Microwave Vacuum Drying of Germinated Brown Rice as a Potential Raw Material for Enzyme Food

This work was to study the potential use of germinated and microwave-vacuum-dried brown rite as a raw material for enzyme food. Brown rice was soaked in water at for 2 days and then germinated at for 4 days. The germin ated brown rice was then dried by different drying methods: microwave vacuum drying 1(drying only), microwave vacuum drying 2 , hot air drying, vacuum drying and freeze drying. Each drier except freeze drier was set to maintain the sample temperature to be . During microwave vacuum drying 1 and 2 the sample reached much faster (5 min) and was dried much faster (2 to 3 hrs for microwave vacuum drying 1 and 2 than the other drying methods. The initial drying rate of microwave vacuum drying was ten times faster than that of hot air drying. The microwave vacuum drying produced a dry sample of the highly retained enzymic activity, followed by freeze drying, vacuum drying and hot air drying.