Influence of Carbonic Maceration Pre-treatment on Functional Quality of Dried Tomato Quarters

As a novel pre-treatment, carbonic maceration (CM) was investigated in this study to figure out its effect on functional quality of conventionally dried tomato quarters (60 degrees C, 1.3 m/s air velocity). Carotenoids, tocopherols, total flavonoid, total phenolic and DPPH radical scavenging potential were determined for dried tomato samples (directly dried as a control and CM treated samples). Lycopene and beta-carotene contents of CM treated tomato quarters were high compared to control samples (only conventionally dried). beta-, gamma-Tocopherol contents in dried tomato were raised with CM pre-treatment, as cc-tocopherol decreased. Total flavonoid was found to be more than 2.5 times higher for CM treated samples compared to that in fish tomato. CM displayed a promoter effect on total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of hydrophilic extracts, whereas there was no difference between those values determined for lipophilic extracts from control and pre-treated samples. CM has a potential as a pre-treatment before conventional drying of tomato to improve its nutritional contents and functional potential.