Pitaya is commonly known as dragon fruit in Malaysia. It is a uniquely beautiful fruit with an intense color and shape and tastes delicious. Recently, it has become more popular among Malaysians because it is rich in minerals and vitamins. The main concern of this article was to form pitaya powder into tablets. Prior to that, pitaya fruits were dried and grounded into powder. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of the oven drying technique on the red flesh of pitaya fruits before the grinding process to form powder and to investigate the tabletting and the compressibility of pitaya fruit powder. Findings from this work are essential for product storage, transportation and packaging. The pitaya fruit was cut into slices and dried in an oven at 70C and was then ground to 300 µm. The color of the dried pitaya was characterized using a colorimeter. A 13‐mm uniaxial die was adopted, and a binder known as maltodextrin was added to the tabletting process. As the oven temperature increased, the red color of the dried pitaya became more intense, and the lightness decreased. The water activity was also reduced to 50% after drying. The compressibility and tabletting behavior of the powder are quite comparable with the behavior of other food powders and were further validated using the Kawakita and Lüdde equation. In conclusion, this study may induce further investigation of the potential of pitaya powder as a natural coloring agent and as a health supplement. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This work evaluates the drying and tabletting applications on pitaya powder. Three parameters are considered in the drying process, moisture content, color and water activity of pitaya fruit and pitaya powder were measured. During tabletting, the compressibility and compactability of the materials were investigated. The experimental results are essential for packaging, transportation and shelf life. Additionally, the product may be used as a natural coloring agent and a health supplement.

According to the Food Wastage Footprint and Climate Change Report, about 15% of all fruits and 25% of all vegetables are wasted at the base of the food production chain. The significant losses and wastes in the fresh and processing industries is becoming a serious environmental issue, mainly due to the microbial degradation impacts. There has been a recent surge in research and innovation related to food, packaging, and pharmaceutical applications to address these problems. The underutilized wastes (seed, skin, rind, and pomace) potentially present good sources of valuable bioactive compounds, including functional nutrients, amylopectin, phytochemicals, vitamins, enzymes, dietary fibers, and oils. Fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW) are rich in nutrients and extra nutritional compounds that contribute to the development of animal feed, bioactive ingredients, and ethanol production. In the development of active packaging films, pectin and other biopolymers are commonly used. In addition, the most recent research studies dealing with FVW have enhanced the physical, mechanical, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties of packaging and biocomposite systems. Innovative technologies that can be used for sensitive bioactive compound extraction and fortification will be crucial in valorizing FVW completely; thus, this article aims to report the progress made in terms of the valorization of FVW and to emphasize the applications of FVW in active packaging and biocomposites, their by-products, and the innovative technologies (both thermal and non-thermal) that can be used for bioactive compounds extraction.

The objective of this paper was to investigate the characteristics of Ficus deltoidea powders during tablet formation using a direct compression method. To understand the data further, compression models were fitted, which included those of Heckel, Kawakita, Adams and Panelli-Filho. F. deltoidea is well-known for its therapeutic properties when used in the form of an extracted powder. We further investigated the effect of the binders Avicel and Acdisol, which are known as a universal binder and a superdisintegrant, respectively. The physical properties, flowability and particle structures were determined to compare behavior and as references to the compression models used. The data were mostly consistent with those predicted by the compression models. As a result, applying compression models, especially the Kawakita model, was successfully performed and can be further related to the development and production of compact F. deltoidea tablets. Thus, this paper provides a fundamental understanding on the tabletting characteristics of F. deltoidea extract powder. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSIn this study, a direct compression method was adopted to form the Ficus deltoidea extract powder into tablets. For further investigation, the F. deltoidea extract powder was mixed with two different binders, Avicel and Acdisol, in different ranges of composition. Hence, the pressure and effect of various process variables such as the food powder on tablet density and strength were obtained. For this reason, a study was conducted to increase our understanding of the tablet characteristics of F. deltoidea powder and binders by fitting the data into compression models. Four models had been proposed to reflect the physical and mechanical properties of powders and how these characteristics can be successfully applied in research. Finally, the best fitting compression model was chosen for further development and production of F. deltoidea compact tablets.

This work aimed to investigate the flowability properties of the basic powders used to make tablets by means of direct compression. The main product in this study is Ficus deltoidea extract powder, while the excipients operated as binder were croscarmellose sodium (NaCMC or Acdisol) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC or Avicel). Such excipient powders are essentially water insoluble and can also act as a filler, disintegrator and dissolver in tablet form. In order to compare and optimize powders regarding flowability, a Jenike shear tester was used to measure the flow properties of the powder particle, such as the effective angle of internal friction, flow function and the angle of wall friction. The experimental results showed higher flow property values for binders compared with F. deltoidea extract powder. These results provide essential information for the processing and handling of these powders during storage, transportation and also for the next processing step of powder -tabletting.

The moisture sorption isotherms of Clinacanthus nutans (C. nutans) herbal leaves were established at three different temperatures of 30°C, 40°C, and 50°C, and water activity between 0.3–0.9 using a static gravimetric method. The results showed that equilibrium moisture content of C. nutans increased with increasing water activity at a constant temperature for both desorption and adsorption isotherms. In contrast, the equilibrium moisture content decreased when the temperature increased at a constant water activity for all isotherms. The sorption isotherms exhibited Type III behaviour or J-shaped curve according to Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) classification. It was found that Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) and Peleg models were the best-fit to the experimental moisture isotherms. The maximum net isosteric heat of sorption values were found to be 70 kJ/mol and 13 kJ/mol for desorption and adsorption respectively. The moisture sorption isotherms established are essential for optimum design of C. nutans dryer and storage conditions.