Dehydration and product diversification of Helichrysum flowers

Studies on dehydration and product diversification of Helichrysum flowers indicated that among tight bud flowers, red color flowers had maximum fresh weight, dry weight and diameter. After drying, yellow flower color was near to natural at all the harvest stages as compared to other flower colors tried. Shortest drying time of 18 hours was required with silica gel embedded hot air oven drying of fully open yellow flowers. Longest drying time of 216 hours was required for tight bud yellow flowers under shade with out embed. Maximum sensory score of 5 was obtained for sand embedded hot air oven dried tight bud yellow flowers. Minimum sensory score of 1.2 was obtained for fully open yellow flowers dried with out embedded hot air oven drying.