ARTICLE V  

MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF
NUTRITION
Official publication of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia

December 1999, Volume 5 No. 1&2

Mal J Nutr 5:47-54, 1999.
http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn005/mjn5n12_005.pdf

Effect of different drying methods on concentrations of several phytochemicals in herbal preparation of 8 medicinal plants leaves

Mahanom, H. , Azizah, AH and Dzulkifly, M.H.

Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Science and Biotechnology, Universiti
Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT   (Full Article)
The effect of oven drying at 50 °C ± 1°C for 9 hour, 70°C ± 1°C for 5 hour and freeze drying on retention of chlorophyll, riboflavin, niacin, ascorbic acid and carotenoids in herbal preparation consisting of 8 medicinal plants was evaluated. The medicinal plants selected were leaves of Apium graveolens (saderi), Averrhoa bilimbi (belimbing buluh), Centella asiatica (pegaga), Mentha arvensis (pudina), Psidium guajava (jambu batu), Sauropus androgynous (cekor manis), Solanum nigrum (terung meranti) and Polygonum minus (kesum ). Results revealed that both type and conditions of the drying treatments affected retention of all phytochemicals analysed. Herbal preparation developed using oven drying was found to have inferior phytochemicals content compared to that obtained by freeze dryer. Nevertheless, the herbal preparation developed using all treatments still retain appreciable amount of phytochemicals studied, especially carotenoids, ascorbic acid, niacin and riboflavin and thus have potential for commercial purposes.