A mixed mode indirect solar dryer (MISD) was designed with a PCM-assisted polycarbonate glazed sheet covered solar collector and a drying unit for drying myrobalan. The rate of heat loss coefficients was evaluated experimentally with a modified collector design. The novelty of this work is the application of a PCM-energy storage in a conventional solar dryer to reduce the drying time of myrobalan. The thermal storage in MISD increases the continuous thermal supply period by 19±4 % compared to without thermal storage during the off-sunshine hour. The drying time of myrobalan was reduced to 12 h in MISD compared to 41 h in the OSD method. This results in better dryer performance and reduced drying time. The total useful energy was 61.18 MJ, and 0.206 MJ was reduced energy loss. The dryer's average temperature and relative humidity were measured as 65.2 °C and 8.83 %, respectively. The results show that exergy efficiency increases, and exergy loss reduced in the MISD. An intensive experimental study on the thermophysical properties of TES materials can be an additional advantage. Antioxidant values and the total phenolic content were evaluated by different methods. The best color and lower hardness values were achieved for a sample dried in MISD, as compared to other TD and OSD methods.