Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Thin-layer drying behaviour of mint leaves

_
Ibrahim Doymaz *

Department of Chemical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34210 Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey

Received 29 July 2004; accepted 7 March 2005

Available online 20 April 2005

Abstract

The thin-layer drying behaviour of mint leaves for a temperature range of 35–60
C was determined in a cabinet dryer. The
increase in air temperature significantly reduced the drying time of the mint leaves. Drying data of this material were analysed
to obtain diffusivity values from the falling rate-drying period. In this period, moisture transfer from mint leaves was described
by applying the FickÕs diffusion model. Effective diffusivity varied from 3.067 · 10
9 to 1.941 · 10
8 m2/s and increased with the
air temperature. An Arrhenius relation with an activation energy value of 62.96 kJ/mol expressed effect of temperature on the dif-
fusivity. Four thin-layer drying models available in the literature were fitted to the experimental data. Among all the drying models,
the logarithmic model was found to satisfactorily describe the kinetics of air-drying of mint leaves.
 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Modelling; Mint leaves; Drying; Diffusivity; Activation energy

1. Introduction order to preserve this seasonal plant, and make it avail-

Mint (Mentha spicata L.), in botany, common name
for members of the Labiatae, a large family of chiefly
annual or perennial herbs. Several species are shrubby
or climbing forms or, rarely, small trees. Members of
the family are found throughout the world, but the chief
centre of distribution is the Mediterranean region, where
these plants form a dominant part of the vegetation.
Mint has been used as a medicinal and aromatic plant
since ancient times. Its leaves are used for flavouring, tea
infusions and spicing. It combines well with many vege-
tables such as new potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and peas.
A few chopped leaves give refreshment to green salads
and salad dressings. Dried mint is sprinkled over humus
and other pulse and grain dishes (Encyclopedia of
spices, 2003). In addition, mint oil is an important, most
popular and widely used essential oil (Dwivedi, Khan,
Srivastava, Syamasunnder, & Srivastava, 2004). In
*
Tel.: +90 212 449 17 18; fax: +90 212 449 18 95.
E-mail address: doymaz@yildiz.edu.tr
able to consumers during the whole year, it undergoes
specific technological treatments, such as drying (Park,
Vohnikova, & Brod, 2002). Drying provides a very use-
ful preservation. Generally, a part of the mint may be
tied in small bundles and hung up, or the leaves and
flowering tops spread on a screen and dried in the shade.
Dried mint should be kept in a tightly sealed glass jar
away from light (Encyclopedia of spices, 2003).
Drying is one of the oldest methods of food preserva-
tion, and it represents a very important aspect of food
processing. The main aim of drying products is to allow
longer periods of storage, minimise packaging require-
ments and reduce shipping weights (Okos, Narsimhan,
Singh, & Weitnauer, 1992). Sun drying is the most com-
mon method used to preserve agricultural products in
the World and also Turkey. However, it has some prob-
lems related to the contamination with dust, soil, sand
particles and insects, and being weather dependent.
Also, the required drying time can be quite long. There-
fore, the drying process should be undertaken in closed
equipments to improve the quality of the final product
(Ertekin & Yaldiz, 2004).

