Drying seaweeds using hybrid hot water Goodle dryer (HHGD): comparison with freeze-dryer in chemical composition and antioxidant activity

Seaweeds are a potential source of minerals, essential amino acids, fatty acids, proteins, and various bioactive compounds such as antioxidants. The higher water content of seaweeds reduces the shelf life and this requires the appropriate drying method. The drying conditions play a major role in the conservation of nutrient composition in dried seaweeds. In recent years, the seaweed industry has used many different drying methods with advantages and limitations. Hybrid hot-water Goodle dryer (HHGD) which is a special dryer mixed with hot-water and a Korean traditional heating system (Goodlejang) might be a solution to avoid these limitations. The present study evaluated the effect of drying conditions in HHGD on nutrient composition and bioactivities of brown seaweeds. Moreover, freeze-dryer (FD) and HHGD were employed in this study to compare the dried outputs obtained from four brown seaweed species. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of the hybrid hot-water Goodle drying method (HHGDM) on the nutritional composition and antioxidant activity of dried seaweeds. AOAC standard methods were used to analyze the proximate composition of dried samples and their 70% ethanol extract. The intracellular and extracellular antioxidant activities were evaluated using Vero cells and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer respectively. High performance liquid chromatography, apoptotic body formation, and in-vivo experiments were used for further confirmation of the quality of dried output. The proximate composition results obtained from drying in HHGD and FD did not exhibit any significant difference. Moreover, the seaweed extracts from the dried seaweeds by HHGD and FD dryings were also not different and both significantly down-regulated in-vivo and in-vitro oxidative stress. Furthermore, the high performance liquid chromatography results revealed that the two dryers did not make the major peaks different in the chromatograms. Freeze-drying method (FDM) provides elevated quality for dried output, but there are limitations such as high cost and low capacity. The results from a novel HHGD did not provide any significant difference with the results in FD and expressed a potential to avoid the limitations in FD. Overall, these findings solidified the applicability of HHGD over FD.