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Antioxidant, Total Lycopene, Ascorbic Acid and Microbial Load Estimation in Powdered Tomato Varieties Sold in Dutsin-Ma Market

2015; Scientific Research Publishing; Volume: 02; Issue: 08 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4236/oalib.1101768

2333-9721

Godwin O. Adejo, Francis Akumabi Agbali, Orinya Sandra Otokpa,

Postharvest Quality and Shelf Life Management

Tomato varieties sold in Dutsin-Ma market namely, UTC, Rukuta and Dan-Aka were subjected to drying in a laboratory oven, solar drier and under direct sunlight then, powdered.The antioxidant and total lycopene contents were examined and found to be unaffected by the three drying procedures, with values ranging between 68.46% ± 0.90% to 80.77% ± 1.11% and 123.63 to 161.98 mg/kg, respectively.The ascorbic acid was also tested and values were significantly lower in all the samples subjected to sun-drying with values ranging from 17.78 ± 1.78 µg/ml to 28.44 ± 1.78 µg/ml as against 100.15 ± 1.03 µg/ml to 164.74 ± 2.06 µg/ml for oven and solar dried tomato samples (p < 0.05), respectively.Total microbial load, yeast/mould, and coliform counts were then investigated.They were too numerous to count (TNTC) in the sun-dried samples.Although, also found among samples that were oven and solar dried, counts of the microorganisms were within the acceptable standards of <10 5 for bacteria and 10 3 -10 4 for fungi.While solar and oven drying presented better preservation of the tomato samples, the former offers most incentive in terms of cost and quality to farmers and the people, considering its free availability and abundance in processing dry tomato powders.