International Journal of Food Properties

ISSN: 1094-2912 (Print) 1532-2386 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ljfp20

Some Physical, Chemical, and Rheological

Properties of Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor (L)
Moench) Pekmez (Molasses)

M. Akbulut & M.M. Özcan

To cite this article: M. Akbulut & M.M. Özcan (2008) Some Physical, Chemical, and Rheological
Properties of Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor (L) Moench) Pekmez (Molasses), International
Journal of Food Properties, 11:1, 79-91, DOI: 10.1080/10942910701233389

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10942910701233389

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International Journal of Food Properties, 11: 79–91, 2008
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1094-2912 print / 1532-2386 online
DOI: 10.1080/10942910701233389

SOME PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND RHEOLOGICAL

PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM (SORGHUM
BICOLOR (L) MOENCH) PEKMEZ (MOLASSES)

M. Akbulut and M.M. Özcan

Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Selcuk University,
Konya, Turkey

Some physical, chemical properties and the rheological behaviour of the sweet sorghum
(Sorghum bicolor L Moench) pekmez (molasses) were determined. The rheological behav-
iour of the sweet sorghum pekmez (concentrated sorghum juice) with different soluble solid
contents (75.1, 72.4, 66.5, and 59.4 °Brix) was determined in the temperature range of 10,
20, 30, 40, and 50°C using a rotational viscometer equipped with spindle 5 at the speed
(share rate) of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 rpm. An empirical power law model was used to
describe the rheological behavior of the sweet sorghum pekmez with correlation coeffi-
cients (R2) between 0.922 and 0.986. The sweet sorghum pekmez exhibited a pseudoplastic
behavior. An Arrhenius equation was used to describe the effect of temperature on viscosity
and Ea value of the sweet sorghum pekmez was calculated as 31 350 J/mol. Depending on
the soluble solids contents, the activation energies for flow of diluted samples vary from
52.27 to 24.50 kJmol-1. The effect of °Brix on viscosity can be described by the power-law
equation. Experimental data were fitted to power law and exponential model in order to
describe the effect of temperature and soluble dry matter content. Density and Electrical
conductivity were measured 1.3915 g/cm3 and 13.53 mS/cm, respectively. The color as L, a
and b value were measured 19.07, + 4.0, and + 2.18, respectively.

Keywords: Sweet sorghum, Pekmez, Viscosity, Power-low model, Exponential model,

Arrhenius equation.

INTRODUCTION
Pekmez is one of the popular and traditional food products, and it is consumed
generally for breakfast in Turkey. Pekmez is commonly produced from sugar-rich fruits
such as grape and mulberry by concentration of juices up to 70–80 soluble dry matter
content. On the other hand, it is also produced from sugar-rich sugarbeet, sugarcane,
sweet sorghum and carob. Pekmez can also be produced from sugar-rich fruits like
apple, plum, watermelon, apricot and fig.[1] Pekmez contains high amounts of sugar,
mineral and organic acid; therefore, it is a very important food product in human
nutrition.[2,3,4] Pekmez easily passes into the blood without digestion because most of its
carbohydrate is in the form of monosaccarides like glucose and fructose. This is

Received 18 October 2006; accepted 23 January 2007.

Address correspondence to M. Akbulut, Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Selcuk
University, Konya, Turkey. E-mail: makbulut@selcuk.edu.tr

