The antioxidant properties of medicinal plants have been at the center of research for their use as preservatives
or nutraceuticals by the food industry; additionally, to obtain quality products at a minimum
cost and maximum yield, through optimal operating parameters, is a challenge for the food industry.
The aims of this work was to effect operating conditions drying process on antioxidant capacity of the
thyme and optimize the drying process creating a process management system to formulate and solve an
optimization problem. The thyme drying process was analyzed under different drying air temperatures
(T) (40–80 ◦C) and drying air velocity (V) (1–2 m/s). The essential oil was extracted by applying a supercritical
fluid extraction method (35 ◦C, 35
×
103 kPa). To formulate and solve the optimization problem,
artificial neural networks were developed. The optimum value of the optimization problem depend of
the constraints established, shorting the drying time to research the final moisture content fixed.