Drying cabya (Piper retrofractum Vahl.) at three ripeness stages

Cabya (Piper retrofractum Vahl.) is a herbal plant that is widely used as an androgenic, antioxidant, and anticancer agent. Preservation of cabya in dry form is mostly carried out in red-colour only, while green-colour and orange-colour are rarely preserved by this method. The present study aimed to analyze the water content and the drying rate of three different stages of ripeness of cabya, indicated by the colour such as green, orange and red, and to analyze the piperine, antioxidant, and reducing sugar after drying. Drying was conducted by hot air drying method at 70°C for 18 hours. Reducing sugar content was analyzed based on the Somogyi-Nelson method, antioxidant content was analyzed using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method, and piperine was analyzed based on SNI 005:2013 method. The results showed that the water content after the drying process of green, orange, and red cabya were 1.89, 4.53, and 7.55% after 8.5, 7.5, and 7 hours of processing, respectively. Antioxidant and piperine contents of green, orange, and red cabya were 87.15, 75.26, and 63.38 mg/ml; and 2.42, 1.97 and 1.54 %, respectively. Dried red cabya is containing the highest water content, fastest drying rate, highest reducing sugar, while piperine and antioxidant content are lower than green and orange cabya.