79
80 AKBULUT AND ÖZCAN

nutritionally important, especially for babies, children, sportsmen and in situations

demanding urgent energy.
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) is an important plant for animal feed-
ing and human nutrition. It is the only crop that provides grain and stem that can be used
for sugar, alcohol, syrup, jaggery, fodder, fuel and chewing. The juice of a good variety of
sorgo grown under suitable conditions contains 13 to 17% sugar, of which 10 to 14% is
sucrose.[5]
Sorgo for syrup is cut when the seed is nearly ripe, or at least in the stiff-dough
stage. Before cutting, the leaves usually are stripped from the stalks by hand by a worker
using a special two-pronged tool or a lath, paddle, or pitchfork.[6] After cutting, the stalks
are topped with a knife to remove the heads, peduncles, and, often, two or three of the
upper internodes. For large syrup-factory operations, the whole stalks can be topped, after
which the stalks are chopped into short sections mechanically. A fair quality of syrup can
be made from whole stalks that have been stored as long as about 6 days before crushing.[7]
The juice is expressed from the stripped cane by the crushing of the stalks between revolving
fluted iron rolls in a cane mill equipped with two rolls. The strained juice that sometimes
is allowed to settle for a time is piped to an boiling vessels where it is boiled down to a
syrup containing about 65–80°Brix. It has various colors from light Brown to dark Brown
depending on the process. During the boiling, the juice is skimmed constantly to remove
floating impurities such as chlorophyll, soil, plant fragments, proteins, gums, fats, and
waxes.[5] After then, sorghum syrup concentrated in open vessels is cooled up to 40°C;
this product is called sweet sorghum pekmez. Finally, sorghum pekmez is packaged and
stored at room temperature.
In the food industry, rheological characteristics of concentrated fruit juices are
a significant property in addition to chemical and physical properties. Moreover,
rheological characteristics depend on both the chemical composition of fruits and
processing conditions. However, a knowledge of the flow behaviour of concentrated
juices will be useful in quality control, calculating energy usage, process control
and equipment selection. [8] In the food industry, viscosity is one of the most impor-
tant parameters required in the design of a technological process. On the other hand,
viscosity is also important factor that determines the overall quality and stability of
a food system.
There is a number of research about rheological[1,4,8] and chemical properties of
grape pekmez.[9,10,2,11,3] However, there is little information about rheological and chemi-
cal properties of sorghum pekmez. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to characterize
the rheological behaviour of sorghum pekmez and to determine chemical and physical
properties.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials
Sorghum pekmez was manufactured from sweet sorghum in the pilot plant of the
Department of Food Engineering, Selçuk University in Konya in Turkey. This plant was
grown in the experimental fields of the Agriculture Faculty, Selçuk University. Sorghum
was harvested maturating of seeds. After harvesting, the leaves of plant were removed
from the stalks by hand using a paddle. After the stalks were topped with a knife to
remove the heads, peduncle, whole stalks were stored as long as 6 days before crushing.
 RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM PEKMEZ 81

The sweet sorghum juice was expressed from the stripped cane by the crushing of the
stalks between revolving fluted iron plays role in a cane mill equipped with two rolls.
After the juice was strained in a steel vessel, it was filtered. The filtered sorghum juice
was poured into a steel-boiling vessel where it was boiled down to syrup containing about
65–76°Brix. During boiling, the juice was skimmed constantly to remove floating impurities.
After then, concentrated sweet sorghum juice was cooled up to 40°C; this product is called
pekmez in Turkey. Finally, sweet sorghum pekmez was packed into 200 ml glass jars.
Pekmez, obtained from the sweet sorghum juice, was stored at 20°C as long as one week
until analyzed.
Initially, soluble solid of sweet sorghum pekmez was 76%. It is diluted to 75.1, 72.4,
66.5, and 59.4°Brix with distilled water for measuring of viscosity and samples were
uniformly homogenized in an ultrasonic bath at room temperature.

