Paper Title
Characterization and Proximate Analysis of Vegetables Treated Under Drying Condition

Abstract
Drying is mainly carried out to remove moisture in food products for safe storage and to improve the shelf life of the products. Among several types of dryers, greenhouse dryer is an important type. In the present work, the dryer is covered by using tarpaulin sheet as glazing material and the moisture content, nutritional values offers hand dried samples of Daucus carota (carrot), Raphanus sativus (radish), Coccinia grandis, (ivy gourd) and Momordica charantia, (bitter gourd) were compared and evaluated. The proximate analysis such as protein, fiber, fat, carbohydrates, moisture, ash and calcium content present in the fresh samples were determined by standard methods. The sample vegetables were dried until the moisture content reaches less than 10% and then stored in the aluminium foil cover. The dryer could retain 94.55%, 82.86%, 97.58%, and 98.79% of carbohydrates, 77.06%, 88.5%, 77.96%, and 60.87% of protein, 87.5%, 85.07%, 77.7%, and 79.17% of fat, 87.5%, 85.91%, 77.7%, and 78.80% of fiber, and 91.11%, 80.47%, 76.13%, and 83.99% of calcium and 5.34 %, 7.93%, 3.28% and 8.03% of ash content were found in carrot, radish, ivy gourd and bitter gourd respectively. According to proximate analysis, the nutrient contents were observed to be retained in the vegetable samples even after drying for 5 days followed by 15 days of storage and proved that there is no significant change in the nutrient value of the treated dried vegetable. The current technology helps to prevent the loss of agricultural products and maintain the availability of the product throughout the year with the same quality when there is a demand. Keywords - Vegetables, Dehydration, Tarpaulin Sheet, Proximate Analysis