applied sciences Article Effect of Hot-Air Convective Drying on Activity Retention of Amylase and Invertase in Dried Mango of Varieties Sindri, SB Chaunsa, and Tommy Atkins Adnan Mukhtar 1,2,* , Sajid Latif 1 and Joachim Müller 1 1 Tropics and Subtropics Group, Institute of Agricultural Engineering (440e), University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;
[email protected] (S.L.);
[email protected] (J.M.) 2 Sub-Campus Depalpur Okara, Institute of Horticulture Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Renala Khurd 56300, Pakistan * Correspondence:
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[email protected]; Tel.: +49-0711-459-24708 Abstract: Recently, fruit-drying industries are showing great interest in producing dry fruits that preserve a high enzyme content. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of hot-air convective drying on activity retention of amylase and invertase in dried mango of varieties Sindri, Samar Bahisht (SB) Chaunsa, and Tommy Atkins. Convection drying was conducted under over-flow mode at five temperatures (40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 ◦C), two air velocities (1.0 and 1.4 m s−1), and constant specific humidity of 10 g kg−1 dry air. The enzymatic degradation data were fitted to the first-order reaction kinetics model, in which the temperature dependence of the rate constant Citation: Mukhtar, A.; Latif, S.; is modelled by the Arrhenius-type relationship. Results showed that the maximum amylase and Müller, J. Effect of Hot-Air invertase activity for dried mango of all three varieties was best preserved in samples dried at a Convective Drying on Activity temperature of 80 ◦C and an air velocity of 1.4 m s−1.