Drying of Aloe Vera Gel

Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) is a traditional medicinal plant used in food pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. But the Aloe vera gel contains over 98-99% of water and thus it is highly perishable. To evolve a better method of preservation for increasing the shelf life and maintaining the quality of aloe vera gel drying is a good attempt. The art of drying is being practiced since the start of the civilization. There are several methods of drying of materials. Therefore a study was undertaken to investigate osmotic behavior and drying characteristics of aloe vera gel under convective and osmo-convective drying system to obtain a quality product.