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The experiment on hot air oven-drying of Gomphrena globosa L was laid out in a completely randomized design (factorial). Two strains of G globosa viz Magenta (GGM) and White (GGW) were dried after embedding in four drying media viz M1(silica gel), M2(sand: silica gel, 50: 50 v/v), M3(borax) and M4(sand: borax, 50: 50 v/v) at three temperatures viz T1(50°C), T2(55°C) and T3(60°C) for three durations viz D1(24 h), D2(48 h) and D3(72 h) in hot air oven. In GGM and GGW maximum moisture loss (80.94 and 79.76% respectively) and size reduction (17.74 and 17.00% respectively) were recorded in flowers embedded in M1T3D3 (silica gel + 60°C + 72 h) in hot air oven. However in terms of quality parameters maximum score (18.00 and 18.20 in GGM and GGW respectively) out of a total of 20 was allotted to flowers embedded in M1T1D1 (silica gel + 50°C + 24 h).
Gomphrena globosa, silica gel, borax, desiccants, embedding, hot air oven-drying