Far-Infrared Drying Effects onto the Physical Characteristics of Aquilaria malaccensis Leaves

Drying also known as dehydration is commonly used as a unit operation in herbs manufacturing industry to preserve the food product by removing the moisture content in the herbs. Unfortunately, most drying process degraded the product quality because the feedstock is exposed to a very high temperature within a long period of time by using conventional oven Therefore this research has focused on the alternatives technique in overcoming the degradation of nutrients by applying the irradiation concepts. The objectives of this research were to investigate the effect of drying onto the physical properties of Aquilaria Malaccensis leaves by using fabricated far-infrared dryer. The experiments were conducted at various temperature ranging from 40, 50 and 60°C. The color difference and the moisture content of the leaves before and after drying were examined. The color measurements data shows that at 60°C, the brightness and the chroma were the highest. On the other hand, the hue angles were the highest for 60°C when the time was reached 100 minutes.