Methods
Chemical and physical analysis. Total dry matter, crude protein, ash, total oil,
and crude cellulose were determined according to standard method AOAC;[12] pH, titrat-
able acidity, total soluble dry matter were determined according to Cemeroglu.[13] pH was
determined with a WTW InoLab model pH meter; titratable acidity, expressed as percentage
of citric acid, was determined with 0.1 N NaOH up to pH 8.1; soluble dry matter was
determined with an ATAGO model refractometer; protein content was determined by the
Kjeldal method (N × 6.25).
Total sugar, invert sugar and sucrose were quantitated by the Lane-Eynon
method.[13] Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was determined quantitatively following
the procedure described by the IFJJP,[14] based on the colorimetric reaction between
barbutiric acid, p-toluidin and HMF, forming a red colored complex. The intensity
red color was measured at 550 nm with Shimadzu, UV-Visible 160 A model spectro-
photometer
For color analysis, the instrument was calibrated with a white reference tile
(No: 14533046) before measurements. Color of sorghum pekmez was analyzed by
measuring Hunter L (Brightness; 100: white, 0: black), a (+: red; -: green) and b (+:
yellow; -: blue) parameters with a colorimeter (Model CR 400, Chromometer,
Minolta, Japan).
Electrical conductivity of a pekmez solution at 20% (dry matter basis) in CO2-free
deionized distilled water was measured at 20°C by using a WTW InoLab (Weilheim,
Germany) conductimeter, and the result was expressed as mS/cm.[15] The density of the
sorghum pekmez was determined with a standardized 10 ml pycnometer.[16] The mass of
the solution was calculated from the weight difference between the empty pycnometer
(ILDAM, Ankara, Turkey) and the filled vessel. The pycnometer filled with pekmez was
incubated at 20°C for 1 h (Venticall 222, MMM Medcenter GmbH, Müncher, Germany)
to equilibrate the sample before determination.[17]

Mineral composition
For analyzing the minerals of the fruit and pekmez, about 0.5 g dried and ground
mulberry fruit and pekmez sample was put into a burning cup and 15 ml pure HNO3 were
added. The sample was incinerated in a MARS 5 Microwave Oven at 200°C and dissolved
ash diluted to a certain volume with water. Concentrations were determined with an
82 AKBULUT AND ÖZCAN

Concentrations were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission

Spectrometry (ICP-AES).[18]

Rheological Measurements
The rheological behavior of the diluted sweet sorghum pekmez samples, having
total soluble dry matters of 75.1%, 72.4%, 66.5%, and 59.4%, and temperatures of 10, 20,
30, 40 and 50°C, was studied using a Brookfield rotational viscometer (Model LAB-LINE
Instruments, Inc, Melrose Park, IL.) equipped with spindle 5 at the speed of 5, 10, 20, 50,
and 100 rpm. In addition, rehological behaviour of diluted sample to 72.4°Brix was deter-
mined at 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70°C. Enough samples in a 500 ml beaker were used for vis-
cosity measurements and a thermostatic water bath was used to control the processing
temperature at each temperature level (± 0.5°C).

Statistical Analysis
In this study, five different speed level and temperatures were selected as experi-
mental factors. The first factor, temperature, has 5 levels (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50°C) and
second factor, speed, has 5 levels (5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 rpm). The experimental design
was established in a 5 × 5 the factorial design with 3 replicates, and the analysis was
carried out according to completely randomized blocks design. Temperature by speed
interaction has 25 combinations (5 temperature levels × 5 speed levels). All determinations
were made in triplicate, unless otherwise specified.[19]

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Chemical and Physical Characteristics
Some chemical and physical properties of sorghum pekmez are given in Table 1. As
shown in Table 1, sorghum pekmez contained high amounts of total sugar, which is com-
posed of approximately 91% invert sugar as glucose and fructose. This is very important
in human nutrition because of its easy digestibility and these sugars provide e readily
available energy source since they easily pass to blood.[20] In addition, glucose, energy of

Table 1 The physico-chemical characteristics of sorghum pekmez (n = 3).

