Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 4
Written by Nermeen Mohammed TOLBA, Ahmed Mohammed ElTARAWY

Rosemary plants are regarded as one of Egypt's most valuable medicinal and aromatic herbs because they are used in a variety of food and medical industries. Because of medicinal and aromatic herbs are quickly affected by temperatures, the initial cooling process procedure is an essential stage in the treatment of these herbs. This process is carried out immediately after harvesting plants to remove the field heat and reduce microbial activity. Also, it keeps the final product fresh for a long period. Here, we investigated the influence of Hydro-cooling, packaging materials and storage temperatures on the quality and active components for rosemary plants. The plants were immersed in a mixture of ice and water at 5°C for 10 min and stored in two various bags (polyethylene – polyvinyl chloride shrink at 5 and 23°C. The quality of rosemary plants such as fresh weight loss, chlorophyll content, respiration rate, volatile oil percentage and its compounds were measured. The obtained data showed that Hydro-cooling, packing in polyethylene bags and storage at 5°C were the most suitable treatments when compared to the other treatments, as notified by the values of fresh weight loss, chlorophyll content, respiration rate, volatile oil % and its compounds. Hydro-cooling and storage at 5°C decelerated leaf water loss, reduced respiration rate, and increased oil content, thus increasing the shelf life of rosemary plants by up to 28 days.

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