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. |