Effect of Natural and Solar Energy Drying Systems on Drying Characteristics of Marigold Medical Plant

Abstract

Two drying systems, natural sun and solar energy systems (active and passive) were used in this research to determine the effect of drying systems on drying characteristics of marigold medical plant. The natural sun drying system gave the worst average drying rate of 0.29 % (db/min) due to long drying period of 39 h and low levels of drying temperature of 23.1 °C. The solar energy systems consist of two drying systems, passive and active solar drying systems. In the passive solar drying system (tunnels), the highest average drying properties were in tunnel 4 which had average tunnel temperature of 41.2 °C, the average drying rate was 0.64 % (db/min) and the total accumulated drying time was 16 h. In the active solar drying system, the time required for drying the marigold petals and its drying rate ranged from 29 to 31 h and 0.33 to 0.39 % (db/min) respectively. The active solar drying system increased the drying rate comparing with the natural sun drying system.

Determination of Optimum Conditions for Thin-Layer Drying of Lemon Balm Leaves (Melissa Officinalis L.)

“…n Egypt, the medicinal plants in the recent years have an important export value and they are considered as a natural alternative to chemical drugs because of their medical side effect, (Shokr et al, 2011). Therefore, some experiments were conducted for thin-layer of herbal plants as (Arafa, 2007, Abdel Ghaffar et al, 2011.…”