Apricot sulfur levels as a function of solution environment during sulfurization determination of changes in values of various vitamins

In order to maintain the value of apricot grown in the Malatya region in the market and meet quality standards, alternative production methods should be searched in today?s conditions in which the demand for organic agriculture products increases progressively. With this purpose in this study the sulfurization method for apricots in dilute solution of Na2S2O5 was investigated to obtain data that can be used as a base to develop industrial sulfurization method better and in shorter time. The dilute solution of Na2S2O5 was preferred to sulfurize apricots since the level of sulfur in the apricot samples can be controlled more easily in the dilute solutions. To our knowledge there are the limited numbers of research about variations of different vitamins in apricots as a function of sulfur contents. In this study the dilute solution of Na2S2O5 at different concentrations namely 5 %, 15 % and 20 % were prepared and used to sulfurize apricot samples at the same ripeness. In order to determine effect of immersion time and concentration of the dilute solution of Na2S2O5, the absorbed sulfur by apricot samples was measured as functions of the concentrations of Na2S2O5 solutions and immersion times. In this context, the amounts of adsorbed sulfur by apricot samples were measured at the different immersion times namely 15, 45, 60 and 90 minutes at different concentrations of the dilute solution of Na2S2O5. It was observed that the amounts of sulfur contents of the apricot samples varied proportionally with the immersion times and concentrations of the dilute solution of Na2S2O5. In order to determine the effect of apricot species namely hacıhaliloğlu and kabaaşı on the sulfurization in the dilute solution of Na2S2O5, the apricots harvested from the two different species of apricot trees were used in this investigation. It was observed that the apricots picked up from kabaaşı apricot tree at especially at high concentrations of the dilute solution of Na2S2O5 absorbed more sulfur than that of hacıhaliloğlu at the same immersion time and the same concentration. In addition to, the variation of different vitamins (K1, D2 and E) and fatty acid values were examined as a function of sulfur content of the samples. It was observed that the amounts of vitamins decrease with increasing sulfur contents of the apricot samples without depending species of apricots. Therefore, it was determined that amounts of vitamins decrease with increasing concentrations of the dilute solution of Na2S2O5 and thus immersion times. Furthermore, the sulfur contents of apricot samples dried in open air were measured and it was observed that sulfur contents per mass of apricot samples increase with losing moisture contents of the apricot samples since weights of apricot samples substantially decrease with drying time. The results obtained from the present study agree with the data obtained from the previous studies.