Mass Modeling of Nutmeg ( Myristicafragrans ) with Some ...

International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Sciences.
Available online at www.ijagcs.com
IJACS/2013/5-11/1183-1185
ISSN 2227-670X ©2013 IJACS Journal

Mass Modeling of Nutmeg (Myristicafragrans) with
Some PhysicalCharacteristics

Ali Nejat Lorestani*1,Zahra Nazaripour2and Saber Haghighi2

*1. Assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering of Agricultural Machinery Department, Faculty of
Agriculture,Razi University, Kermanshah,I. R. Iran.

2. M.Sc. Student of Mechanical Engineering of Agricultural Machinery Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Razi
University, Kermanshah,I. R. Iran.

*Corresponding author email: [email protected].

ABSTRACT: Fruits and vegetables with the similar weight and uniform shape are in high demand in
terms of marketing value. Therefore, an awareness of grading fruits and vegetables based on weight is
crucial. A part of this research was aimed to present some physical properties of Nutmeg. In addition, in
this study the mass of Nutmeg was predicted with using different physical characteristicsin four models
includes: Linear, Quadratic, S-curve, and Power. According to the results, all properties considered in the
current study were found to be statistically significant at the 1% probability level and the best and
theworst models for prediction the mass of Nutmeg were based on length and geometric mean diameter
of the Nutmeg with determination coefficients of 0.991 and 0.880, respectively. At last, mass model based
on lengthfrom economical standpoint is recommended.

Key words:Mass, modeling, Nutmeg, physical characteristics.

INTRODUCTION

The scientific name of Nutmeg fruit is Myristicafragrans from family Myristicaceae. The nutmeg fruit is
native to Malaysia, Indonesia and India. Nutmeg fruit is a seasoning fruit. The oval shape skin is greenish when
young and changes to yellowish while mature. While ripe, the fruits split to 2 valves brown shiny seed which called
nutmeg and bright red aril called mace. Nutmeg is the seed of tree oval shape with 20 to 32 mm long and 14 to
17mm widely. The fruits normally make as a juice for drink. The taste is sweet sour flavor. Nutmeg is not a nut and
not a risk for people with nut allergy. It is good for prevent gas and fermentation in body.Naturally, nutmeg is limited
to the Banda Islands, a tiny archipelago in Eastern Indonesia (Moluccas). Main producing countries today are
Indonesia (East Indian Nutmeg) and Grenada (West Indian Nutmeg); while Indonesian nutmegs are mainly
exported to Europe and Asia, Grenada nutmeg mostly finds its way into the USA (available at http://gernot-katzers-
spice-pages.com/engl/Myri_fra.html).

Agricultural crops and food products have several unique characteristics which set them different from
engineering materials. These properties determine the quality of the fruit and identification of correlation among in
these properties makes quality control easier (Janatizadeh et al., 2008). To design and optimization a machine for
handling, cleaning, conveying and storing, the physical attributes and their relationships must be known. As an
instance,grading of fruits by their size can be replaced withgrading by their weight because it may be
moreeconomical.Grading fruit based on weight isimportant in packing and handling. In nearly allcases raw product
grades are based on weight(O'Brian and Floyd, 1978). Size and shapedetermine how many fruit can be placed
incontainers of a given size. Volume and surface areacould be beneficial in proper prediction drying ratesand
hence drying time in the dryer. On the otherhand, volume and its relationship with packingcoefficient are very
important because having anyinformation about Packing coefficient of fruitscould result in efficient control of fruit
qualityduring storage. Physical characteristics ofagricultural products are the most importantparameters to
determine the proper standards ofdesign of grading, conveying, processing andpackaging systems (Tabatabaeefar
and Rajabipour,2005; Lorestani, et al., 2012).

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (11), 1183-1185, 201

Among these physical characteristics, mass,volume, projected area are the most important onesin
determining sizing systems (Peleg and Ramraz,1975).Many researcheshave been conducted to find physical
properties ofvarious types of agricultural products.

Theregression analysis was used by Chuma et al.(1982) to develop equations forpredicting volume and
surface area. Determining relationships between mass and dimensions and projected areas may be useful and
applicable (Stroshine, 1998; Marvin, et al., 1987). Tabatabaeefar and Rajabipour(2005) predicted apple mass
through models that were based upon apple physical properties. Al-Maiman and Ahmad (2002) studied the
physical properties of pomegranate and found models of predicting fruit mass while employing dimensions, volume
and surface areas. Mass grading of fruit can reduce packaging and transportation costs, and also may provide an
optimum packaging configuration (Peleg, 1985).

