Abstract:

Modified atmosphere drying of Flos lonicerae was conducted. Nitrogen gas was flushed into the dryer to adjust
oxygen content. The results showed that the increase in drying temperature and the decrease in oxygen content could shorten
the drying time. Drying curves were fitted based on Weibull distribution function. The ranges of coefficient of determination,
mean bias error and root mean square error were 0.992 5–0.999 6, 0.001 3–0.007 4 and 0.003 8–0.017 5, respectively. The
scale parameter decreased obviously with increasing drying temperature but decreased slightly with decreasing oxygen
content. The shape parameter was slightly over 1. Moisture diffusive coefficient increased with an increase in drying
temperature and a decrease in oxygen content, and chlorogenic acid content increased with a decreases in drying temperature
and oxygen content. Therefore, the Weibull distribution function could simulate the moisture ratio kinetics of the modified
atmosphere drying of Flos lonicerae with high fitting precision and the modified atmosphere drying method could improve
the quality of Flos linicerae significantly.

Key words: modified atmosphere drying, Flos lonicerae, Weibull distribution function