Studying the process of electric pulse plasmolysis of apple and pumpkin raw materials

The use of high-voltage electrical pulses in the processing of plant raw materials is considered to be a technologically efficient and low-energy operation in the processing, food, pharmacological, perfume industries and agriculture. The effect of pulsed electroporation makes it possible to process plant raw materials, achieving non-thermal damage to intracellular structures, maintaining the high quality of the resulting product, organizing pasteurization of the processed material and, therefore, increasing its shelf life. The studies have examined raw materials of plant origin, namely apples of the local varieties “Gala” and pumpkins of the “Gribovskaya winter” variety. Having analyzed the nature of the change and quantitative indicators of the dependencies: 1) the yield of juice and puree mass obtained by pressing; 2) changes in the resistance of plant tissue of the processed materials, from the influencing processing parameters: the electric field strength in the plant tissue and the energy absorbed by it, it was determined that the yield of the product, and, consequently, the degree of destructuring of the internal components of plant tissues, and primarily the integrity cell membranes depend to a much lesser extent on the energy of the applied pulse than on the voltage gradient. The greater the electric field strength in the tissue of plant raw materials and the greater the number of pulses that influence it, the greater the increase in the yield of the product (juice or puree mass) and at the same time the greater the decrease in the resistance of the plant tissue of the processed raw material, relative to its initial values. Microscopic studies of samples taken before and after processing confirmed that under the influence of high voltage electrical pulses applied to the raw material, the membranes of plant cells lose their semipermeable property and become permeable for the release of juice into the intercellular space.