The present study deals with the effect of drying on mineral and essential oil content of Ocimum basilicum. The characteristics of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) were studied at 50 °C under sun drying and oven drying. The effect of various drying methods on the essential oil and mineral content, such as oven drying and the wire basket sun drying basil was compared. Oven drying resulted in an increase of drying rate and shorter drying time. Basil can be oven-dried to 11.31% moisture content after 15 h at 50 °C and sun-dried to 23.79% content after 28 h. The mineral content of oven-dried material was higher than sun-dried. Ca, K, P contents were determined as minerals in both oven- and sun-dried material. The essential oil content of sun-dried material was higher than oven-dried.

Basil-Ocimum basilicum-belongs to the family Lamiaceae. The species is an herbaceous, annual, 20-60 cm in length with white purple flowers, originated from India and Iran. It is also cultivated in Mediterranean countries and hot climates. Fresh basil is widely used in the Mediterranean kitchen with tomato products, vegetable, salads, pizza, meat, soaps and marine food. It is commonly known for the presence of essential oil and its composition determines the specific aroma of the plant and the flavor of the condiments. As a spice dried and ground basil leaves are used in bakery products, confectionery, ice creams, vinegars, meat and flavor products (Akgul, 1993; and Ozean and Chalchar, 2002).

Herbs are still consumed as source of fairly good amount of several nutrients and it is widely accepted that herbs are significant nutritional sources of minerals (Ourl et al., 1997). Aromatic herbs and species are most sensitive to drying process, which increase biological deterioration. This results in the loss of volatile oil and flavor, change in color and texture and decrease in nutritional values.

Fruits and vegetables are often dried by sun drying. However, there are many problems in sun drying such as the slowness of the process, exposure to environmental contamination, uncertainty of the weather and the manual labor recruitment (Abdelhaq and Labuza, 1987; and Kostaropoulos and Saravacos, 1995). The effect of oven drying and sun drying on the total content of volatile compound was determined by Venskutonis (1996). The losses at 60 °C were 43% in Thyme and 31% in Sage.

Life Sciences Journal, Ocimum Basilicum, Mediterranean Kitchen, Biological Deterioration, Aromatic Herbs, Environmental Contamination, Cellular Metabolism, Sun Drying Methods, Drying Processes, Titration Methods, Nutritional Sources.