Influences of emerging drying technologies on rice quality.

Rice is an important staple food in the world. Drying is an important step in the post-harvest handling of rice and can influence rice qualities and thus play a key role in determining rice commercial and nutritional value. In rice processing, traditional drying methods may lead to longer drying times, greater energy consumption, and unintended quality losses. Thus, it is imperative to improve the physical, chemical, and milling properties of rice while preserving its nutritional value, flavor, and appearance as much as possible. Additionally, it is necessary to increase the efficiency with which heat energy is utilized during the thermal processing of freshly harvested paddy. Moreover, this review provides insights into the current application status of six different innovative drying technologies such as radio frequency (RF) drying, microwave (MW) drying, infrared (IR) drying, vacuum drying (VD), superheated steam (SHS) drying, fluidized bed (FB) drying along with their effect on the quality of rice such as color, flavor, crack ratio, microstructure and morphology, bioactive components and antioxidant activity as well asstarch content and glycemic index. Dielectric methods of drying due to volumetric heating results in enhanced drying rate, improved heating uniformity, reduced crack ratio, increased head rice yield and better maintain taste value of paddy grains. These novel emerging drying techniques increased the interactions between hydrated proteins and swollen starch granules, resulting in enhanced viscosity of rice flour and promoted starch gelatinization and enhanced antioxidant activity which is helpful to produce functional rice. Moreover, this review not only highlights the existing challenges posed by these innovative thermal technologies but also presents potential solutions. Additionally, the combination of these technologies to optimize operating conditions can further boost their effectiveness in enhancing the drying process. Nevertheless, future studies are essential to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism of quality changes induced by emerging processing technologies. This knowledge will help expand the application of these techniques in the rice processing industry.

Insights into the impact of modification methods on the structural characteristics and health functions of pectin: A comprehensive review.

Pectin is a complex polysaccharide that is widely present in plant cells and has multiple physiological functions. However, most pectin exists in the form of protopectin, which has a large molecular weight and cannot be fully absorbed and utilized in the human gut to exert its effects. The significant differences in the structure of different sources of pectin also limited their application in the food and medical fields. In order to achieve greater development and utilization of pectin functions, this paper reviewed several commonly used methods for pectin modification from physical, chemical, and biological perspectives, and elaborated on the relationship between these modification methods and the structure and functional properties of pectin. At the same time, the functional characteristics of modified pectin and its application in medical health, such as regulating intestinal health, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and drug transport, were reviewed, so as to provide a theoretical basis for targeted modification of pectin and the development of new modified pectin products.

Revealing color change and drying mechanisms of pulsed vacuum steamed Cistanche deserticola through bioactive components, microstructural and starch gelatinization properties.

Cistanche deserticola is a famous herbal medicine and has been used worldwide for its kidney-tonifying and anti-aging values. This study investigated the effects of pulsed vacuum steaming (PVS) on bioactive phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs), total soluble sugars, polysaccharides, color, drying characteristics, microstructure, and starch gelatinization properties of Cistanche deserticola. PVS pretreatment significantly increased PhGs and soluble sugar content while reduced the polysaccharides content. And increasing the material core temperature to 75 °C at the largest diameter was proposed as the optimal steaming condition and the PhGs content was increased by 1.11 times compared with that by atmospheric steaming. The color of steamed samples changed to oily black due to Maillard reaction. PhGs content was significantly (P < 0.05) positively correlated with total color difference (ΔE). Steaming until the ΔE value of 15.95 could achieve the maximum accumulation of PhGs, corresponding to the highest increasing ratio of echinacoside and acteoside. Starch was completely gelatinized and formed a barrier layer adhering to the cell surface when the material core temperature reached 75 °C at the largest diameter, explaining why after steaming the Cistanche deserticola drying time was prolonged by 85.71 %. The study can provide an innovative steaming technology and optimal process parameters for obtaining high-quality Cistanche deserticola decoction pieces, as well as propose a non-destructive testing method to quickly predict PhGs content based on color parameters during the steaming process.