Desenvolvimento e avaliação de um protótipo para despelicular sementes de gergelim.

Abstract

Sesamum indicum L. is an oilseed of the family pedaliaceae, grown and consumed in several parts of the world, however, its seeds have a skin composed of indigestible fibers and oxalic acid that makes the product bitter. The industry removes the skin of the sesame with the use of chemical agents, a practice that improves the nutritional value and adds value to the product, however, it requires a lot of water and can still leave residues, hence the need to remove it by other means. Thus, the objective was to develop and evaluate the prototype of a machine to mechanically remove the film that surrounds the sesame seeds without the use of chemical agent. The present work was divided in four stages and carried out in the Laboratory of Storage and Processing of Agricultural Products of the Center of Technology and Natural Resources of the Federal University of Campina Grande, Paraíba. Where in the first one, a search of patents of sesame despeliculadora was carried out and developed a prototype and a process to carry out the mechanical despeliculation. In the second stage, the performance evaluation of the prototype was studied. In the third, a study of the amount of skin and the ease of de-fungulation of five sesame cultivars was carried out and, in the fourth stage, the yield of the process and the quality of the sesame was evaluated and stored for 180 days. The search for patents did not indicate any record in Brazil for this type of machine. A prototype and process was then developed that removes sesame skin without the use of a chemical additive. Removal of the skin takes place through the rotating system of the desiccant chamber which submits the seeds to a friction between them and between the walls of the chamber. After de-pelleting the material is discharged, washed and subjected to drying, cleaning and packaging. The evaluations carried out allowed us to conclude that the prototype and the de-fungulation process was efficient to mechanically remove sesame skin without the use of a chemical agent, with a yield of more than 90% and could be used by family farmers and industry to increase the options of healthy food offerings.