A STUDY OF DRYING SOME MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS BY VACUUM OVEN

Abstract

The experiments were carried out in September 2019 in the laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the Al-Bayda city is located in northeastern Libya, at the top of the Jabal Al-Akhdar summit at the confluence of latitude 21.44 north with longitude 32.76 east . The aims Drying some medicinal and aromatic plants ( Sage , Ment , Basil , Rut ) so that studying moisture content , rate of drying and Calculates the heat energy useful for heating the air in the oven in order Calculates The thermal efficiency. So the samples was prepared by Harvesting , Washing to removed dust and measured the weights of the samples before put in the drying oven . The results showed that the temperature of the Sage and Basil was relatively high, reaching 70 C0 , the temperature was Mint 60 C0 , but the mint took a while, due to the amount of water in a mint leaf, and it took 85 minutes.While the Rut used the lowest temperature (50 C 0 ) and the least time because the Rut leaf is weak and does not bear a high degree, the Drying rate of sage is bigger than basil and Ment ,Rut . The best Drying efficiency for the process of drying the Sage plant 69.4 % Then the Ment plant 50.7 % , subsequent by the basil plant 47.98 % , the least efficiency on the drying process of the Rut plant 36.57 %.