0260-8774/$ - see front matter  2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2005.03.009
 _ Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375
I.
Nomenclature
a, c experimental constants
Deff effective diffusivity, m2/s
D0 constant in Arrhenius equation, m2/s
Ea activation energy, kJ/mol
k drying rate constant, 1/min
k0 slope
L slab thickness, m
MR moisture ratio (dimensionless)
M moisture content at any time, kg water/kg dry
matter
Me equilibrium moisture content, kg water/kg
dry matter
Recently, there have been many studies of the drying
behaviour of various vegetables (Akpinar, Midilli, &
Bicer, 2003; Doymaz & Pala, 2002; Doymaz, 2004;
Ertekin & Yaldiz, 2004; Kaymak-Ertekin, 2002;
Madamba, Driscoll, & Buckle, 1996; Senadeera,
Bhandari, Young, & Wijesinghe, 2003; Simal, Mulet,
Tarrazo, & Roselló, 1996; Yaldiz & Ertekin, 2001).
However, studies on the drying characteristics (air tem-
perature, air velocity, . . . etc.) of mint leaves are scarce
in the literature. Muller et al. (1989) used a green-
house-type solar dryer for mint drying. They reported
that the drying process from an initial moisture content
of 80% (w.b.) to a final moisture content of 11% (w.b.)
took 3–4 days. Lebert, Tharrault, Rocha, and Marty-
Audouin (1992) examined the effect of drying conditions
(air temperature, humidity and air velocity) on drying
kinetics of mint. Park et al. (2002) investigated the effect
of mint leaves 0.5–1.0 m/s of air-flow rate and various
temperatures (30, 40 and 50
C) on the drying kinetics.
The aim of this research was (1) to observe the effect
of air drying temperature on the drying time, (2) to fit
the experimental data to four thin-layer drying models
and estimate the constants, (3) to calculate the effective
diffusivity and activation energy, for drying of mint
leaves.
2. Material and methods
The drying of mint leaves (Mentha spicata L.) was
investigated in cabinet dryer that is described previously
by Doymaz, Gorel, and Akgun (2004) and installed in
the Chemical Engineering Department of Yildiz Techni-
cal University, Istanbul, Turkey. To establish the influ-
ence of air temperature on drying curves, experiments
at 35, 45, 55 and 60
C were carried out, relative humid-
ity of 8–40%, respectively. The relative humidity of air
was determined using wet and dry bulb temperatures
371
M0 initial moisture content, kg water/kg dry
matter
Mt moisture content at t, kg water/kg dry matter
Mt+dt moisture content at t + dt, kg water/kg dry
matter
N number of observations
n exponent and positive integer
R gas constant, kJ/mol K
R2 coefficient of determination
T temperature,
C
t drying time, min
z number of constants
obtained from the psychometric chart. During the dry-
ing experiments, air-flow rates of 4.1 m/s were measured
with Testo 440 Vane Probe Anemometer, and flowed
horizontal to the bed. The initial moisture content of
mint leaves was determined using a standard method
(AOAC, 1990), by vacuum drying at 70
C for 24 h over
a magnesium sulphate desiccant. This was repeated
three times to obtain a reasonable average.
Fresh mint leaves were purchased at a local market in
Istanbul, Turkey. Samples were stored in a refrigerator
at 4
C prior to the drying experiments. Prior to placing
the sample in square tray, the drying system was run for
at least 30 min to obtain steady conditions. Then, sam-
ple was placed on the drying tray in a thin single layer.
The sample weight was kept constant at 30 g (±0.5 g) for
all runs. The moisture loss was recorded at 15 min inter-
vals during drying by a specially developed weighing
unit. This weighing unit consisted of a balance (capacity
of 0–20 000 g and accuracy of ±0.001 g), hanger rod,
digital indicator and load cell (Revere Transducers Eur-
ope, Holland). Drying of mint leaves were finalised
when the moisture content decreased to 10 ± 0.5%
(w.b.) from an initial value of 84.7 ± 0.5% (w.b.). The
product was cooled in room temperature for 10 min
after drying, and kept in air glass jars. Drying tests were
replicated three times at each inlet air temperature, and
averages are reported.
2.1. Mathematical modelling of drying curves
Drying curves were fitted with four thin-layer drying
models, namely, the Lewis, the Henderson and Pabis,
the Page and the logarithmic models (Table 1). The
moisture ratio and drying rate of mint leaves during dry-
ing experiments were calculated using the following
equations:
M
Me
Moisture ratio ðMRÞ ¼ ð1Þ
M0
Me
372 _ Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375
I.

Table 1
Thin-layer drying models considered
Model name Model equation References
Lewis MR = exp(
kt) Ayensu (1997), Ozdemir and Devres (1999)
Henderson and Pabis MR = a exp(
kt) Kabganian, Carrier and Sokhansanj (2002), Doymaz (2004)
Page MR = exp[
(kt)n] Diamante and Munro (1993), Karathanos and Belessiotis (1999),
Doymaz and Pala (2002)
Logarithmic MR = a exp(
kt) + c Akpinar et al. (2003), Togrul and Pehlivan (2003)

M tþdt
M t 1
Drying rate ¼ ð2Þ 35˚C
dt
45˚C
where, MR, M, M0, Me, Mt and Mt+dt are the moisture 0.8
55˚C
ratio, moisture content at any time, initial moisture con- 60˚C

Moisture ratio
tent, equilibrium moisture content, moisture content at t 0.6
and moisture content at t + dt (kg water/kg dry matter),
respectively, t is drying time (min).
0.4
The regression was performed by the Levenberg–
Marquardt procedure in Statistica computer program.
The coefficient of determination (R2) was one of the pri- 0.2
mary criterions for selecting the best model to describe
thin-layer drying curves of mint leaves. However, there 0
are some statistical test methods such as the reduced 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
chi-square (v2) and root mean square error (RMSE) to Drying time (min)
evaluate the goodness of fit of the models. The lower
Fig. 1. Variations of moisture ratio as a function of time for different
the v2 and RMSE values and the higher R2 values, which air-drying temperatures.
were chosen as the criteria for goodness of fit. These
parameters can be described in Eqs. (3) and (4) (Demir,
Gunhan, Yagcioglu, & Degirmencioglu, 2004; Togrul & 0.14
Drying rate (kg water/(kg dry matter.min))

