Sucrosedissolvedindistilledwaterwasusedastheosmotic agent. The solute content was fixed at 50 and 70% (w/w). Theweightratioofthesampletothesolutionwas1:20(w/w) inordertonotdilutetheosmoticsolutionbywaterremoval fromthesampleduringtheexperiments.Thecuboidpieces wereplacedin650mLbeakerscontainingtheosmoticsolution and maintained in a temperature-controlled bath (according to the conditions presented in Table 1) for 2 h. Homogenization of the osmotic solution was obtained by mild and constant mechanical agitation at 100 rpm.