Effect of drying kinetics on main bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of acerola (Malpighia emarginata D.C.) residue

This study investigates the drying kinetics of residue of acerola, in a fixed‐bed dryer, analysing the effect of the process variables on the antioxidant properties of the residue. A complete factorial design 3² has been performed, where the independent variables studied were as follows: air velocity (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m s^?1) and air‐drying temperature (40, 50 and 60 °C). The bioactive compounds studied were L‐ascorbic acid, total phenolic, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity (expressed as IC₅₀) was determined using free radical DPPH^?. Both independent variables studied have shown to be statistically significant. The content of ascorbic acid was the highest at 60 °C and 1.0 m s^?1 (126.2 ± 0.004 mg 100 g^?1) while for the fresh residue 16.12 ± 0.003 mg 100 g^?1, whereas the total phenolic showed the highest content at 50 °C and 1.5 m s^?1 (46.2 ± 0.003 mg gallic acid.100 g^?1) while for the fresh residue 12.59 ± 0.001 mg gallic acid.100 g^?1. The drying conditions play an important role in determining the final quality of the product mainly in terms of antioxidant activity.