Pehlivan, 2003): 35˚C

0.12 45˚C
PN 2
2 i¼1 ðMRexp;i
MRpre;i Þ 55˚C
v ¼ ð3Þ 0.1
N
z 60˚C
" #1=2 0.08
1 XN

2
RMSE ¼ MRpre;i
MRexp;i ð4Þ 0.06
N i¼1
0.04
where, MRexp,i is the experimental moisture ratio at
observation i, MRpre,i is the predicted moisture ratio 0.02
at this observation, N is number of observations and z
0
is number of constants. 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Moisture ratio

Fig. 2. Variation of drying rate as a function of moisture ratio for

3. Results and discussion
different air-drying temperatures.

3.1. Influence of drying temperature

Results of moisture ratio and drying rate during dry-
ing time, obtained in experiments for thin-layer drying
of mint leaves carried out at 35–60
C have been repre-
sented in Figs. 1 and 2. As can be observed, a constant
rate-drying period was not detected in drying curves.
The curves typically demonstrated smooth diffusion-
controlled drying behaviour under all run conditions.
Moreover, an important influence of air drying temper-
ature on drying rate could be observed in these curves.
Drying rate increased with the increase of air-drying
temperature and the highest values of drying rate were
obtained during the experiment at 60
C of the drying
air. The results were generally in agreement with some
literature studies on drying of various food products
(Akpinar et al., 2003; Senadeera et al., 2003; Simal,
Femenia, Llull, & Roselló, 2000).
In general, the time required to reduce the moisture
ratio to any given level was dependent on the drying
condition, being the highest at 35
C and the lowest at
 _ Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375
I. 373

60
C. With drying, the time taken to reduce moisture 1.0

content of mint leaves from the initial 84.7 ± 0.5% 35˚C
(w.b.) to a final 10 ± 0.5% (w.b.) was 600, 285, 180 45˚C
0.8
and 105 min at 35, 45, 55 and 60
C, respectively. Con- 55˚C
sequently, the effect of air temperature has been reflected 60˚C

Moisture ratio
in drying rate. Similar results were reported by Simal 0.6 Logarithmic
et al. (1996), Ozdemir and Devres (1999), Doymaz
(2004) and Ertekin and Yaldiz (2004). 0.4

3.2. Evaluation of the models

0.2

In order to determine the moisture content as a func-

tion of drying time, empirical the Lewis, the Henderson 0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
and Pabis, the Page and the logarithmic models were fit-
Drying time (min)
ted. The statistical analysis values are summarised in
Table 2. All the models gave consistently high coefficient Fig. 3. Influence of air-drying temperature on drying curves and
of determination (R2) values in the range 0.9826–0.9996. simulation of drying curves by using the proposed logarithmic model.
This indicates that all the models could satisfactorily de-
scribe the air-drying of mint leaves. Among the thin- lar findings were reported by Madamba et al. (1996) for
layer drying models, the logarithmic model obtained garlic slices, and by Togrul and Pehlivan (2003) for apri-
the highest R2 values and the lowest v2 and RMSE val- cot drying.
ues in the temperature range of the study. It is clear that,
the v2 and RMSE values of this model were changed be- 3.3. Determination of the effective moisture diffusivity
tween 0.9981 and 0.9996, 0.018627 and 0.046729, and
0.000045 and 0.000323, respectively. Thus, this model The experimental drying data for the determination
may be assumed to present the thin-layer drying behav- of diffusivity coefficients were interpreted by using FickÕs
iour of the mint leaves. An examination of the R2, v2 second diffusion equation.
and RMSE showed that the Page model gave higher
values than the Lewis and Henderson and Pabis models. oM
¼ Deff r2 M ð5Þ
Plots of experimental and predicted by logarithmic ot
model moisture ratio values with drying time are shown The diffusion equation (Eq. (5)) is solved for an infinite
in Fig. 3. As it can be observed in these figure, the log- slab, assuming unidimensional moisture movement vol-
arithmic model provided a good agreement between ume change, constant temperature and diffusivity coeffi-
experimental and predicted moisture ratio values. Simi- cients, and negligible external resistance (Crank, 1975):

Table 2
Statistical results obtained from various thin-layer drying models
Model name Temperature (
C) Determination of coefficient (R2) Root mean square error (RMSE) Chi-square (v2)
Lewis 35 0.9826 0.207616 0.001451
45 0.9954 0.066887 0.000387
55 0.9942 0.070848 0.000596
60 0.9927 0.068560 0.000878
Henderson and Pabis 35 0.9850 0.195557 0.001278
45 0.9955 0.068495 0.000401
55 0.9957 0.065584 0.000481
60 0.9929 0.069441 0.000994
Page 35 0.9926 0.132071 0.000631
45 0.9960 0.067493 0.000359
55 0.9987 0.029361 0.000158
60 0.9956 0.050580 0.000613
Logarithmic 35 0.9994 0.036134 0.000047
45 0.9982 0.046729 0.000166
55 0.9996 0.018627 0.000045
60 0.9981 0.034658 0.000323
374 _ Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375
I.

