Dielectric properties of Pouteria sapota compounds in terahertz frequency range

The analysis and a mathematical approximation of the dielectric properties of Pouteria sapota (Mamey) pulp compounds in the Terahertz (THz) range are presented. Since THz electromagnetic waves show a high sensitivity to detect water content when interacting with organic materials, this technique was used to determine the effective dielectric function (EDF) of a wet and a dry sample from the THz spectrum data. By fitting the EDF to the Landau-Lifshitz-Looyenga (LLL) dielectric mixture equation, the theoretical dielectric functions of each pulp compounds were approximated. The approach proposed here not only considered dry matter and water content in the Pouteria sapota pulp, as has been reported in the literature for organic samples, but also included the contribution of the volatile components (VC) that allowed a better adjustment to the experimental results. The water and VC content increase the value of the real and imaginary part of the calculated EDF of the wet sample. The use of the non-destructive THz spectroscopy technique allows determining the dielectric properties of fruits that have been dehydrated. Therefore, the methodology proposed here can be used as a method of in situ and ex situ quality control in the agri-food industry.