Influence of slice thickness on the quality of dehydrated bitter gourd rings

Abstract

Bitter gourd (Momardica charantia) is an important vegetable of summer as well as rainy season. It is consumed throughout the Asian sub-continent for culinary and medicinal purposes. The vegetable is valued for its medicinal properties, particularly, for the treatment of general fever, malaria and diabetes (Kedar and Chakraborti, 3). Antidiabetic properties of bitter gourd are due to its potent oxygen-free radical scavenging activity of the fruit juice (Sree Jayan and Rao, 8). It is also said to be a good vegetable for patients suffering from ascites, gout pain in joints and indigestion. Drying and canning are common methods employed for its preservation. Canning is uneconomical due to increased cost of cans. Dried product is, therefore, preferred because of some advantages like reduced mass (bulk), lower cost of packaging, transportation and storage requirement (Singh et al., 7). Keeping these in view, the present investigation was undertaken to standardize the thickness of bitter gourd rings for preparation of good quality dehydrated product.