ABSTRACT: This paper reports the effect of convective heat on plantain (Musa paradisiaca). Ripe and unripe plantains were bought from Eremi-adale local market in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The samples were washed, peeled, sliced into mass sizes of 20g each, and load into the chamber of a fabricated convective dryer. Samples were removed from the chamber after every hour for measurement to determine their moisture losses. The plantain samples were dried at various drying time and with regulated drying temperatures of 333K, 343K, and 353K. Results of the laboratory analysis review that, the viable microbial counts decrease when the drying temperatures increase. Ripe samples were found to have higher percentage of crude fibre, fat and protein, than the unripe samples while unripe samples have higher percentage of carbohydrate and ash than the ripe samples, at the drying temperatures. It was equally reported from the proximate analysis test that, the percentage amount of moisture content, carbohydrate and crude fibre decreases when the regulated drying temperatures increase while the amount of protein, fat and ash increases with an increase of the regulated drying temperatures.
Keywords: Ripe plantain, unripe plantain, regulated drying temperature, percentage moisture content, microbial counts.