Parameters Mean ± SD Parameters Mean ± SD

Total dry matter (%) 78 ± 2 HMF (mg/l) 15.3 ± 1.0

°Brix 72.4 ± 0.4 PH 5.9 ± 0.0
Total sugar (%) 70.6 ± 1.2 Titratable acidity (%) 0.68 ± 0.01
Reducing sugar (%) 64.3 ± 2.2 Color L: 19.07 ± 0.15
Sucrose (%) 6.0 ± 0.5 a: + 4.02 ± 0.05
Crude cellulose (%) 1.3 ± 0.1 b: + 2.18 ± 0.06
Crude protein* (%) 2.1 ± 0.1 Density (g/cm3) 1.3915 ± 0.0024
Total Oil (%) 0.95 ± 0.09 Electrical Conductivity (mS/cm) 13.53 ± 0.12
Ash (%) 4.6 ± 0.1

* N × 6.25.
 RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM PEKMEZ 83

the brain, enhances the transport of tryptophan through the blood-brain barrier and it is
useful in seratonin synthesis that has a function in brain working.[21] However, this
pekmez contains very much contents of sucrose and protein according to other mulberry
and grape pekmez.[4]
HMF, an indicator of quality deterioration, occurs as a result of excessive heating in
foods containing carbohydrates.[22] Therefore, high amounts of HMF are not desired in
processed concentrated syrup. In the Turkish Pekmez Standard,[23] maximum HMF for
first quality product is declared as 75 mg/l. In this study, HMF content of sorghum
pekmez was found low (15.3 mg/l).
As shown in Table 1, L, a and b values were measured 19.07, + 4.0, and + 2.18,
respectively. A high redness (a) value is not desired because it occurs as a result of excessive
caramelization of sugars. Therefore, a low redness (a) and a high brightness (L) values
indicate a good quality pekmez.[24]
The electrical conductivity of the sweet sorghum pekmez is closely related to the
concentration of mineral salts, organic acids and proteins; it is a parameter that shows
great variability according to the origin and is considered one of the best parameters for
differentiating between pekmez with different origins.[25,26] This parameter is shown in
Table 1. The electrical conductivity of sweet sorghum pekmez (13.53 mS/cm) was found
to be higher than honey (0,395 mS/cm).[27]

Mineral Composition
The mineral contents of pekmez were given in Table 2. All materials contained high
amounts of Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, S, and Zn. These values were found as 682.9 ppm, 13,932
ppm, 402.5 ppm, 69.5 ppm, 30.9 ppm, 140.3 ppm, and 70.6 ppm respectively. Batu,[9]
established that K, Mg, P, S, and Ca reported as major elements in grape pekmez samples.
These mineral contents of sweet sorghum pekmez were found higher than that of Batu.[9]
Minerals contribute to biological process, but which have not been established as essen-
tial, are bromine and lithium.[28] Lithium is another element with beneficial pharmacolog-
ical properties; it has been used effectively in the treatment of manic depressive disorders.
There is evidence to suggest that lithium is also an essential element.[29] However, knowl-
edge of their mineral contents of vegetable materials is very important for human
nutrition.

Table 2 Elemental composition of sweet sorghum pekmez.

Elements ppm Elements ppm

Al 4.2 ± 0.7 Li 0.60 ± 0.08

B 97.0 ± 6.6 Mg 402.5 ± 79.5
Ba 1.2 ± 0.0 Mn 6.7 ± 0.3
Ca 682.9 ± 124.3 Na 69.5 ± 7.7
Co 0.35 ± 0.04 Ni 0.15 ± 0.08
Cr 0.11 ± 0.01 P 30.9 ± 1.8
Cu 0.82 ± 0.15 S 140.3 ± 34.5
Fe 19.1 ± 2.5 Sr 2.02 ± 0.37
K 13933 ± 716 Zn 70.6 ± 18.5
84 AKBULUT AND ÖZCAN

