Effect of drying conditions on rehydration ratio of dried mint leaves

The proper use of cabinet tray dryer helps to reduce the losses and improves the quality of product. The experiments were conducted to develop dehydrated mint leaves so as to enhance the availability of mint leaves during off season. In the present study, fresh mint leaves were categorized in to untreated leaves (control) and blanched treated in boiled water for 1 min. the leaves were dried at 1.5,3.0,4.5 kg/m2 loading density with three levels of temperature (45 0C, 55 0C, 65 0C) under cabinet tray dryer. Untreated mint leaves were also dried as control samples. Experiments were also conducted to study the effect of drying conditions on rehydration ratio of dried mint leaves. The rehydration ratio decreased with the decrease in temperature and reported maximum at maximum temperature and the rehydration ratio for untreated samples was more than blanched treated samples.