Dehydration of Chamomile Flowers under Different Drying Conditions

The main aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of drying chamomile plants under different conditions. The obtained results indicated that the accumulated weight loss of chamomile flowers was (86.27, 84.67, 82.70, 85.04 and 86.53)% for the sun-drying system, shadow-drying system, room-drying system, solar-drying system, and oven-drying system, respectively. The moisture content of chamomile flowers decreased from (508.59 to 14.56)%, (502.77 to 15.43)%, (470.09 to 18.19)%, (537.47 to 13.45) and (444.84 to 5.46)% d.b. for sun-drying system, shadow-drying system, room-drying system, solar-drying system and oven-drying system, respectively. The highest value of equilibrium moisture content was 51.78% at 90% equilibrium relative humidity was found from the Henderson equation under room system. The lowest value of equilibrium moisture contents was 1.38% at 10% equilibrium relative humidity was found for modified Oswin equation for oven system. The chamomile oil content values were (0.66, 0.78, 0.94, 0.73 and 0.59)% for the flowers dried under sun-drying, shadow-drying, room-drying, solar-drying, and oven-drying, respectively. The highest values of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium contents (2.62, 1.11, 4.10, 1.12 and 0.23)% were obtained when the chamomile dried at room temperature system. The lowest value of the Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium content (1.50, 0.83, 3.83, 0.84 and 0.20)% were found at the oven-drying system.