Medicinal And Aromatic Crops: Harvesting, Drying, and Processing [Paperback]

Serdar Oztekin (Editor), Milan Martinov (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1560229756 | ISBN-13: 978-1560229759 | Publication Date: May 23, 2007 | Edition: 1

Make sure your crops are market-ready with the aid of harvest and post-harvest mechanization

Medicinal and Aromatic Crops presents harvest and post-harvest mechanization methods for the profitable production of market-ready medicinal crops. This practical handbook includes photos, detailed figures, and schematic drawings of machines that will help bring existing design ideas to life and inspire new ones for use in harvesting and primary processing. The book also includes general information on medicinal and aromatic plants, current production trends, and “how-to” instructions for improving the production process.

Even though the use of mechanization contributes not only to a marked increase in production, but also enables uniform quality and a decrease in drudgery for everyone involved, there’s a distinct lack of material available of the subject. Medicinal and Aromatic Crops fills in the gap, providing a thorough, comprehensive look at every aspect of the mechanism of growing, harvesting, and processing, including production steps and procedures, safety and quality, plant drying, the use of renewable energy sources, dry processing, extraction, industrial usage, financial analysis, and software usage.

Medicinal and Aromatic Crops examines:

• environmental concerns
  
• manual and semi-mechanized harvesting
  
• transport
  
• the use of solar energy and solid biomass energy
  
• pre- and post-drying processes
  
• plant parts removal
  
• cutting, crushing, and milling
  
• post-drying separation and classification
  
• water and steam distillation
  
• and much more!

Medicinal and Aromatic Crops is an invaluable guide to harvest and post-harvest mechanization for anyone involved in plant production and for agriculture educators and students.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I found the drying and industrial usage chapters extremely valuable and informative in view of their direct application in practice. I was impressed by the convincing review of the economic aspects of agricultural production of Medicinal and Aromatic Crops, as well as their application in cosmetics, perfumery, medicine and other branches, with the help of modern user-friendly software -- Nicolay Mihailov, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, "Angel Kunchev" University of Rousse, Bulgaria

Provides good information and ideas for developers, supported by a good number of schemes and photographs. . . . The book covers a domain not common in literature . . . and is useful for practitioners, engineers, and producers. In fact, not only does it review the know how relative to a variety of medicinal and aromatic crops and related uses, but it provides useful ideas for adapting existing machines or developing new ones for various operations from harvesting to final processing, as well as to support the respective decision making. The sections on harvesting, drying and dry processing are particularly useful for agricultural and mechanical engineers and other related professionals. -- Luis Santos Pereira, PhD, Professor, Institute of Agronomy, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, President, International Commission of Agricultural Engineering, CIGR

The structure of the book is reader friendly and it provides information on a wide range of topics within medicinal and aromatic crops. Especially useful are the comprehensive chapters on Harvesting, Drying and Dry Processing, which give a closer look into a diversity of techniques and procedures and even tips and tricks for growers! This is not only a compilation of knowledge gathered during years of university science work; it is an extensive, useful and applicable guide through the vibrant world of medicinal and aromatic crops -- Peter Schulze Lammers, PhD, Professor of Technology in Crop Farming at the University of Bonn, Germany

Well balanced. . . . Discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of the methods for each production phase are based on the tremendous experience of the authors and provide excellent material to enlighten producers and processors. . . . very impressive. . . . useful recommendations are made on natural, mechanical, and microwave drying, practical approaches to dryer selection, and energy costs, process control, product moisture content control, as well as the use of renewable energy sources including solar energy, and the use of solid biomass. All these are elaborated in an elegant fashion. -- Shlomo Navarro, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Food Science, Agricultural Research Organization, the Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: CRC Press; 1 edition (May 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560229756
• ISBN-13: 978-1560229759
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,774,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)