. Moisture buffering capacity
The moisture buffering value (MBV) was determined through the Nordtest
method [17,26,27], by using a climate chamber (Aralab, model Fitoclima300
EDTU). The weight variation of cylindrical samples (Ø = 120 mm and h = 20 mm)
was continuously recorded upon moisture cyclic variation (Fig. 4). A digital analytical
balance with 0.1 g accuracy was used and the humidity level in the chamber
changed between 33% (16 h) and 75% (8 h) establishing 5 repeated cycles of 24 h
(Fig. 4). The temperature remained constant (23 C) and the MBV was calculated
by the Eq. (3)