2.1 To investigate the use of selected pretreatment methods to modify plant structure, inactivate undesirable enzymes and introduce exogenous enzymes to hydrolyze plant substrates to produce specific hydrolytic products. Consequences of these pretreatment methods on functional and bioactive properties as well as bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds of the resulting products will also be investigated.
2.2 To study the use of superheated steam spray drying and various wall materials to encapsulate bioactive compounds as well as to study the physical and chemical stabilities of the encapsulated products.
2.3 To study superheated steam roasting of selected materials and to compare the results with those of hot air roasting in terms of physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity and stability of the products.
2.4 To study the extraction of selected bioactive compounds from plant materials by varying the composition of an extraction solvent. Evolutions of the material-solvent mixture temperature as well as microstructure of an extracted sample will also be monitored.
2.5 To model the transport phenomena as well as quality changes of a material undergoing various processing operations in Objectives 2.2-2.4.
2.6 To apply image analysis to study macroscopic and microscopic changes of a material undergoing various processing operations in Objectives 2.2-2.4.
