THE DRYING AND TABLETTING OF PITAYA POWDER

Pitaya is commonly known as dragon fruit in Malaysia. It is a uniquely beautiful fruit with an intense color and shape and tastes delicious. Recently, it has become more popular among Malaysians because it is rich in minerals and vitamins. The main concern of this article was to form pitaya powder into tablets. Prior to that, pitaya fruits were dried and grounded into powder. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of the oven drying technique on the red flesh of pitaya fruits before the grinding process to form powder and to investigate the tabletting and the compressibility of pitaya fruit powder. Findings from this work are essential for product storage, transportation and packaging. The pitaya fruit was cut into slices and dried in an oven at 70C and was then ground to 300 mu m. The color of the dried pitaya was characterized using a colorimeter. A 13-mm uniaxial die was adopted, and a binder known as maltodextrin was added to the tabletting process. As the oven temperature increased, the red color of the dried pitaya became more intense, and the lightness decreased. The water activity was also reduced to 50% after drying. The compressibility and tabletting behavior of the powder are quite comparable with the behavior of other food powders and were further validated using the Kawakita and Ludde equation. In conclusion, this study may induce further investigation of the potential of pitaya powder as a natural coloring agent and as a health supplement. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This work evaluates the drying and tabletting applications on pitaya powder. Three parameters are considered in the drying process, moisture content, color and water activity of pitaya fruit and pitaya powder were measured. During tabletting, the compressibility and compactability of the materials were investigated. The experimental results are essential for packaging, transportation and shelf life. Additionally, the product may be used as a natural coloring agent and a health supplement.