Morphological and Quality Parameters of Chrysanthemum Flowers as Influenced by Different Pre-drying Treatments and Drying Methods

In the present study the flowers of chrysanthemum cv. Baggi were subjected to four different pre-drying treatments i.e. P0 – Control (Soaking in Distilled water for 15 minutes); P1 – Soaking in Citric acid (2%) for 15 minutes; P2 – Soaking in Magnesium Chloride (10 %) for 4 hours; P3 – Soaking in Glycerol: water (1:3) for 24 hours and five drying techniques i.e. D0 = Air drying at room temperature without embedding; D1 = Embedded drying in Silica gel in a hot air oven at 50+5 °C; D2 = Embedded drying in Silica gel in a microwave oven; D3 = Embedded drying in Borax in hot air oven 50+5 °C and D4 = Embedded drying in Borax in microwave oven in a factorial completely randomized design. Pre-drying treatment, Glycerol and Water in a 1:3 ratio proved best which resulted in a maximum dry flower weight of 0.83 grams, a minimal moisture loss of 67.45%, a maximum dry flower diameter of 4.24 centimeters, and a minimal reduction in diameter of 0.37 centimeters besides, a minimal drying time of 71.43 hours. In terms of quality parameters, the flowers treated with glycerol and water (1:3) had the highest scores for color (3.82), texture (2.76), shape (3.65), non-shattering of petals (3.87), and overall acceptability (3.64). Silica gel embedded flowers and drying them in a hot air oven resulted in a smaller reduction in diameter (0.20 centimeters) and achieved the highest scores for color (4.39), texture (4.18), shape (4.30), non-shattering of petals (4.20), and overall acceptability (4.54). The combination of the glycerol: water pre-treatment and the silica gel with a hot air oven drying method showed the least reduction in diameter (0.23 centimeters) and the highest scores for color (4.75), texture (4.60), shape (4.60), non-shattering of petals (4.55), and overall acceptability (4.75). Drying the flowers in a microwave oven with either desiccant resulted in the shortest drying time of 0.10 hours. On the other hand, air drying without embedding the flowers produced the lowest dry flower weight (0.46 grams), the highest percentage of moisture loss (82.44%), the smallest dry flower diameter (3.57 centimeters), and the largest reduction in diameter (1.00 centimeters). However, air drying took the longest time at 328.93 hours and resulted in dried flowers that were deemed unacceptable with minimal scores for color (2.70), texture (1.35), shape (1.95), and overall acceptability (2.35).