No detailed studies concerning mass modeling of Nutmeg haveyet been performed. The aims of this study
were to determine themost suitable model for predicting Nutmeg mass by itsphysical attributes and study some
physical properties ofIranian Nutmegto form an important database forother investigators.

Nomenclature
M= fruit mass, g; V= fruit Volume, cm3; Dg = geometric mean diameter, mm; S= surface area,mm2;L=
length of fruits, mm; W= width of fruit, mm; T= thickness of fruit, mm; PA1= first projected area,mm2;
PA2 = second projected area,mm2; PA3 = third projected area,mm2; CPA= criteria projected
area,mm2; b0,b1,b2 = curvefitting parameters; X= independent parameter.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The Nutmegs was obtained from markets of Kermanshah in the west of Iran in June 2012.The 70 samples
of theNutmegs were tested in the Biophysical laboratory and Biological laboratory of Razi University of
Kermanshah, Iran. The samples were weighted and dried in an oven at 105˚C for 24 h (Lorestani, et al., 2012) and
then weight loss on drying to final content weight was recorded as moisture content.The remainingmaterial was
kept in the desiccator until use.Nutmeg mass (M) was determined with an electronic balance with 0.01 g sensitivity.
To determine the average size of the samples, three linear dimensions namely as length, width and thickness were
measured by using a digital caliper with 0.01 mm accuracy. Volume (V) was determined by the water displacement
method (Mohsenin, 1986). The geometric mean diameter (Dg) and surface areas (S) were determined by using
following formulas (Mohsenin, 1986), respectively:

Where: L is length of Nutmeg (mm), W is width of Nutmeg (mm); T is thickness of Nutmeg (mm), S is
surface area (mm2) and Dg is geometric mean diameter (mm). Then,projected areas (PA1, PA2 and PA3) in
threeperpendicular directions of the Nutmeg were measured by a T area-meter, MK2 model devicewith 0.1 cm2
accuracy (DELTA-T Device Ltd., Cambridge, UK). And criteria projected area (CPA) isdefined as follow
(Mohsenin, 1986):

Where PA1, PA2 and PA3 are first, second and third projected area (mm2).In order to estimate mass models of
Nutmegs, thefollowing models were considered:
1. Single variable regression of Nutmeg mass basedon Nutmeg dimensional characteristics: length (L),width (W),
thickness (T), and geometric meandiameter (Dg).
2. Single variable regressions of Nutmeg mass based on Nutmeg projected areas and criteria projectedarea.
3. Single variable regression of Nutmeg mass based on measured volume.
4. Single variable regression of Nutmeg mass based on surface area.
In all cases, the results which were obtained from experiments were fitted to Linear, Quadratic, S-curve, and Power
models which are presented as following equations, respectively:

!
"# $
Where M is mass (g), X is the value of a parameter that we want to find its relationship with mass (in depended
parameter), b0, b1, and b2 are curve fitting parameters which are different in each equation.

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (11), 1183-1185, 201

One evaluation of the goodness of fit is the value of the coefficient of determination. For regression equations in
general, the nearer R2 is to 1.00, the better the fit (Stroshine, 1998). SPSS 19 software (SPSS, Inc, Chicago, IL,
USA) was used to analyze data and determine regression models among the physical attributes.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A summary of the physical properties of Nutmeg is shown in Table1.These properties were found at

specific moisture contents about 23.17% wet basis. As seen in Table 1, all properties which were considered in the

current study were found to be statistically significant at 1% probability level. According to the results, the mean

values of properties which were studied in this research (length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter,
Volume, surface area, mass and projected areas) are 26.52 mm, 20.45 mm, 18.85 mm, 21.03 mm, 5.54cm3,
1391.10 mm2, 5.70 g, 128.55 mm2, 122.18 mm2 and108.42 mm2, respectively.

Mass models and coefficient of determination (R2) that obtained from the data for Nutmegs are shown in

table 2. All of the models coefficients were analyzed with F-test and t-test in SPSS 19 Software, where, all of them

were significant at =1%.

Nonlinear models were used only for comparison with linear regression models.

