Mechanical Drying of Senna leaves (Cassia angustifolia)

Abstract

Senna (Cassia angustifolia) is an important medicinal crop which is being exported from India. The present method of drying the leaves is under sun or shade which results in poor quality product. An attempt was made to dry senna in a forced flow type dryer at different temperatures. Sennoside concentrate which is an important quality aspect of Senna revealed that drying at 45 ºC was superior compared to other samples.