However, the literature is scarce on the drying kinetics of
mint as a whole plant. Muller et al. [11] found that, the drying
of whole mint in greenhouse solar dryer from initial moisture
content of 80% (w.b.) to final moisture content of 10% (w.b.)
took 3 days. Lebert et al. [12] examined the effect of drying con-
ditions (air temperature, humidity and air velocity) on drying
kinetics ofmint, and they concluded that, the drying air temper-
ature was the main factor in controlling the rate of drying. The
effect of the drying temperature schemes on the drying kinetics
of chopped mint in a rotary dryer was investigated by Tarhan
et al. [13]. They found that, the drying durations were decreased
from15 to 18 h for constant temperature profile to 12–15 hwhen
rectangular wave-shaped temperature profiles were used.
As mentioned above, the literature is scarce on the drying
kinetics of the solar drying of mint as a whole plant. Besides,
most previous studies used small amounts in their investiga-
tions. So, this study was carried out to study the drying kinet-
ics of mint as a whole plant using pilot scale solar dryers
considering the effect of solar dryer type (direct and indirect)
and drying air flow mode. In addition, ten mathematical mod-
els were used to fit the drying curves of mint. Finally, the effec-
tive diffusivity of drying of mint was calculated.