Mandacaru is a cactus native to the semiarid region of Brazil, of which the fruits are edible, highly perishable and rich in bioactive compounds, present mainly in the peel.The aim of this study was to determine the drying kinetics of the processed peels of the mandacaru fruit at three different temperatures, fit mathematical models to the experimental data, determine the effective diffusivity and the thermodynamic properties and evaluate the influence of the drying conditions on the bioactive compound concentrations. The residues from the mandacaru fruits, composed of the peels, were ground with a 3% ascorbic acid solution to transform them into a homogeneous paste.