Rheological behavior of pekmez samples. Several rheological models have

been employed to fit data on fruit juices. The rheological behavior of sorghum pekmez
was described by the power law model:[30,31]

ha = K g ( n−1) , (1)

where ha is the viscosity (Pa s), g is share rate (s−1), K the consistency index (pa sn) and n is
the flow behaviour index (dimensionless). Linear regression analysis was performed on the
data to find K, n and correlation coefficient r2, the results of which are summarized in Table
3 and Table 5. The power-law model appears to be suitable for describing the flow behavior
of sweet sorghum pekmez as indicated by high r2 values. Values of n and K ranged from
0.945 to 0.969, 0.3159 to 1.3143, respectively. The sweet sorghum pekmez (°Brix = 72.4)
exhibited a pseudoplastic behavior in the range of 30–70°C and 10–50°C because the val-
ues of flow behaviour index (n), a measure of the departure from Newtonian flow,[30] were
less than 1.[32,33] However, the consistency index (K) decreased as temperature increased.
Results were also found similar when compared with other studies.[1,8,4]
Data over the temperature range 30–70°C showed that the flow behavior index was
affected by temperature. ANOVA results show that viscosity changes in temperature by speed
combinations show significant differences (P < 0.001), and the plot of the viscosity versus
speed for sweet sorghum pekmez was at different temperatures (10–70°C) is shown in Fig. 1.
The viscosity of liquids generally decreases as temperature increase. As shown in Fig. 1, as
temperature and speed increased, the viscosity of sorghum pekmez decreased. Similar observa-
tions had been reported by several researchers.[34,31,33,8,4] An activation energy is necessary for
moving of a molecule, and as the temperature increases, the liquid flows more easily due to
higher an activation energy in high temperatures.[35] In addition, Rha[36] noted that the decrease
in viscosity with increasing speed (share rate) is related to the increasing alignment of constitu-
ent molecules. The consistency index, an indication of the viscous nature, can be used to
describe the variation in viscosity with temperature using the Arrhenius equation.[32,37,38]

ln K = ln ko+ Ea / RgTa , (2)

where K is the consistency index (Pa sn); ko is the Arrhenius constant (Pa sn); Ea is the
activation energy (J/mol); Rg is the universal gas constant (J/mol); and Ta is the absolute
temperature (K). The mean absolute percentage error (e ) was calculated to analyze the
deviance of observed value from the calculated value.[39]

100 ⎡ | Yo − Yc | ⎤
e= ∑ ⎢ Y ⎥, (3)
n ⎣ c ⎦

Table 3 The parameters of power law model for the sorghum pekmez at
different temperatures (°Brix = 72.4).

Temperature (°C) n K (Pa sn) r2

30 0.95 1.3143 0.97

40 0.95 0.7765 0.97
50 0.95 0.5399 0.99
60 0.97 0.3656 0.92
70 0.96 0.3159 0.92
 RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM PEKMEZ 85

8000
10 °C
7000 20 °C
30 °C
40 °C
Apparent viscosity (mPa s) 6000 50 °C
60 °C
70 °C
5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Speed (rpm)

Figure 1 Effect of speed on the viscosity of sorghum pekmez at different temperatures.

where Yo represent observed values; Yc the calculated values; and n the number of pairs.
Applying the linear regression analysis in Eq. (2), values of Ea and ko were calculated; the
Arrhenius equation parameters with correlation coefficients (r2), and mean absolute
percentage error (e ) are given Table 3. According to data in Tables 4 and 5, Arrhenius
model is suitable for sweet sorghum pekmez. The value of activation energy 31.35 kJmol−1
obtained at 72.4°Brix and temperatures the range 30–70°C for sweet sorghum pekmez in
our study was higher compared with results reported by other authors for mulberry
pekmez at 72°Brix (17.97 kJmol−1).[4]
The value of flow behavior index at temperatures the range 10–50°C was less than 1
in each case, implying to pseudoplastic nature of sweet sorghum pekmez and are consis-
tent with earlier findings for other pekmez samples.[4,8,40] The flow behavior index (n)
showed a increasing trend with increase in temperature at soluble solid concentration of
75.1, 72.4, 66.5, and 59.4, but it decreased at concentration of 66.5%. However, increase
in the concentration resulted into decrease in the values of flow behavior index, signifying
increase in the pseudoplasticity of pekmez.[40]
A decrease in the consistency index was observed with increase in temperature at all
levels of soluble solid concentration, which meant a decrease in the apparent viscosity of
sweet sorghum pekmez, with increase in temperature. The results are given in Table 5 and
have correlation coefficients higher than 0.89. As can be shown in Table 5, the consis-
tency index of the sweet sorghum pekmez varied considerably with temperature and

