Button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is the most widely cultivated and consumed mushroom in the world but preservation methods are necessary to extend shelf life of fresh mushroom. Drying is one of the most important methods to increase the shelf life of high moisture products. Since mushrooms are very sensitive to temperature, choosing a proper drying method is very important. In this study the effect of osmotic dehydration in different concentrations (10, 20, 30 and 40% w/w) of sucrose solutions, temperatures (30, 40, 50 and 60°C) and different mushroom-solution ratio (1:10, 1:15 and 1:25) on kinetics properties of mushroom slices during 5 hours was studied. The results showed that the moisture content of samples decreased with increasing of temperature and sucrose concentration, while Brix increased. Depending on applied treatments, final moisture content and Brix of mushroom slices after osmotic process were in the range of 47.6-87.9% and 7.4-46.7 respectively. Kinetics curves of moisture content and Brix were also obtained during osmotic dehydration process. It was also observed that concentration of osmotic solution is the only effective factor on rehydration ratio of dried mushroom slices.

In this study, the optimization of osmotic solutions (containing fructose, calcium chloride and citric acid) were investigated based on maximum water loss (WL) in the osmotic dehydration of quince. The response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design, with 18 treatment and 3 replicate, was used for optimizing. The results showed that fructose and calcium chloride had linear and quadratic significant effects (p<0.5) on the WL and citric acid had no significant effect at determined range of concentration. The sample containing fructose 47.68%, calcium chloride 3.99% and citric acid 3.49% were selected as the optimum solution by RSM. The control and pretreated samples were subsequently dried by air drying and effects of coating by pectin-carboxymethyl cellose-ascorbic acid based solutions and osmotic dehydration on dried quince quality attributes include color and textural properties were studied. The results of compression test showed that coating and osmotic dehydration caused to decreasing in the hardness of samples which was attributed to plasticizing effects of low molecular compounds in solutions and fruit texture. Coating and osmotic dehydration caused to decreasing in overall color change of the dried quince which was attributed to decreasing contact of quince slice with oxygen, reduction effect of ascorbic acid and chelating and pH decreasing effects of citric acid.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of osmotic solutions of high fructose corn syrup and sugar in concentrations of 40 and 60%, compared to distilled water for 20 and 30 minutes assisted ultrasound on water loss, solid gain, weight loss, shrinkage, texture firmness, moisture, color indices and sensory properties of dried banana slices. The results showed that with increasing ultrasound time and concentration of osmotic solutions, especially high fructose corn syrup with 60% concentration, the amount of water loss, solid gain, weight loss, firmness and brightness increased while the amount of shrinkage and moisture content of the samples decreased. The sensory characteristics of dried bananas with osmotic solutions also had the better appearance, color, firmness and overall acceptance. Use of ultrasound pretreatment with high fructose corn syrup as a low-caloric and dietary solution is recommended for banana drying.

In this study, mathematical modeling of hot air-drying of thin-layer papaya (Carica papaya L.) slices with 5±1 mm thickness pretreated in osmotic solution (50% sucrose) was investigated. Thin-layer drying was conducted under three different drying temperatures of 40, 50 and 60oC at a constant air velocity of 0.9±0.1 m/s and absolute humidity of 0.6±0.02 g of water/kg of dry air. It was found that the drying process occurred in falling rate period over the drying time. The osmosis dehydration characteristics obtained by solid gain (SG), water loss (WL) and weight reduction (WR) parameters that increased with increasing immersion time. The effective diffusivity for papaya slices was within the range of 2.13×10-9 to 4.84×10-9 m2/s over the temperature range. The activation energy was 38.63 kJ/mol indicated the effect of temperature on the diffusivity. Based on the statistical analysis using coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE), it was concluded that the best model in terms of fitting performance for hot air-drying of papaya pretreated in osmosis solution in all temperature range was Midilli et al. model.

In this study, first, the water purification process was modeled by the hybrid of direct osmosis membrane and ultrafiltration, then the current system was compared with experimental results in terms of quality control and costs. In the direct osmosis process, a highly concentrated sodium polyacrylate solution was used as the draw solution. When the FO side of the hybrid membrane met wastewater, seawater, or saltwater, clean water was drawn through the FO membrane into the SPA solution. Then, the clean water was removed from the SPA solution through the UF membrane by applying pressure, which can be hydraulic or mechanical, less than 1 bar. Modeling was done to prove the validity of the design concept. Some model equations were extracted to simulate the performance of the hybrid membrane, and the experimental data were analyzed based on the model equations. It is believed that this method allows the production of RO quality water at a UF pressure much lower than the RO pressure and thus leads to a significant reduction in energy consumption for water production. It was noticed that more water (than the calculated value) could be drawn to the SPA solution when the CSPA,0 was<15.75 wt% while less water was drawn when CSPA,0 was>15.75 wt%.

In this study, osmotic dehydration of quince was performed as osmotic solution including C1 (10% NaCl+30% Sucrose+30% Glucose w/w), C2 (10% NaCl+10% Sucrose+50% Glucose w/w), C3 (10% NaCl+50% Sucrose+10% Glucose w/w), C4 (20% NaCl+50% Sucrose w/w), C5 (20% NaCl+50% Glucose w/w), C6 (50% Glucose w/w), C7 (60% Glucose w/w),C8 (70% Glucose w/w), C9 (50% Sucrose w/w), C10 (60% Sucrose w/w), and C11 (70% Sucrose w/w). Temperature condition was 25 and 75 co. Ratio was 1:5 and 1:10 (Quince: osmotic solution).Water loss (WL), Solid gain (SG), moisture content (MCwb) and weight reduction (WR) were calculated during 8 hours through osmotic condition. The results indicated that C2 solution had maximum water loss, 0.369. Also, C5 solution had maximum average solid gain, 0.196.

The moderating role of salicylic acid (SA) and putrescine (PUS) as plant growth regulators (PGRs), on the growth parameters and phytochemical and qualitative characteristics of strawberry fruit 'Selva' under osmotic stress was investigated under soilless culture. The osmotic potential (salinity) of the nutrient solution containing different NaCl concentrations (0, 7. 5, 15, 30 and 45 mM) and foliar application of PUS (0 and 1. 5 mM) and SA (0 and 1. 5 mM) were studied. The results showed a significant decrease in plant leaf area (79. 6%), total chlorophyll content (48%), fruit yield (73. 5%), leaf relative water content (33%), total protein (33. 4%), total phenol (7. 8%), and vitamin C content (24. 5%) under osmotic stress. Moreover, peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes activity, leaf ion leakage, and soluble carbohydrate and proline content increased significantly under osmotic stress. Application of PGRs had a significant effect on all the studied traits (except for SOD activity). Interactive effects of salinity and PGRs were significant on all the traits except for leaf ion leakage, POD activity, soluble carbohydrates, and protein. The highest total phenol and vitamin C contents were obtained with 15 mM salinity along with foliar application of PGRs. In conclusion, foliar application of PUS and SA ameliorate negative effects of salt stress on growth, yield, and quality of strawberry fruit.