The present study analyses the drying kinetics and changes in qualities during hot air drying of betel leaf paste for the manufacturing of betel leaf paste powder. A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the changes in different properties, including physico-chemical properties, proximate composition and other functional properties. The betel leaf paste dried powders have longer shelf life than raw leaves. Drying of betel leaf paste was conducted in three different levels, i.e., 50, 70 and 80 °C, till the samples reached a constant weight. The samples dried at 80 °C and 70 °C, showed the lowest water activity 0.1, whereas the sample dried at 50 °C, showed the highest water activity of 0.15. The values of protein, fat, crude fibre and ash were observed a little higher in betel leaf powder dried at 70 °C, than in other drying temperatures. This increase in the composition may be the result of higher dry matter in dried powder and less drying time of paste and minimum degradation in nutritional value at 70°C. However, the highest carbohydrate content was observed in betel leaf powder dried at 50 °C. The alcoholic extract of the oven- dried powder exhibited the DPPH radical scavenging activity (at 50 µg/mL) of 41.45, 46.32, and 44.35 at temperatures of 50, 70 and 80 °C respectively. The amount of phenolic content in the ethanolic extract was found to be 307, 322, and 316 mg/g in oven-dried betel leaf paste powder at 50, 70 and 80 °C respectively.

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The Zingiber officinale (ginger) and Tinospora cordifolia (giloy) are rich sources of antioxidant compounds and have been used for several decades to improve human health with relatively low side effects. The present research attempted to carry out the sensory and antioxidant activity evaluation of dried mixed paste powder of Z. officinale and T. cordifolia by establishing fuzzy logic, the newly proposed General Mathematical Formula (GMF) and the radical scavenging assay. Antioxidant activity was higher in the powder obtained in combinatorial process than the powders obtained in the separate processing of ginger or giloy. The sample containing powder, sugar and salt at 5, 5 and 1 % were more acceptable (good) and attributes generally fell under ‘important’ by both methods. Fuzzy logic and GMF results were matched perfectly for the category of samples, and quality attributes in general, and GMF method is simple and accurate for sensory evaluation.

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