Experimental study on microwave drying of coriander

In order to improve the quality of dried vegetable, the experiment of the effects of microwave drying factors on drying efficiency and quality of dried coriander was conducted. The impacts of heating power, thickness of materials and airflow rate on the characteristics of microwave drying of coriander, the quality of dried coriander and energy consumption were investigated by orthogonal experiment design. The impacts of factors on experimental indexes were analyzed to select the optimum process parameters of microwave drying of coriander by range analysis and variance analysis of orthogonal experiment. Experimental results show that the effects of parameters of microwave drying on the characteristics of microwave drying of coriander, the quality of dried coriander and energy consumption are different, and airflow rate has greatest influence on drying rate, quality indexes of dried coriander. The constant rate drying is the main stage of microwave drying of coriander. The optimum drying parameters for obtaining higher productivity and quality of dried coriander are as follows: heating power 1.125 W/g, material thickness 1.5 cm and air flow rate 60 m/min. Under these conditions the higher edible quality can be maintained after drying process, and energy consumption is low.