EFFECT OF SOME POSTHARVEST TREATMENTS ON ROSEMARY HERB QUALITY

Authors

1 Dept. Med. and Aromatic Plants, Inst. Hort. Res., Cent. Agric. Res., Cairo, Egypt.

2 Dept. Plant Prod., Fac. Environ. Agric. Sci., Arish Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted during the two seasons of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 at North Sinai Agriculture Research Station – Med. and Aroma. Dept., El-Arish City, North Sinai Governorate, Egypt to study  the effect of drying method, package type and storage period on essential oil percentage and their main components and total microbial count on rosemary herbs. Results of this study indicated that Shade drying treatment gave the highest oil (%) followed by oven drying method at 40ºC compared to sun drying. While lowest total microbes count (TMC) occurred with oven drying. The best package type through storage period was carton boxes; increasing storage period decreased the volatile oil percentage and the most of main components but increased total microbial count.

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