Table 4 The parameters of Arrhenius equation.

Soluble dry matter (%) k0(Pa sn) Ea(kJmol−1) r2 ε

72.4 4.8 × 10−3 31.35 0.98 1.6

86 AKBULUT AND ÖZCAN

Table 5 Soluble dry matters, consistency index, flow behavior index and activation energy for diluted samples.

Soluble dry matter (°Brix) T(°C) K (mPa sn) n r2 Ea (kJmol−1) ko r2

75.1 10 11736 0.80 1.00 52.27 2.44 × 10−6 0.99

20 4567 0.87 0.99
30 2541 0.92 0.99
40 1172 0.98 0.96
50 754 0.95 0.92
72.4 10 4581 0.93 0.99 47.97 6.77 × 10−6 0.99
20 2376 0.95 0.99
30 1314 0.95 0.97
40 777 0.95 0.97
50 340 0.95 0.99
66.5 10 1143 0.97 0.99 42.43 1.58 × 10−5 0.99
20 572 0.96 0.92
30 304 0.94 0.97
40 175 0.94 0.89
50 146 0.94 0.89
59.4 10 349 0.95 0.99 24.50 1.09 × 10−2 0.99
20 268 0.96 0.99
30 191 0.94 0.98
40 124 0.95 0.98
50 86 0.96 0.97

concentration. Table 6 shows the effect of concentration on viscosity for different temper-
atures. On the other hand, the correlation coefficients were obtained to be around the
unity, which means the agreement between experimental data and the proposed mathemat-
ical model is good.
At higher temperatures the viscosity decreases and at higher concentration the vis-
cosity increases. The effect of temperature on the flow behavior of samples was
described by the Arrhenius relationships. The parameters of this equation are given in
Table 5. The activation energy values increase with the soluble solid concentration. It can
be observed that the effect of temperature in decreasing the viscosity of samples is more
pronounced at higher concentration. This tendency is similar to that other clarified
juices.[8,38,41,42]

Table 6 Effect of soluble dry matters on the viscosity of different concentration of samples at different
temperatures.

Model: K = k1 (Ca1) Model: K = k2 exp (a2C)

T
(°C) k1 (mPa s) a1 r2 k2 (mPa s) a2 (Brix−1) r2

10 2.86 × 10−27 14.66 0.97 1.0018 1.98 0.99

20 5.77 × 10−23 12.16 0.95 1.0039 1.77 0.97
30 2.49 × 10−21 11.14 0.91 1.0041 1.74 0.92
40 1.53 × 10−19 10.03 0.89 1.0041 1.72 0.91
50 1.37 × 10−17 8.86 0.92 1.0053 1.64 0.94
 RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM PEKMEZ 87

The influence of concentration. The variation of viscosity with soluble dry

matter contents can be described by various models.[38,42] In general, these models are
power-law and exponential-type models:

K = k1 (C a1 ), and (4)

K = k2 exp( a2C ), (5)

where k1, k2, a1 and a2 are constants and C is the concentration in °Brix. The values of vis-
cosity in Table 5 were made suitable for linear forms of the above equations by using the
least-squares method in order to calculate different parametres of the equations. Table 6
presents the values of the parameters of the power-law and exponential relationships.
Statistical analysis explains that the exponential model seems to describe better the effect
of the soluble dry matters on the viscosity of diluted samples.
For a fixed temperature, activation energy for flow depends on the soluble dry mat-
ter contents. The variation of activation energy with concentration can be described by
several models.[8] In this study two models were used: the power-law and the exponential
models.

