Each herb was divided into five batches. One was immediately
used for extraction to measure the antioxidant capacity of the fresh
herbs. Another batch was kept at 20 C for analyzing the effect of
storage on fresh herbs every 15 days until 60 days, in comparison
to the dried herbs. The remaining batches were dried using one
of the following drying methods: (a) drying at ambient temperature
in a dark, well-ventilated room for 3 weeks (mean temperature
14 C; mean relative humidity 10%); (b) drying in a vacuum
oven (Gallenkamp, UK) at 70 C for 16 h in the vacuum of
600 mbar; (c) freeze-drying in a frozen in time limited freeze-drier,
model no. A 6/14 at a temperature of 54 C and a pressure of
0.064 mbar for 72 h. All the dried samples, like the fresh ones, were
analysed immediately (day 0), vacuum-packed and kept at 20 C
for analysing the effect of storage after drying every 15 days until
60 days. The film (75 lm thickness) of the vacuum pack pouches
(Allfo vakuumverpackungen Hans Bresele KG, Germany) were
composed of a mixture of polyamide (PA) and polyethylene (PE)
with an oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability rate of 60
cm3/m2/24 h/atom and 180 cm3/m2/24 h/atom, respectively
(23 C, 75% RH). The water vapour permeabi