Abstract
The present work aims to study and evaluate the effects of pre-cooling process on safe storage period of herb plants stored under cooled room condition. Fresh weight loss, chlorophyll a and b, volatile oil percentage and its components for spearmint (Mentha viridis Linn.) Sage (Salvia officinalis L.) and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) were investigated. The freshly harvested herbs were divided into two parts one was kept without pre-cooling (C1) and the other one was Hydro-cooled (C2) at 5 ±1.0 oC before cold room adjusted storing at temperature of 1, 3 and 5 oC and relative humidity of 98 %. The obtained results showed that was a the average 7/8 cooling time of 17.5 min proper cooling time for herbs.The maximum fresh weight losses for Spearmint, Sage and Thyme herb were 15.22, 5.60 and 3.71 g/100g fresh herbs for the samples without pre-cooling stored at temperature of 5 oC. While the minimum fresh weight loss of 11.21, 3.47 and1.55 g/100 g fresh herbs were obtained for the pre-cooled samples stored at temperature of 1 oC for Spearmint, Sage and Thyme herbs respectively. There was no difference found between C1 and C2 and between the three storage temperatures of 1, 3, and 5 oC on chlorophyll ‘a’ an b for all plants under study. For Spearmint, Sage and Thyme, the maximum percentages of the extracted volatile oil were 0.275, 0.279 and 0581 % respectively which obtained for the pre-cooled herbs stored at 1 oC, while the minimum percentages were 0.196, 0.227 and 0.394, respectively were obtained for the non pre-cooled herb stored at 5 oC. The maximum safe storage periods were 20, 25 and 27 days for the pre-cooled herbs stored at 1 oC, while the minimum storage periods of 9, 12 and 15 days were obtained for the non pre-cooled herb stored at 5 oC For Spearmint, Sage and Thyme respectively. From the above mentioned results, the spearmint, Sage and Thyme herbs should bepre-cooled at 5 oC for a period of stored at 1 oC and 98 % RH to increase the storage period, quality of oil, and decrease the fresh weight loss.
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