Studies on drying characteristics for gerbera flowers

In this investigation, the gerbera flowers were dried by employing different drying methods such as hot air drying at 40, 50 and 60°C, microwave oven drying with silica gel at 50°C, vacuum drying at 40°C and 760 mm Hg pressure besides solar and shade drying to find out the most suitable method and drying parameters to study the drying behaviour. Maximum drying time of five days was recorded during shade drying while minimum was 25 minutes in case of microwave oven drying. The drying of the flowers under all the treatments completely took place in the falling rate period. The maximum over all drying rate was found to be 3.2164%/min during microwave oven drying with silica gel at 50°C, followed by vacuum drying at 40°C, while minimum overall drying rate of 0.0112%/min was observed during shade drying. Based on the drying characteristics like drying rate and drying time, microwave oven drying with silica gel at 50°C followed by vacuum drying at 40°C was found reasonably good method for quality dried produce of gerbera flowers.