Storage Experience of the Dried Spearmint
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Abstract
Freshly harvested spearmint leaves were dehydrated by freeze drying and so-called combined drying methods, i.e. infrared-freeze drying and hot air-freeze drying. The dried materials were placed in sealed polyethylene bags and stored for 4 months at room temperature on a shelf and in a refrigerator. The colour examination of the leaves and the analysis of the essential oil content were done on a monthly basis. From the colour test results, it was found that the total colour difference of the leaves of spearmint stored at room temperature was higher than that of the samples stored in the refrigerator. A particularly high colour difference was identified for lyophilized samples. When extracting total essential oil from refrigerator and shelf-stored leaves, we found that there was no significant difference between the two storage conditions, but that leaves stored in the refrigerator showed better essential oil components retention. Taking into account our results, we recommend to preserve the spearmint by infrared-freeze drying instead of costly lyophilization and that the dried samples be stored at room temperature.
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Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Grant numbers Bolyai János Kutatási Ösztöndíj
References
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