Effects of Drying Methods on Physico-Chemical Properties and Antioxidant Activity of Shiitake Mushrooms (Lentinus Edodes)

The effects of different drying methods including natural air-drying (ND), hot air drying (HD), vacuum drying (VD), microwave drying (MD), infra-red drying (ID), and freeze drying (FD) on physico-chemical properties and antioxidant activities of shiitake mushroom were investigated in this paper. The results showed that drying methods had obvious effects on the color, proximate chemical compositions, total phenolics, antioxidant activity of shiitake mushroom. The FD and ND products exhibited the best rehydration and shrinkage ratio; the effect of FD on color was the least, followed by ND, while MD and ID influenced significantly the color of mushroom; six drying methods had no effects on the content of ash, crude fat and carbohydrate of shiitake mushroom. Drying resulted in the decrease of total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of shiitake mushroom. Among them, the mushroom dried with FD had no obvious changes compared with fresh mushroom.