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Chemical composition and physicochemical properties of pumpkin seeds and fatty acids of their oil were determined. It was found that the seeds contained 41.59% oil and 25.4% protein. Moisture, crude fiber, total ash, and carbohydrate contents were 5.2%, 5.34%, 2.49%, and 25.19%, respectively. The specific gravity, dynamic viscosity, and refractive index of the extracted pumpkin seed oil were 0.915, 93.659 cP, and 1.4662, respectively. Acid value (mg KOH/g oil), peroxide value (meq O2/kg oil), iodine value (g I2/100 g oil), saponification number (mg KOH/ g oil), and unsaponifiable matter content (%) of the extracted oil from pumpkin seeds were 0.78, 0.39, 10.85, 104.36, 190.69, and 5.73, respectively. Total phenolics compounds (mg gallic acid/kg oil), total tocopherols (mg α-tocopherol/kg oil), total sterols (%), and waxes (%) were 66.27, 882.65, 1.86, and 1.58, respectively. Specific extinctions at two wavelengths of 232 nm (K232) and 270 nm (K270) and R-value (K232/K270) were 3.80, 3.52 and 0.74, respectively. Gas chromatographic analysis of the pumpkin seed oil showed that the linoleic (39.84%), oleic (38.42%), palmitic (10.68%) and stearic (8.67%) acids were the major fatty acids. Compared with other vegetable oils, the present study revealed that pumpkin seed oil can be a valuable source of edible oil.

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Fried foods due to suitable taste, flavor and mouth feel are very popular but they contain high level of oil. Frying time and temperature and coating before frying process are the main factors, affetcting oil content in fried products. In this study the effect of different concentrations of Balangu seed gum (0, 10 and 20 %W/V), frying temperature (150, 170 and 190 0C) and frying time (2, 4 and 6 minutes) on the quality and sensory attributes of fried zucchini slices were investigated and optimized by response surface method. Results showed that the amounts of water loss and oil uptake during frying process were reduced with increase of gum concentration in the coating agent, but the moisture content of sample was decreased by increasing of frying time and temperature while oil uptake increased. The L* index of the final products were decreased with increase of frying time and temperature and Balangu seed gum concentration. The most affecting factors on the a* and b* index are frying temprature, frying time and Balangu seed gum concentration respectively. The sensory evaluation results, showed that, total acceptance of fried zucchini slices increased with frying time and temperature incensement while decreased with Balangu seed gum incensement. Optimization results showed that the optimum processing conditions of fried zucchini slices were frying time of 2 minute, Balangu seed gum concentration 14.31% and frying temperature 177 0C and in these conditions the quality attributes of final products were in optimum level. Application of Balangu seed gum lead to produce low fat fried zucchini slices without adverse effect on sensory attributes of final product.

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The aim of this study was the production of double emulsions stabilized by hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and comparison of physicochemical properties of these emulsions with double emulsions stabilized by Tween 80 emulsifier. Double emulsions were produced using the two-step method. Firstly, an initial water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion was prepared by adding 20% ​​of the internal aqueous phase containing sodium chloride to the oil phase containing 95% sunflower oil and 5% Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and mixing with a magnetic stirrer. In the second stage of emulsification, 40% of the initial water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion produced in the first stage was added to 60% of the external aqueous phase containing hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose emulsifier in three levels of 2, 3 and 4%, 1% hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose and 1% tween 80 and 2% tween 80 as control sample and dispersed by magnetic stirrer. Both the produced emulsions were homogenized using a high speed homogenizer for 15 minutes at 15000 rpm. The produced double emulsions were optimized in terms of particle size and distribution, stability, viscosity, color and morphology. The results showed that the lowest particle size was related to the double emulsions produced by Tween 80 which their particles size and distribution were 385.33 nm and 0.31, respectively. These parameters were 453.97 nm and 0.33, respectively for emulsions stabilized with 4% hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose.

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The genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method can be used to overcome the inherent limitations of artificial neural network (ANN). Genetic algorithm–artificial neural network (GA-ANN) method has a high capability to find the optimum value of a complex objective function. In this study, first, to balangu seeds gum drying, an infrared dryer was used. In this infrared dryer, the effect of distance of samples from lamp at three levels of 5, 7.5 and 10 cm and the effect of height of the gum inside the container at three levels of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 cm on drying time and weight loss percentage of balangu seeds gum during drying time, were investigated. The results of balangu seeds gum drying using infrared method showed that with decreases in sample distance from the heat source and also with decreases in thickness of the gum in the sample container, drying time were decreased. With increasing in the lamp distance from 5 to 10 cm, the average drying time of balangu seeds gum increased from 62.6 minutes to 87.6 minutes. With sample thickness increasing from 0.5 to 1.5 cm, the average drying time of balangu seeds gum increased from 45.9 to 109.2 minutes. In the next step, this process was modeled by GA-ANN method with 3 inputs (radiation time, lamp distance from samples surface and thickness of samples) and 1 output (weight loss percentage). The results of modeling with GA-ANN method showed that the network with structure of 3-9-1 in a hidden layer and using the hyperbolic tangent activation function could predict the weight loss percentage of balangu seeds gum during drying in an infrared dryer with high correlation coefficient (0.999) and low mean squared error (0.788).

