of hot air oven drying (at 70°C) and open sun drying while the second one was different thickening agents of cassava starch, corn starch and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), respectively. The leather containing neither thickeners nor sugar was treated as control and 60% of sugar was added to every treatment except control. Drying time and water activity (aw) were recorded at every two hours while total soluble solid (°Brix), total titratable acidity (TTA), pH, color (a*) value and moisture content were weekly collected during the storage. However, the data on crude fiber and ascorbic acid were monthly recorded as well as microbial analyses (cfu/g) were recorded at 0 day and 3 months.
There were highly significant differences in moisture content, TSS, TTA, pH, ascorbic acid and crude fiber contents of tamarind leather. In comparison of drying methods, the hot air oven methods took 8-10 hours to reach water activity of 0.62. However, sun drying took 10-20 hours to achieve the same value. There was a decreasing trend in TSS, pH, ascorbic acid, and fiber, while TTA and moisture content gradually increased throughout the storage period. The combination of sun drying combined and CMC resulted in the highest microbial load whereas hot air oven drying with cassava starch in leather making showed the lowest microbial load. This study revealed that cassava starch is the best thickening agent and the hot air oven method is the most efficient drying method among the treatments.

Keywords: Tamarind Leather; Drying Methods; Thickening Agents; Microbial Load

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Citation

Citation: Nan Thandar Myo., et al. “Physico-Chemical Properties of Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) Leather Affected by Different Drying Methods and Thickening Agents".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 9.9 (2025): 67-79.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 Nan Thandar Myo., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.