Influence of cooking in sorption isotherms of pinhão (Araucaria angustifolia seeds)

Abstract

The seeds of Araucaria angustifolia, commonly known as pinhão, are widely consumed in both Southern and Southeastern Brazil due to their high nutritious value. Moisture desorption isotherms of cooked pinhão were determined at 15, 25, 30 and 40 oC and modeled using well know isotherm models. Results show that Chirife model most appropriately represents the experimental data as reported previously for raw pinhão. The differential enthalpy was calculated and decreased as moisture content increased, becoming almost constant at 0.3 kg water kg-1 dry solids. Values, for each moisture content, were smaller than those reported for raw pinhão. The enthalpy-entropy compensation theory was applied to desorption isotherms providing the isokinetic temperature (401 ± 17 K). It was found that the desorption process investigated was enthalpy controlled as previously reported for raw pinhão.