A study on dehydration of Houttunia cordata leaves and retention of its quality characteristics during storage.

Dehydration is a simple and useful technique for preservation of perishable foods such as green leafy vegetables. Houttuniya cordata Thunb. is an ethnobotanically important plant of North eastern region of India. The leaves of Houttuniya cordata are used as vegetables either cooked or raw. It posses various pharmacological functions and is also rich in micronutrients. The present study is aimed to increase the shelf life of this leafy vegetable and thus increasing the consumption to reduce micronutrient deficiencies. Four methods of drying was applied where cabinet and microwave drying resulted in retaining more quality parameters than sun drying and shade drying methods. The rate of drying was faster in microwave drying. The storage study by using two types of packaging materials i.e. HDPE and PP pouches revealed that HDPE packed greens showed better retention in quality parameters such as rehydration ratio, retention of pigments than PP pouches. Hence dehydrated Houttuniya cordata leaves by using microwave or cabinet drying techniques can be stored upto 6 months by using HDPE pouches.