Water adsorption isotherms and thermodynamic properties of germinated pumpkin seeds fl ours

Abstract

The use of residues resulting from the processing of agricultural products is an widely studied topic, which is
justifi ed by the need to reduce costs and by the search for productive sustainability, which has as one of its principles the full use
production, reducing waste and therefore increasing the amount of products extracted per unit of area. Residual seeds, resulting from
the production of fruit pulps, are rich in nutrients and with the potential to be further improved by the application of germination,
increasing the protein content and the content of bioactive compounds. However, in the germination process, the product acquires
a high water content, requiring immediate drying and control of the water adsorption kinetics after dehydration. Therefore, the
objective of this study was to determine the water adsorption isotherms of germinated seeds fl ours from pumpkins of three varieties
at temperatures of 15, 25 and 35 °C, to obtain the most appropriate mathematical model to describe the hygroscopic behavior and to
determine the thermodynamic properties of water adsorption, through the values of the integral isosteric heat, diff erential entropy,
diff erential enthalpy and Gibbs free energy for the studied conditions. The GAB and Peleg models fi t the experimental data well. With increasing
water activity, there was a reduction in isosteric heat and entropy. The enthalpy-entropy compensation theory was confi rmed. Gibbs free energy
was negative for all temperatures, increasing with increasing equilibrium water content, demonstrating that it is a spontaneous process.