USING VACUUM DRYING SYSTEM FOR DRYING SOME LEAFY MEDICINAL PLANTS

Mansour, N. E.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2023.231597.1114

USING VACUUM DRYING SYSTEM FOR DRYING SOME LEAFY MEDICINAL PLANTS

Document Type : Original Article

Author

N. E. Mansour

Asist. Prof. of Ag. Eng., Nat. Res. and Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Damanhour U., Egypt,

10.21608/mjae.2023.231597.1114

Abstract

The aim of this study is to manufacture and evaluate a vacuum dryer for drying some leafy medicinal plants, namely mint (Mentha Piperita L), sage (Salvia Officinalis L.) and marjoram (Origanum Majorana L.) using an Arduino circuit to control the temperature and pressure inside the dryer. Three different levels of pressure, namely: atmospheric pressure, -5 and -10kPa, three different drying temperature are 40, 50 and 60 °C were studied for evaluating this dryer. Some a mathematical models for the thin layer were applied to describe the drying process of previous medicinal plants products and vacuum drying method. The results showed that Moisture content decreased from 88.9% to 13.4%, 89.1% to 14%, and 85.5% to 13.4% at drying times of 75, 120, and 90 min for Mint, Marjoram, and Sage, respectively. The moisture content of the samples was calculated on the basis of wet weight (% w.b.). At a drying temperature of 40°C, the specific energy consumption decreased from 1.62 to 1.06 kW.h/ kg (43.3% reduction) and from 0.99 to 0.5 kW.h/ kg (49.9% reduction) at 60°C when the vacuum was reduced from atmospheric pressure to -10kPa. A mathematical model describing the degree of vacuum and drying temperature was also evaluated. The results showed that the vacuum and drying temperature were effective in removing water from plants.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Processing Engineering of Agricultural Products

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