Impact of blanching, sweating and drying operations on pungency, aroma and color of Piper borbonense

- The processing did not affect piperine and essential oil contents.
- The processing had a slight impact on the composition of the essential oil.
- The different unit operations, especially drying, all impacted color.
- Blanching improved the drying rate.

Low pungency, high aromatic potential and red color, give to Piper borbonense its originality when compared to Piper nigrum. Effects of blanching, sweating and drying on these characteristics were assessed. The three operations had no impact on the concentration of piperine and essential oil but affected the composition of essential oil slightly and considerably affected the color of the pepper. The “wet process”, including blanching, sweating and drying, had the largest impact on the composition of aroma, increasing para-cymene content by 89% and reducing safrole content by 33% in dried pepper compared to fresh. Blanching increased the drying rate thus reducing drying time. Drying had a major impact on color, which changed from red to brown. The biggest differences observed led to reductions of 2.2, 7.9 and 8.4 units in L∗, a∗ and b∗ values, when chromatic values measured in fresh pepper were compared to those of dried pepper.