For mass modeling based on dimensional characteristic including length, width and thickness, the best model
wasPower with R2 = 0.991:

%&% $ &' ( %&))
Whereas this model can predict the relationships between the mass with width and thickness with R2 of 0.989 and

0.978, respectively.
For prediction of the mass of Nutmeg based on volume the best model was Quadratic with R2= 0.990.

%&*! %& $ + %&% + ( %&))%

According to the results, for prediction of themass of the Nutmeg based on geometric mean diameter, Power model
were the bestmodel with R2= 0.880.

,-./0,1.234 %&%% & 5 ( %&**%

This model is not economical because for calculating the geometric mean diameter(Dg) we must measure three
dimensions of Nutmegs and it is time consuming and costly.

For mass modeling of Nutmeg based on projected areas including PA1, PA2 , PA3 and CPA, the best model was
Linear with R2 = 0.963.

6)&%! %& ( %&)!
For prediction of the mass of the Nutmegbased on surface area the best model was Linear with R2= 0.895.

6 & %&%%$ ( %&*)

Tabatabaeefar and Rajabipour, (2005), determined a total of 11 regression models in the three different categories

for two different varieties of apple fruits.

According to the results the Power model could predict the relationships among the mass and some physical

properties of Nutmegwith proper value for determination coefficient. So we suggest the power model based on

Lengthfor prediction the mass of Nutmeg because we need one measuring and it is applicable and economical

method.

CONCLUSIONS

Some physical properties and their relationships of mass of Nutmeg are presented in this study. From this

study it can be concluded that:

1. All properties considered in the current study were found to be statistically significant at the 1% probability level.

2. The best model for prediction the mass of Nutmegamong the dimensional models was Power as:
%&% $ &' ( %&))

3.The best model for prediction the mass of Nutmeg was based on firstprojected areawhichperpendicular to L

direction of Nutmegand it wasLinear formas 6)&%! %& ( %&)! , and the worst was based on
second projected area of Nutmegand it was S curve form as 2 &$!$ 6 %&$$ 7 8 ( %&) .

4. At last, mass model based on length from economical standpoint isrecommended.

This information can be used in the design and development ofsizing mechanisms and other post harvest

processing machines. Atthe end, it is recommended that other properties of Nutmegsuch as thermal, rheological,

mechanical, and nutritional characteristicsare to be studied and changes of these properties are tobe examined as

a function of moisture content and ripeningphases.

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (11), 1183-1185, 201

Table 1.Some physical properties of Nutmeg.

Properties Nutmeg Significant level
L (mm) **
W (mm) Max Min Average **
T (mm) **
M (g) 31.71 22.72 26.52 **
V (ml) **
Dg (mm) 23.47 17.68 20.45 **
S (mm2) **
PA1 (mm2) 23.61 16.61 18.85 **
PA2 (mm2) **
PA3 (mm2) 8.6 3.82 5.7 **
CPA (mm2) **
SPH (%) 7.76 4.24 5.54 **

23.68 19.18 21.03

1760.38 1155.05 1391.10

150.1 116.5 128.55

127.1 96 108.42

144.4 110.3 122.18

137.57 109 119.72

90.13 67.85 79.51

**P <0.01

Table 2. The best models and their constant values for mass based on the selected attributes for

Nutmeg

Dependent Independent The best Constant Values R2

Parameter Parameters model b0 b1 b2

M (g) L (mm) Power 0.037 1.531 - 0.991

M (g) W (mm) Power 0.057 1.520 - 0.989

M (g) T (mm) Linear -4.962 0.566 - 0.978

M (g) V (ml) Quadratic 0.862 0.573 0.053 0.990

M (g) Dg (mm) Power 0.001 3.182 - 0.880
M (g) S (mm2) Linear -3.553 0.007 - 0.895
M (g) PA1 (mm2) Linear -9.064 0.115 - 0.963
M (g) PA2 (mm2) S curve 3.767 -220.773 - 0.954
M (g) PA3 (mm2) Quadratic -32.388 0.0503 -0.002 0.961
M (g) CPA (mm2) Quadratic -6.969 0.076 0.001 0.950

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to express their gratitude and their sincere appreciation to the Deputy of Agronomy
Departments for their cooperation and laboratory support at the Razi University of Kermanshah.

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (11), 1183-1185, 201

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