Ea = A1C B1 , (6)

Ea = A2 exp( B2C ), (7)

where A1, A2, B1 and B2 are constants. The values of Ea and their respective concentrations
were fitted to Eqs. (6) and (7) by the least-squares methods to obtain the estimates of the
parameters of the model. The calculated parameters for these models are given in Table 7.
The dependency of Ea on the soluble solid content was better described by the power-law
model.
Combined effect of temperature and concentration. It is very useful to
acquire a simple equation describing the combined effect of temperature and concentra-
tion on pekmez viscosity for engineering applications. From the results obtained in the
preceding section, the following models have been used:

K = k3 exp( D1C + Ea / RgTa , and (8)

Table 7 Effect of the soluble dry matters on the activation energy.

Model A B r2

Power-low
Ea = A1CB1 6.11 × 10−5 3.17 0.93
Exponential
Ea = A2 exp(B2C) 1.09 0.89 0.92
88 AKBULUT AND ÖZCAN

Table 8 Combined effect of concentration and temperature on viscosity.

Model Equation i ki J Di Ea (kJmol−1) r2 e

1 8 3 3.27 × 10−10 1 0.17 41.96 0.95 4.05

2 9 4 6.63 × 10−26 2 11.33 41.96 0.94 4.39

K = k4C D 2 exp( Ea / RgTa ), (9)

where k3, k4, D1 and D2 are constants of the models. The equations were made linear to
obtain their parameters. The values of these constants are given in Table 8. It can be
observed that Ea values are the same in both of the models. Although it is suitable for two
of the models, model 1 describes the influence of temperature with soluble solid materials
better than model 2. So, a single equation Eq. (10) is proposed to describe the viscosity of
different concentrations of sweet sorghum pekmez:

K = 3.2702 × 10 −10 exp(0.17073C + 5047 / T ), and (10)

K = 6.63403 × 10 −26 C11.3261 exp(5047 / T ). (11)

CONCLUSIONS
Sweet sorghum pekmez contained high amounts of total sugar, which is composed
of approximately 91% invert sugar as glucose and fructose. This is especially important in
human nutrition. Sweet sorghum pekmez (75.1°Brix) was found to exhibit non-Newtonian
behavior. The power-law model had an excellent fit to describe the type of the sweet
sorghum pekmez. Viscosity of sweet sorghum pekmez decreased with increasing temper-
ature as expected. The activation energy values increased with increasing soluble dry
matter concentration. The effect of temperature on pekmez viscosity was described by the
Arrhenius equation.

NOMENCLATURE
a1 Constant of Eq. (4) (dimensionless)
a2 Constant of Eq. (5) (°Brix−1)
A1 Constant of Eq. (6) (°Brix−1)
A2 Constant of Eq. (7) (kJ/mol)
B1 Constant of Eq. (6) (dimensionless)
B2 Constant of Eq. (7) (°Brix−1)
C Soluble solid contents (°Brix−1)
D1 Constant of Eq. (8) (°Brix−1)
D2 Constant of Eq. (9) (dimensionless)
 RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SWEET SORGHUM PEKMEZ 89

Ea Activation energy (kJ/mol)

K Consistency index (Pa sn)
Rg Gas constant (J/mol)
Ta Temperature (K)
ηa Viscosity (Pa s or mPa s)
k0 Arrhenius constant (Pa sn)
k1 Constant of Eq. (4) (mPa sn)
k2 Constant of Eq. (5) (mPa sn)
k3 Constant of Eq. (8) (mPa sn)
k4 Constant of Eq. (9) (mPa sn)
n Flow behavior index (dimensionless)
γ Shear rate (s−1)
e Mean absolute percentage error

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