Osmotic treatment of nettle leaves in two different solutions-mass transfer kinetics

The presented paper describes an investigation of osmotic treatment of nettle leaves in two different osmotic solutions (sugar beet molasses and ternary solution), under atmospheric pressure, at room temperature. The main objective was to examine the influence of type of osmotic agents and immersion time on the mass transfer phenomena during osmotic treatment. Different kinetics parameters were monitored (water loss, solid gain, water loss to solid gain ratio, weight reduction, normalized solid content and normalized moisture content), after 30-90 min of process. Principal Component Analysis showed good discrimination capabilities for different samples, while Standard Score was used in optimal process parameters determination.