Published Paper Details:

Tomatoes were pre-treated with Syzygium aromaticum, dried and evaluated for its antioxidants, physicochemicals and antimicrobial properties. S. aromaticum treatment were made at varying concentrations of 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10%. Sun drying and oven drying (60oC) were used to effect the drying process. Dried tomatoes samples treated with no S. aromaticum served as control samples. Selected properties evaluated includes; moisture content, ash, pH, crude fibre, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, total carotenoid, lycopene and total viable and fungal count using standard methods. The results obtained showed that treatment with S. Aromaticum significantly (P<0.05) increased the pH and crude fibre when compared with the control samples. Ascorbic acid value of the oven-dried control sample was significantly reduced compared to the ascorbic acid value of the sun-dried control sample. However, in treatment with varying concentrations of S. aromaticum, the ascorbic acid values of oven-dried samples were better retained. The lycopene and total carotenoid value were also reduced in oven-dried samples compared to sun-dried samples when treated with varying concentration of S. aromaticum. There was considerable reduction in total viable and fungal count of tomatoes treated with S. aromaticum compared with the control samples. The findings revealed that S. aromaticum was a good pre-treatment for preserving quality of dried tomato.