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ANFIS (Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system) is a combined neuro-fuzzy method for modeling transport phenomena (mass and heat) in the food processing. In this study, first, an infrared dryer was used to dry the extracted gum from quince seed. Then, ANFIS method was used to modeling and predicting the weight changes percentage of this gum when drying in infrared dryer. In the infrared dryer, the effect of samples distance from the radiation lamp and the effect of the gum thickness inside the container on the drying time and the weight loss percentage of quince seed gum during drying time were investigated. The results of drying of this gum by infrared method showed that by reducing the samples distance from the heat source from 10 to 5 cm, the average drying time of quince seed gum decreased from 58.0 minutes to 29.3 minutes (thickness 1.5 cm). Also, by reducing the gum thickness in the sample container from 1.5 to 0.5 cm, the average drying time of the extracted gum decreased from 45.7 minutes to 19.3 minutes (distance 7.5 cm). The ANFIS model was developed with 3 inputs of drying time, samples distance from heat source and gum thickness in the sample container to predict the weight changes percentage of this gum when drying in infrared dryer. The calculated coefficients of determination values for predicting the weight loss percentage of gum using the ANFIS-based subtractive clustering algorithm was 0.983. In general, it can be said that the high coefficients of determination between the experimental results and the outputs of the ANFIS model indicate the acceptable accuracy and usability of this method in modeling heat and mass transfer processes in the food industry.
 

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To improving energy efficiency and increasing quality of dried product, a infrared dryer was constructed that can be used to dry fruits and vegetables. In this study, drying kinetics modeling of garlic in an infrared dryer was investigated. The effect of samples distance from the radiation lamp in three levels of 5, 7.5 and 10 cm and the effect of garlic slices thickness in the in three levels of 3, 6 and 9 mm on the mass transfer rate and effective moisture diffusivity coefficient during the dry process of garlic was investigated. To determine the appropriate kinetics model in the drying process, the drying curves can be analyzed under the defined conditions. Therefore, in this research, to investigate on the drying kinetics of garlic slices, the standard models were fitted to the experimental data. By increasing the distance of the samples from the heat source from 5 to 10 cm, the average drying time of garlic increased from 35.8 minutes to 37.3 minutes. By increasing the thickness of the samples from 3 to 9 mm, the average drying time of garlic increased from 22.7 minutes and 50.9 minutes. The effect of sample distance from infrared heat lamp and sample thickness on changes in effective moisture diffusivity coefficient of garlic was investigated and results showed that this coefficient values were increased with decreasing in distance and increasing samples thickness. By reducing sample distance from the lamp from 10 to 5 cm, it was observed that the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient increased from 2.71×10^-9 m²s^-1 to 3.63×10^-9 m²s^-1. The average effective moisture diffusivity coefficient of garlic slices for thicknesses of 3, 6, and 9 mm were 0.94×10^-9 m²s^-1, 2.72×10^-9 m²s^-1, and 5.54×10^-9 m²s^-1, respectively. In drying process modeling of garlic, the Midilli model with the highest coefficient of determination and the lowest
 

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In this research, the effect of ultrasound treatment at different powers and temperatures on the drying process of cornelian cherry by infrared dryer was investigated and modeled. The effect of the applied power by the ultrasonic device at three levels of 0, 75 and 150 W and the effect of the ultrasonic treatment temperature at three levels of 20, 40 and 60 °C on the mass transfer rate and the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient during the drying process of cornelian cherry were investigated. The results of this research showed that ultrasonic pretreatment before drying cornelian cherry by the infrared dryer, by creating microscopic channels on the product surface due to the cavitation phenomenon, makes it easier for moisture to exit from the product and thus reduces the drying time. By increasing the ultrasonic power from 0 to 150 W, the average drying time of cornelian cherry decreased from 73.2 minutes to 51.4 minutes. By increasing the treatment temperature from 20 to 60 °C, the average drying time of cornelian cherry decreased from 69.7 minutes to 55.7 minutes. The effect of power and time of ultrasound treatment on the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient changes of cornelian cherry was investigated and the results showed that with the increase in the power and temperature of the ultrasonic device, the values of this coefficient increase. By increasing the sonication power from 0 to 150 W, it was observed that the effective moisture diffusivity coefficient increased from 6.63×10^-9 m²s^-1 to 10.11×10^-9 m²s^-1. The average effective moisture diffusivity coefficient of cornelian cherry treated at temperatures of 20, 40 and 60 °C were 7.26×10^-9 m²s^-1, 8.10×10^-9 m²s^-1, and 9.45×10^-9 m²s^-1, respectively. In order to investigate the drying kinetics of cornelian cherry, mathematical models were fitted to the experimental data.

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The intensity and application time of ultrasound treatment before the osmotic dehydration process and the use of osmotic solutions of different concentrations can result in different dehydration intensities and sucrose gain in the orange slices and also can influence important qualitative parameters. In this research, the effect of ultrasound pretreatments (three levels of ultrasound intensity and at three different times) and the sucrose solution concentration (20, 30, and 40%) on the weight loss percentage, the solid gain percentage, the amount of removed moisture and the rehydration percentage of orange slices during osmotic dehydration process was investigated. By increasing the concentration of sucrose solution from 20 to 40%, the solid gain percentage of dehydrated orange slices increased from 7.94% to 16.29% (P<0.05); But with increase in the sonication power from zero to 150 W, the value of this parameter decreased. By increasing the sucrose solution concentration from 20 to 40%, due to the increase in the osmotic pressure of the solution, the amount of weight reduction and the moisture loss percentage of orange slices increased from 5.17% to 10.58% and from 13.11% to 27.14%, respectively. With increasing the ultrasound treatment time, the amount of removed moisture from the samples increased (P<0.05). With increasing ultrasound power, the rehydration of dried samples increased from 169.9% to 186.2%, but the ultrasound time had the opposite influence, and with increasing the ultrasound treatment time, the rehydration amount of samples decreased from 181.5% to 168.9%. In general, applying 5 min of ultrasound with a power of 150 W, due to the reduction of solid gain and increase in rehydration percentage, is recommended before the osmotic dehydration process of orange slices with a solution containing 40% sucrose.