Table 3 -17.5
Values of effective diffusivity obtained for mint leaves at different
temperatures
-18
Temperature (
C) Effective diffusivity (Deff)
(m2/s)
-18.5
35 3.067 · 10
9
5.837 · 10
9 R2 = 0.9931

ln Deff
45
-19
55 1.237 · 10
8
60 1.941 · 10
8
-19.5

M
Me -20
MR ¼
M0
Me
!
8 X
1
1 ð2n
1Þ2 p2 Deff t -20.5
¼ 2 exp
ð6Þ 0.00295 0.00305 0.00315 0.00325 0.00335
p n¼1 ð2n
1Þ2 4L2 1/(T + 273.15) (1/K)

where, Deff is the effective diffusivity coefficient (m2/s); L Fig. 4. Influence of air temperature on the effective diffusivity.
is the thickness of the slab (m) and n is the positive inte-
ger. Only the first term of Eq. (6) can be used for long
drying times (Lopez, Iguaz, Esnoz, & Virseda, 2000): Table 4
 2  Comparison of activation energy values with literature values
8 p Deff t Material Activation energy References
MR ¼ 2 exp
ð7Þ
p 4L2 (Ea) (kJ/mol)
Mint 62.96 Present work
The slope (k0) is calculated by plotting ln(MR) versus Mint 82.93 Park et al. (2002)
time according to Eq. (7). Carrot 28.36 Doymaz (2004)
Red pepper 42.80 Kaymak-Ertekin (2002)
p2 Deff Green pea 24.70 Simal et al. (1996)
k0 ¼ ð8Þ Black tea 406.02 Panchariya et al. (2002)
4L2
Values of Deff for different temperatures are presented in
Table 3. Effective diffusivity values ranged from a straight line in the range of temperatures investigated,
3.067 · 10
9 at 35
C to 1.941 · 10
8 m2/s at 60
C. It indicating Arrhenius dependence. From the slope of the
can be seen that the values of Deff increased greatly with straight line described by the Arrhenius equation,
increasing temperature. Similar variations were also ob- the activation energy was found to be 62.96 kJ/mol.
served during drying of garlic (Madamba et al., 1996), The comparison with literature values for various vege-
carrot (Doymaz, 2004), black tea (Panchariya, Popovic, tables is shown in Table 4. It is higher than the activa-
& Sharma, 2002) and aloe (Simal et al., 2000). These val- tion energy of carrot drying (Doymaz, 2004), red
ues are consistent with the present estimated Deff values pepper drying (Kaymak-Ertekin, 2002), green bean dry-
for mint leaves. ing (Senadeera et al., 2003), and green pea drying (Simal
et al., 1996) and lower than the activation energies of
3.4. Activation energy mint leaves (Park et al., 2002) and black tea drying
(Panchariya et al., 2002).
Effective diffusivity can be related with temperature
by Arrhenius expression (Lopez et al., 2000; Simal
et al., 1996) like: 4. Conclusions
 
Ea
Deff ¼ D0 exp
ð9Þ The increase in air temperature significantly reduced
RðT þ 273.15Þ the drying time of the mint leaves. Drying curves of mint
where, D0 is the constant in Arrhenius equation (m2/s), leaves did not show a constant rate-drying period under
Ea is the activation energy (kJ/mol), T is temperature the experimental employed and showed only a falling
of air (
C) and R is the universal gas constant (kJ/ rate-drying period. The values of effective diffusivity
mol K). Eq. (9) can be rearranged in the form of: for drying at 35–60
C of air temperature and 4.1 m/s
Ea of air velocity ranged from 3.067 · 10
9 to 1.941 ·
lnðDeff Þ ¼ lnðD0 Þ
ð10Þ 10
8 m2/s. The effective diffusivity increased with the
RðT þ 273.15Þ
air temperature. Temperature dependence of the diffu-
Values of Deff calculated Eq. (10) for experiments are sivity coefficients was described by Arrhenius-type rela-
plotted in Fig. 4. The plot was found to be essentially tionship. The activation energy for moisture diffusion
 _ Doymaz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 370–375
I.
was found as 62.96 kJ/mol, which was in agreement with
data in the literature. Goodness of fit of the experimen-
tal data by four thin-layer drying models was deter-
mined by comparing determination of coefficient,
reduced v2 and root mean square errors. The logarith-
mic empirical model showed a good fit curves than the
other models.
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