Comparison of different drying modes for preparation of Indian horse chestnut flour

Indian horse chestnut is a wild nut which is a good source of starch and has many other medicinal properties. It contains toxic compound known as saponins which makes it bitter and unsuitable for edible purposes. This saponin content of Indian horse chestnut mass was removed by pre-treatment. The pre-treated mass was dried under different drying modes like open sun, solar tunnel drier and mechanical cabinet drier before converting into flour. On the basis of physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of flour, mechanical cabinet drier was found to be the best drying mode in which pre-treated mass was dried to 6.30 per cent moisture level within 18 hours of drying. Other quality characteristics like total solids (93.70%), starch (64.20%), total sugars (3.87%), fibre (2.58%) and protein (105 mg/100) were found higher in this drying mode than others.