Dehydration Techniques for Silver Oak (Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br.) leaves

An experiment was conducted on dehydration of silver oak (Grevillea robusta)leavesinvolvingthree temperatures [40° C (T¹), 45° C° (T²) and 50 C (T³)] and embedding media [River bed sand (M¹), Sea sand (M²) and Silica gel (M^{3)]. Experiment was tried with factorial concept in Completely Randomized Design during 200809 at P.G. Laboratory, ASPEE College of Horticulture and Forestry, NAU, Navsari. Quantitative and qualitative parameters influenced by drying temperatures and embedding media. At higher temperatures increased transpiration, respiration and ethylene released recorded which in turn increased per cent moisture loss, which consecutively leds to higher per cent weight loss and lower per cent moisture content in leaves of silver oak as compared to lower temperature. Drying with river sand and sea sand provided good quality of dried foliages with attractive colour and smooth texture but required more drying duration. On the other hand, drying with silica gel was faster without much deterioration in quality of silver oak leaves and therefore it showed good quality of dried foliages with high per cent weight loss, low moisture content and increased per cent moisture loss.}