No abstract

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) kernels, the innermost part of the economical stone fruit, are utilized for edible purposes, extraction of oil, and many pharmaceutical products.Biological materials are complex in structure and get affected by their moisture content. This study investigates the effect of different moisture content from 5.66% to 26.47% wet basis apricot kernels on its various engineering characteristics and develops their correlations. The engineering characteristics such as linear dimension length (13.26-14.47 mm), breadth (8.69-9.97 mm), thickness (5.36-6.50 mm), arithmetic mean diameter (9.11-10.32 mm), geometric mean diameter (8.48-9.77 mm), surface area (227.91-302.68 mm 2 ), projected area (91.99-114.95 mm 2 ), 1000 kernel mass (0.317-0.403 kg), true density (881.23-973.55 kg m À3 ), and porosity (33.74%-43.68%) increased linearly with moisture content. On the other hand, bulk density (548.23-583.89 kg m À3 ) and elongation ratio (2.25-2.51) showed a decreasing trend with an increase in moisture content. The frictional properties such as angle of repose

The moisture content of grains, oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration in storage environment affects the storage life of food grains. The moisture content affects on storability of food grains severely, hence the storage structures must be provided with sufficient protection from moisture exchange between grain and atmosphere. The insect and pests grows very fast in presence of oxygen and moisture in the storage environment. The humid climate provides favorable conditions to moulds and insects to grow in most of the food grains and oilseeds. The grains exposed to these favorable environment further not useful for human consumptions. Many harmful chemicals like aflatoxins are formed in oilseeds and cereals. The emerging hermatic storage is highly effective technology to prevent the spoilage of grains without use of any harmful fumigants and chemicals, hence it is popularly known as organic storage technology. In this technology the flow of oxygen and water from external environment is fully controlled by impermeable, triple layer hermatic plastic bags.