After attaining the desired drying air temperature, samples of about 2.5 kg/m2 were loaded onto the drying trays in single layer. The sample tray was removed from the dryer and weighed regularly, initially at intervals of 15 min, then onwards at 30 min intervals. The drying tests were terminated when the weights of the samples got stabilized, which was assumed to be the stage of dynamic equilibrium. All the experiments were carried out at 1 ± 0.1 m/s air velocity. The drying rates were computed from the experimental data and corresponding drying characteristic curves were plotted.