ABSTRACT
The eco-friendly dehydrated foliages and plant parts secured much popularity among users and have become key components in floriculture industry. Foliages with highly variable keeping quality are used as filler element in flower vase. Dehydration of foliages has not been studied at large. This investigation was carried out with ornamental foliages of three 140species, viz., Araucaria cunninghamii, Thuja orientalis, and Juniperus chinensis. White sand, silica gel, and boric acid were used as embedding materials, and two drying conditions of microwave oven and room drying were adopted for three durational treatments, viz., 10, 20 and 30 s and 4, 8, and 16 days, respectively. In both Araucaria and T. orientalis, silica gel + microwave oven combination for 30 and 20 s, respectively, exhibited best results in respect of moisture loss (49.23% and 58.33%) and quality. White sand + room condition also caused 61.41% moisture loss in T. orientalis when treated for 16 days. In J chinensis, white sand + microwave oven and silica gel + room condition for 20 s and 16 days showed moisture loss of 44.26% and 50.16%, respectively. Boric acid as embedding materials was also found to be effective in dehydration of these species.
All the three species were treated with glycerin:water of 1:1 and 1:3 (vol/vol) for 24, 48, and 96 h, followed by drying in hot air oven at 70-80°C for 5 h and open air of room condition for 24 h. A significant moisture loss of 60.56% to 62.56% was recorded in T. orientalis when dehydrated in hot air oven for 96 h.
