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Artisanal Solar Drying of Nutritional and Medicinal Plants of High Cultural Value in Rural Panama
Author(s) -
Bermudez Isaias,
Have Thomas,
Bermudez Odilia,
dePerez Juana
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.898.8
Subject(s) - solar dryer , moisture , water content , horticulture , organoleptic , geography , environmental science , mathematics , food science , biology , engineering , meteorology , geotechnical engineering
Objective Panama, a tropical country, has a long rainy season (9‐10 months) that limits the local processing of plants (e.g. drying and packaging) for use in cooking and for healing. Working with local residents from the community of El Cacao, Capira, Panama, we aimed to test a locally built solar oven for drying of nutritional and medicinal plants. The goal was to reach 60% or higher of moisture reduction. Methods: The solar oven was built as the central component of a local processing plant. We tested this oven for drying 4 leafy plants including cilantro, oregano, rosemary and bitter melon. We collected and analyzed data about two main parameters: temperature and time to achieve the set moisture reduction. Results: We ran initial tests of the absorption and uptake of heat by the solar oven, registering an average of 4.5 hr/day of solar radiation. The accumulated heat permitted the preliminary tests with the plants obtained from a local demonstration garden. We recorded the following drying times (hr.min) and mean temperatures ( o F): rosemary, 17.15/90.0 o ; cilantro, 18.20/92 o ;oregano, 9.55/90.1 o andbitter melon, 14.00/90.7 o . The moisture reduction reached 83% for rosemary, 78% for cilantro, 65% for oregano and 61% for bitter melon. Unstructured testing sessions with local residents indicated that the desired organoleptic features of the dried plants were present at acceptable levels. Discussion: Compared to published reports, we reduced moisture in the tested plants in relatively short times and those moisture reductions were close to those obtained with traditional processes of one or more weeks of sun exposure values. Funding: CINSAG‐Panama