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Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer

Considering the solar radiation status in Oman, a low-cost, indirect, stand-alone, forced-convective solar dryer was developed to dry medicinal herbs, which are sensitive to direct sun. The hot air flow was obtained using a solar-panel-powered blower and air passing through a black-body solar collec...

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Autores principales: Al-Hamdani, Anfal, Jayasuriya, Hemanatha, Pathare, Pankaj B., Al-Attabi, Zahir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9777633/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36553845
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11244103
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author Al-Hamdani, Anfal
Jayasuriya, Hemanatha
Pathare, Pankaj B.
Al-Attabi, Zahir
author_facet Al-Hamdani, Anfal
Jayasuriya, Hemanatha
Pathare, Pankaj B.
Al-Attabi, Zahir
author_sort Al-Hamdani, Anfal
collection PubMed
description Considering the solar radiation status in Oman, a low-cost, indirect, stand-alone, forced-convective solar dryer was developed to dry medicinal herbs, which are sensitive to direct sun. The hot air flow was obtained using a solar-panel-powered blower and air passing through a black-body solar collector. This drying process could extend the shelf life of herbs while preserving their medicinal and nutritional (physicochemical) properties and adhering to food safety and hygiene practices. This study investigated the benefits of an indirect solar drying technique on the retention of quality attributes of mint and basil used in medicinal applications. Herbs used during drying could be subjected to changes in their physicochemical properties such as color, water activity (Aw), total soluble solids (TSS), phenol content, antioxidant capacity, and moisture content (MC), and, thus, results were compared with fresh herb samples. The dryer chamber-maintained temperature and relative humidity regimes of 30–50 °C and 21–95% and the expected final moisture content (wet basis) was 10%. The dryer showed improved physicochemical quality parameters and the retention of green color with parameter ranges of Aw 0.44–0.63, phenol content (increase) 1705–8994 mg/100 g DM, and antioxidant capacity (increase) 0.61–0.67 µmol/g DM, respectively. This study showed the ability of developed solar dryers to preserve the physicochemical properties of medicinal herbs during drying and can extend to other food products.
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spelling pubmed-97776332022-12-23 Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer Al-Hamdani, Anfal Jayasuriya, Hemanatha Pathare, Pankaj B. Al-Attabi, Zahir Foods Article Considering the solar radiation status in Oman, a low-cost, indirect, stand-alone, forced-convective solar dryer was developed to dry medicinal herbs, which are sensitive to direct sun. The hot air flow was obtained using a solar-panel-powered blower and air passing through a black-body solar collector. This drying process could extend the shelf life of herbs while preserving their medicinal and nutritional (physicochemical) properties and adhering to food safety and hygiene practices. This study investigated the benefits of an indirect solar drying technique on the retention of quality attributes of mint and basil used in medicinal applications. Herbs used during drying could be subjected to changes in their physicochemical properties such as color, water activity (Aw), total soluble solids (TSS), phenol content, antioxidant capacity, and moisture content (MC), and, thus, results were compared with fresh herb samples. The dryer chamber-maintained temperature and relative humidity regimes of 30–50 °C and 21–95% and the expected final moisture content (wet basis) was 10%. The dryer showed improved physicochemical quality parameters and the retention of green color with parameter ranges of Aw 0.44–0.63, phenol content (increase) 1705–8994 mg/100 g DM, and antioxidant capacity (increase) 0.61–0.67 µmol/g DM, respectively. This study showed the ability of developed solar dryers to preserve the physicochemical properties of medicinal herbs during drying and can extend to other food products. MDPI 2022-12-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9777633/ /pubmed/36553845 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11244103 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Al-Hamdani, Anfal
Jayasuriya, Hemanatha
Pathare, Pankaj B.
Al-Attabi, Zahir
Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title_full Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title_fullStr Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title_full_unstemmed Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title_short Drying Characteristics and Quality Analysis of Medicinal Herbs Dried by an Indirect Solar Dryer
title_sort drying characteristics and quality analysis of medicinal herbs dried by an indirect solar dryer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9777633/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36553845
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11244103
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