Survey of the conservation of medicinal leaves by convective drying multi conditioned

Abdenbi Asma, Bouaaza Mohammed

Abstract

The drying consists in decreasing the activity of the water of the dry products until a value assuring their conservation. The process must respect some criterias of quality bound to the product while guaranteeing, for the chain of production, a cadence and a reasonable cost. Several methods exist for the dehydration of the agricultural products. However the drying by convection, named also by practice, stay the most widespread technique and the more used. The conditions of the convective drying that grant the most elevated output rate in extracts aqueous of the leaves of Pistacia atlantica are the temperature 40°C and the debit of air 2.5 m3/s, while preserving meaningful manner the color of the leaves of Pistaciaatlantica, the aerothermicconditions must be maintained respectively to them (T°=40°C for D=1 m3/s) and (T°=50°C for D=1 m3/s). An increase of the content in free sugars is noted after convectivedrying of Pistacia atlanticaleaves, as well as the leaves dried to 50°C / 1.5 m3/s records the best concentration in total sugars (129.29 mg/l) in relation to the leaves dried to other conditions.