Development of a motorized yam slicer

A motorized yam-slicing device was designed and developed to improve drying by increasing the surfaces area of yam tubers.  It consists of rotary blades, feeding chutes and electric motor.  The operating power was obtained from 1.5 hp electric motor (1,400 rpm) and, using pulley and belt with complete drive.  The device is manually fed with one tuber at a time.  Performance of the device was evaluated using the following parameters: slicing efficiency, throughput and percentage of non -uniform slices.  The slicing efficiency, throughput and non-uniform slices obtained was 52.3%, 315 kg/h and 47.65% respectively.  Making the chute adjustable to different tuber thickness would eliminate wobbling and further reduce the percentage of non-uniform slices

DRYING CHARACTERISTICS, COLOUR AND PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF BRYOPHYLLUM PINNATUM LEAVE: A FUNCTION OF PRETREATMENT AND DRYING METHODS.

The impact of three different drying methods (active solar, direct open sun and hot-air cabinet tray drying) and two different treatment methods (perforated and sliced) on drying characteristics, phytochemical constituents and colour of Bryophyllumpinnatum leaves were investigated. Moisture content of the leaves was measured until equilibrium moisture content is reached. The result obtained revealed that hot air cabinet drying method and slicing pretreatment improves the drying rate of Bryophyllumpinnatum leaves more than active solar and open sun drying methods. Active solar drying method and perforated pretreatment had the best Bryophyllumpinnatum leaves phytochemical constituents and colour retention during drying with brightness L*value (39±0.11), greenness a* (-70±0.60), yellowness b* (82±0.31), colour change ΔE* and intensity C (131.61±0.12) and(107.81±0.90). Logarithmic model had the best potential for describing the drying characteristics of both treated and untreated Bryophylliumpinnatum leaves using active solar and cabinet drying method