Physical, chemical, sorption and microbiological characteristics of fennel fruits

Mariya Dushkova; Milen Dimov; Lazar Lazarov; Martina Pencheva; Iliana Kostova; Stanka Damyanova; Nikolay Menkov; Albena Stoyanova; Sezai Ercisli; Amine Assouguem; Romina Alina Marc; Duygu Ayvaz Sonmez; Riaz Ullah; Ahmed Bari

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19127

Physical, chemical, sorption and microbiological characteristics of fennel fruits

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 22;9(9):e19127. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19127. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Mariya Dushkova¹, Milen Dimov², Lazar Lazarov³, Martina Pencheva⁴, Iliana Kostova⁴, Stanka Damyanova⁴, Nikolay Menkov¹, Albena Stoyanova³, Sezai Ercisli^{5

6}, Amine Assouguem⁷, Romina Alina Marc^{8

9}, Duygu Ayvaz Sonmez¹⁰, Riaz Ullah¹¹, Ahmed Bari¹²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Process Engineering, University of Food Technologies, 4002, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
² Department Food Technology, Trakia University, 8600, Yambol, Bulgaria.
³ Department of Tobacco, Sugar, Vegetable and Essential Oils, University of Food Technologies, 4002, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
⁴ Branch-Razgrad, Razgrad, University of Russe "Angel Kanchev", Bulgaria.
⁵ Department of Horticulture, Atatürk University, Erzurum, 25240, Turkey.
⁶ HGF Agro, Ata Teknokent, TR-25240, Erzurum, Turkey.
⁷ Laboratory of Functional Ecology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Imouzzer Street, Fez P.O. Box 2202, Morocco.
⁸ Food Engineering Department, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 400372, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁹ Technological Transfer Center "CTT-BioTech", University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Calea Floreşti Street, No. 64, 400509, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
¹⁰ Yaltır Agricultural Products Inc., Sarıhuglar, 01355, Adana, Turkey.
¹¹ Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Fennel (Foeniculum officinale Mill. var. dulce Mill) is an annual aromatic plant of the Lamiaceae family. Its fruits are processed to obtain essential oil for use in the food industry and cosmetics. The physical parameters of the fruits, i.e. length (5.50-8.00 mm), width (1.50-2.00 mm), volume of 100 fruits (1.36 × 10^-6 m³), density of 100 fruits (935.82 kg/m³), average volume of one fruit (1.36 × 10^-8 m³), average equivalent diameter of one fruit (2.96 mm), angle of repose, stainless steel (from 16 to 22°), angle of repose, black steel (from 19 to 28°), angle of repose, plywood (from 18 to 24°), and their chemical parameters, i.e. moisture (13.49%), ash (6.49%), protein (18.25%), essential oil (8.38%), vegetable oil (10.52%), and total carbohydrates (51.04%) were determined for the fruits. The adsorption and desorption isotherms of the fennel fruits were obtained using the static gravimetric method at two temperatures, 20 and 40 °C. The Halsey model provided a good description of the sorption isotherms, which were of type II according to Brunauer's classification. The increase in the temperature led to a significant decrease in the monolayer moisture. The contamination on the fruit surface at three relative humidities (0.43, 0.59, and 0.76) at 20 °C was determined.

Keywords: Characteristics; Fennel fruits.