Moisture sorption isotherms of whole and fractionated date-pits: Measurement and theoretical modelling

Moisture sorption properties of whole date-pits (WDP) and three fractionated date-pits; defatted date-pits (DDP), residue (REP) and supernatant (SUP) fractions were studied. Sorption isotherms were measured using Differential Thermal and Humidity chamber at different temperatures (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 °C) and relative humidity ranged from 0.05 to 0.9. Crossovers of isotherm curves were observed for all fractions between different temperatures. At 30 °C, BET-monolayers of WDP, DDP, REP and SUP were 4.9, 4.2, 3.8 and 3.2 g/100 g ds, respectively. The complete isotherms (i.e. 0.05–0.90 water activity) were modelled by GAB with high coefficient of determination (i.e. 0.944 to 0.999). In the cases of WDP and DDP, the isosteric heat plots showed increasing trends with the decreased moisture and peaks at moisture 0.025 and 0.040 g/100 g ds. Unlike all fractions, DDP isokinetic temperatures T_is (i.e. 97.4 °C) was lower than isobound temperatures T_ib (i.e. 145.0 °C) indicating complete removal of bound water occurred at higher temperature as compared to the temperature when all reactions reached at the same. The moisture sorption isotherm characteristics could be used in determining the end point of drying and storage stability as well as packaging design of the date-pits and their fractions.