PRODUCTION of local herbal tea can be hampered by insufficient intervention, including lack of promotion regarding the benefits of various tea products.
This is aggravated by absence of established protocols on raw material collection, drying, and brewing.
The availability of processing equipment was also limited – limiting the producers to meet the demand.
In an effort to help the stakeholders, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) funded the production of the needed dehydrator equipment.
DOST-PCAARRD says the newly developed dehydrator machine can efficiently dry herbal tea materials.
It was developed by the Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT U) through the funding support of PCAARRD.
With the equipment, tea producers in the province of Iloilo, like the Ephrathah Farms, can now increase their production capacities from the usual 0.5 kilograms per day (kg/day) to 5 kg/day at a lower energy cost because it uses solar radiation to heat up the air that flows inside the dehydrator.
Ephrathah Farms is a producer of herbal tea in Badiangan, Iloilo, and ISAT U’s partner in testing the equipment.
According to Dr. Renerio S. Mucas of ISAT U, the dehydrator can efficiently dry the fresh leaves of guava, moringa, guyabano, including roselle flower petals.
The system consists of a solar heat catcher which is installed outdoor, and a drying chamber fitted with 12 trays where the leaves can be dried.
The drying process takes place when the heated air flows through the trays containing the leaf samples.
Drying is achieved due to the difference in moisture concentration between the drying air and the air in the vicinity and inside of the crop’s surface.
This process is known as convective heat transfer, and in case of insufficient solar radiation, the dehydrator can utilize a back-up electric heater.
Mucas led the PCAARRD-funded project dubbed “Design and development of a programmable dehydrator machine for herbal tea materials.”
Aside from fabricating the equipment, Mucas and his team completed the phytochemical screening of raw materials and products, optimized the drying protocol of herbal tea materials, and analyzed the shelf-life of processed tea.
For optimum results, herbal tea materials should be dried at 45 degrees Centigrade until the desired moisture content of 8-percent is obtained.
At this point, most of the phenol content and high antioxidant activity of the tea materials is retained.
Meanwhile, patent application for this equipment has already been filed at the Intellectual Property Office under Registration No. 3-2018000623.
A paper titled “Performance evaluation of a programmable dehydrator machine for herbal tea materials” was also published in the International Journal of Engineering Science and Computing in its June 2019 issue.
ISAT U is expected to continue its field testing and promotional activities, and the project team will be providing capability-building assistance to the interested fabricators and adopters.
The development of the equipment and the drying protocol are expected to raise the production of not only dehydrated crops but also fishery products in the region./PN
