Abstract
True lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) is a widely used flavoring and medicinal plant, which strong aroma is mainly composed of linalool and linalyl acetate. The most valuable parts of the plant are the flowers, however leaves are also abundant in volatile constituents. One of the main factors responsible for its quality is the preservation procedure, which usually comes down to a drying process. For this reason an attempt to verify the influence of various drying methods (convective drying, vacuum-microwave drying and combined convection pre-drying with vacuum-microwave finishing drying) on the quality of true lavender leaves was carried out by determination of the volatile constituents profile by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with GC-MS technique. Total essential oil (EO) content was also verified. The study has revealed that the optimal drying method is strongly dependent on the purpose of the product. For flavoring properties convective drying at 60 °C is the most optimal method, while the best for preserving the highest amount of EO is vacuum-microwave drying at 480 W. Furthermore, SPME analysis had shown that drying may increase the value of true lavender leaves by significantly affecting the linalool to linalyl acetate to camphor ratio in the volatile profile.
Highlights
Lavandula angustifolia Mill.—the true lavender—is a essential oil-bearing plant known worldwide, which history of usage starts in Greek and Roman times and last up to this day
The entire genus belongs to the large Lamiacae family, which is mostly native to the Mediterranean region, true lavender is a commonly growing plant in England, Europe, North America and Australia
Tests conducted in this study proved that the best fitting was obtained for the modified Page model: moisture ratio (MR) = A exp(−kτ n )
Summary
Lavandula angustifolia Mill. ( named Lavandula officinalis Chaix)—the true lavender—is a essential oil-bearing plant known worldwide, which history of usage starts in Greek and Roman times and last up to this day. ( named Lavandula officinalis Chaix)—the true lavender—is a essential oil-bearing plant known worldwide, which history of usage starts in Greek and Roman times and last up to this day. The most valuable part of the plant are flowers due to their much higher essential oil content than leaves, and a favorable linalool to linalyl aceate to camphor ratio [1]. The essential oil obtained from lavender is an interesting object for trials considering biological activity and even in medicinal trials. Some studies and overviews from recent years mention the anti-aging, analgesic, nuroprotective, sedative or anticancer activities of lavender essential oil [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
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