Osmotic Dehydration and Hot Air Drying on Mango, Guava and Lemon to Obtain Functional Ingredients

espanolSe presenta y se discute los resultados de la aplicacion de tecnicas de deshidratacion osmotica y secado por aire caliente en mango, guayaba y limon procedentes de pequenos productores agropecuarios del Departamento de Atlantico-Colombia como estrategia para dar valor agregado y aprovechamiento a sus cosechas a traves de la obtencion de ingredientes funcionales. Se determinaron compuestos de interes nutraceutico: fibra, calcio y vitamina C antes y despues de los procesos de deshidratacion. Se obtuvieron productos de humedad baja comprendidos por ralladura de limon deshidratada, lamina de mango-limon, mango en polvo, guayaba en polvo y de humedad intermedia comprendido por mango y guayaba osmo-deshidratada. La tecnica de secado por aire caliente permitio obtener ralladura de cascara de limon, mango y guayaba en polvo, con contenidos importantes de fibra dietaria y los dos ultimos tambien de vitamina C, en contraste con una perdida drastica de vitamina C en los productos osmo-deshidratados. EnglishThe main objective of this paper is to present and discuss the results of the application of the techniques of osmotic dehydration and hot air drying on mango, guava and lemon so as to give them an added value and to make the most out of these crops to obtain functional ingredients. These fruits came from small agricultural producers in the Department of Altantico, Colombia. The compounds of nutraceutical interest were determined: fiber, calcium and vitamin C. All of them were studied before and after the dehydration process. These two different products were obtained: of low humidity, such as lemon dehydrated peel zest, mango-lemon sheet, mango powder, and guava powder; and of intermediate humidity, dehydrated mango and guava. The hot air-drying process allowed to obtain a lemon dehydrated peel zest, mango powder, and guava powder. These last two products contained an important amount of dietary fiber and vitamin C. By contrast, there was a significant loss of vitamin C in the osmodehydrated products.