RESUMO
Drying properties of syrup prepared from Parinari curatellifolia fruit and cereal based product, zvambwa prepared from the syrup and finger millet (Eleusine coracana) meal were studied using a convective tray drier at temperatures ranging from 30 to 80 °C and air velocity of 0.72 m/s. Nine mathematical models namely Henderson and Pabis, Lewis, Midilli et al., Modified Page, Page, Two Term, Weibull, Modified Page Equation (II) and Wang and Singh were fitted to data for thin layer drying of the products using non-linear regression analysis. Thin layer drying processes for the syrup and zvambwa were best described by the Modified Page model. Effective moisture diffusivities for drying of syrup were higher than those for drying of zvambwa. The activation energies for drying of syrup and zvambwa were 21.0 ± 2.0 kJ/mol and19.0 ± 2.0 kJ/mol respectively.
