Influence of different drying methods on drying characteristics, three- dimensional appearance, physicochemical property and microstructure of Pleurotus eryngii

Abstract This study investigated the effects of different drying methods, including hot air drying (HAD ), infrared drying (ID), and microwave drying (MD), on the drying characteristics, three-dimensional (3D) appearance, color, total polysaccharide content (TPC), antioxidant activity and microstructure of Pleurotus eryngii slices, and used a new machine vision technology, with the shrinkage, roughness and curvature as an index to evaluate the appearance changes during drying. The results showed that compared with HAD and ID, MD greatly reduced the drying time. The 3D appearance and microstructure image of P. eryngii slices showed that high temperature and high power could easily destroy the cell structure, and increase the shrinkage and curl. Besides, the color, TPC and antioxidant activity of slices were also related to temperature and power. This experiment can provide reference for the quality evaluation of other agricultural products in the subsequent drying process by studying the 3D morphological changes.