Physico-chemical and Functional Properties of Drumstick Leaf Powder

The study was conducted to analysis of physico-chemical properties of drumstick leaf powder. Drumstick leaf were dried in a convective hot air dryer at 30oC, 40oC and 50oC. The air velocity inside the dryer was 2-3 m/s, the drying process takes 6 hrs, 27hrs, and 19 hrs time to dry the product at 30⁰C, 40⁰C, and 50⁰C.

The experimental drying data of drumstick were applied to six Moisture ratio models, namely, the Newton model, modified Page model, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic, Two term and Exponential Model was found to be the best for explaining the drying characteristics of drumstick leaf. The effective moisture diffusivity varied from 3.651 ×10-11, 4.503×10-11 and to 7.343×10-11 over the temperature range studied, with activation energy of 28.281 kJ/mol for drying of drumstick leaf. The drumstick leaf powder contains moisture 10.85 to 15.56 %, protein 22.88 to 23.979 %, fat 1.80 to 2.42 %, fibre 11.53 to 12.16 %, ash 3.69 to 4.93 %, carbohydrate 40.94 to 849.25% The flour had average water absorption capacity (3.081to 4.22l g/cc), bulk density (3.081 to 0.445 g/cc) were recorded.