Research Article Kinetics and Quality of Microwave-Assisted Drying of Mango (Mangifera indica) Ernest Ekow Abano Department of Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, College of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana Correspondence should be addressed to Ernest Ekow Abano; ekowabano@yahoo.com Received 10 September 2015; Accepted 7 December 2015 Academic Editor: Qingrong Huang Copyright © 2016 Ernest Ekow Abano. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te efect of microwave-assisted convective air-drying on the drying kinetics and quality of mango was evaluated. Both microwave power and pretreatment time were signifcant factors but the efect of power was more profound. Increase in microwave power and pretreatment time had a positive efect on drying time. Te nonenzymatic browning index of the fresh samples increased from 0.29 to 0.60 while the ascorbic acid content decreased with increase in microwave power and time from 3.84 mg/100g to 1.67 mg/100g. Te efective moisture difusivity varied from 1.45 × 10 −9 to 2.13 × 10 −9 m 2 /s for microwave power range of 300-600 W for 2 to 4 minutes of pretreatment. Te Arrhenius type power-dependent activation energy was found to be in the range of 8.58–17.48 W/mm. Te ftting of commonly used drying models to the drying data showed the Midilli et al. model as the best. Microwave power of 300 W and pretreatment time of 4 minutes emerged as the optimum conditions prior to air-drying at 7 ∘ C. At this ideal condition, the energy savings as a result of microwave application was approximately 30%. Terefore, microwave-assisted drying should be considered for improved heat and mass transfer processes during drying to produce dried mangoes with better quality. 1. Introduction Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most popular fruits among millions of people in many countries worldwide. In Ghana, mango is grown in savannah and transitional areas by smallholder farmers and continues to remain a seasonal crop. Statistics point to annual production of 95,460 tonnes in 2013 [1]. In the diet of humans, mango plays important role; it provides the diet with colour, phytochemicals, and nutrients. Te average mango composition is water (83 g/100 g), carbo- hydrate (15.2 g/100 g), sugar (13.7 g/100 g), fbre (1.8 g/100 g), fats (0.38 g/100 g), proteins (0.510 g/100 g), vitamins (mainly vitamin A, 389 mg/100 g, and vitamin C, 36 mg/100 g), and minerals (mainly potassium 168 mg/100 g and phosphorous 14 mg/100 g) [2]. Te fruit is an excellent source of antioxi- dants including ascorbic acid. It provides about 50% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C [3] and contains high amounts of beta-carotene, which is responsible for the typical yellow colour of the mangoes. Beta-carotene is very benefcial for humans as it is a provitamin A and antioxidant [4]. Te pulp is found to contain pigment carotenoids, polyphenols, and omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids [5]. Fresh ripe mango contains more than 80 g/100 g water within a sof-pulpy cell wall structure, which is responsible for the fast decay afer harvest. Terefore, the right postharvest processing intervention is required to prolong the shelf-life of mangoes. Drying is among the methods for the purpose to produce high quality dried products, which can be consumed directly or used as ingredient for the preparation of chutneys, cakes, muesli, and oat granola. Conventional air-drying has been widely used in industrial drying of food products but this method is energy-intensive and time-consuming and ofen produces poor quality products. Many authors have reported that this method leads to degradation of products favour, colour, nutrients, and case hardening, due to their long drying times and high temperatures employed in practice [6, 7]. Hence, combination of advanced drying methods with the conventional hot air is ofen recommended to reduce long drying times and poor product quality associated with conventional hot air-drying. Combination of osmotic dehydration preceded by microwave-assisted hot air-drying Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Food Science Volume 2016, Article ID 2037029, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2037029