The Effect of Pellet Diameter and Storage Time on Physical Pellet Quality of Indigofera sp. Leaves

Abstract

The experiment investigated the effect of different pellet diameter and time of storage on physical properties of pelleted Indigofera-leaves. This study consisted of two experiment; the first experiment was investigation of the die size (die 3, 5 and 8 mm) effects on physical properties using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3. The second experiment was the effect of storage quality on physical quality of pellets of the Indigofera-leaves. A factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was applied with 3 replications, the first factor was die diameter consisting of 3, 5 and 8 mm and the second factor was the storage time (0, 7, 15, 30 and 60 days). The Observed physical properties of the tested pellets were water content, specific gravity, bulk density, compacted bulk density, respone of angle and pellet durability index (PDI), water activity and organoleptic test. The result of this experiment indicates that specific gravity, bulk density, and compacted bulk density of pellet higher than Indigofera leaves powder so that is more efficient for conveying and storing. The diameter difference of pellet did not have much influence on physical pellet quality which can‟t be broken easily. Leaves pellet of Indigofera sp. stored up to sixty days showed the result constantly so pellet can be stored in a long time.