Otimização do processo de secagem de algas marinhas arribadas do gênero Sargassum sp.
Carregando...
Data
2025-12-12
Autores
Souza, Mylena Amorim de
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Editor
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo
Resumo
The Sargassum genus is distributed in tropical and intertropical regions. These organisms have broad applications across different sectors, including the food industry, agriculture, cosmetics, and medicine, mainly due to their bioactive compounds such as phlorotannins. The Sargassum genus has been found among stranded seaweeds in several parts of Brazil; however, reports on the use of these stranded algae in the state remain scarce. This study aimed to optimize the fixed-bed and thin-layer drying processes of stranded Sargassum algae, evaluated in their whole, blade, and axis forms, to determine the temperature that maximized the preservation of bioactive compounds while minimizing drying time and energy consumption. The drying kinetics were evaluated at 45, 50, 55, 60, and 65 °C. The total phenolic content, phlorotannins (DMBA), and antioxidant activity (DPPH and ABTS) were quantified. Based on these results, the drying processes were optimized using the desirability function. Analysis of the drying kinetics of whole algae, axes, and blades confirmed that the Page and Midilli models were the most suitable for representing the experimental data. The phlorotannin contents (up to 0.6266 mg PGE/g) in whole algae were higher than those reported in the literature. Conversely, for blades and axes, the phlorotannin contents determined by the DMBA assay, as well as the total phenolic content, showed no significant differences. The antioxidant activity measured by DPPH and ABTS methods remained within the range reported in the literature for all treatments. However, there is a notable scarcity of data regarding thin-layer drying applied to blades and fixed-bed drying applied to Sargassum axes. Drying time decreased as temperature increased in all treatments, while energy consumption followed the same trend for blades and axes and a sigmoidal trend for whole samples. Through the application of the desirability function, it was possible to identify, for whole algae, a global desirability value of 0.5789 and an optimal temperature of 49.02 °C, simultaneously balancing drying time, energy consumption, and phlorotannin content. For blades and axes, global desirability values of 0.8700 and 0.5454 were obtained, with optimal temperatures of 63.7 °C and 61 °C, respectively, simultaneously optimizing drying time, energy consumption, and antioxidant activity (ABTS and DPPH). These findings confirm that optimizing the drying process is essential, as it not only reduces operation time and energy consumption but also ensures the preservation of bioactive compounds, thereby improving the efficiency and technological applicability of the process.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Secagem em leito fixo , Secagem em camada delgada , Sargassum sp. , Florotaninos , Compostos bioativos , Fixed-bed drying , Thin-layer drying , Sargassum sp. , Phlorotannins , Bioactive compounds