Fatemeh Nadi - Young Researchers and Elite Club, Azadshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azadshahr, Iran
Khodayar Hemmati - Department of Horticulture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.

Iranian GoleGavZaban (Echium amoenum fich&mey) is a perennial endemic Iranian medicinal plant belongs to Boraginaceae family and naturally grown in northern mountainous of Iran. The violet dry petals have been used as medicinal purposes in folk Iranian medicine. The drying kinetics of Echium amoenum in a fluidized-bed dryer investigated. The changes in the mass as a function of drying time were measured under various drying conditions. Experiments were conducted using air velocities of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 m/s, at temperature of 40 ˚C and 50 ˚C. The effects of air velocity of fluidized-bed dryer on effective diffusivity coefficient were studied by multiple regression analysis. In the ranges covered, the values of the effective moisture diffusivity, Deff, were obtained between 1.4×10-10 and 1.029×10-9.

E. amoenum petals, Effective Moisture Diffusivity, fluidized-bed dryer, Air Velocity