Experimental investigation of an indirect solar dryer integrated with phase change material for drying valeriana jatamansi (medicinal herb)

In this study, an experimental investigation of an indirect solar dryer integrated with phase change material has been carried out for drying Valeriana Jatamansi. The experimentation has been performed under the climatic conditions of Himalayan region, Solan (latitude - 30.91 degrees N, longitude - 77.09 degrees E), Himachal Pradesh (India) in the month of October-November 2016. Paraffin RT-42 has been used as a phase change material in the dryer. Using this system, the moisture content of rhizomes reduced from 89% to 9% in 5 days as compared to heat pump drying and shade drying, which took 8 days and 14 days, respectively. Results of present study infer that the drying time using phase change material in this setup has reduced by 37.50% and 64.29% when compared to heat pump drying and shade drying, respectively. The dried rhizomes obtained are of superior quality in terms of colour, texture, aroma and bio-medical constituents. Analyses show that by using present setup, total valepotriates obtained were 3.47% as compared to traditional shade drying which yield 3.31%.