Dear Said

Thank you so much for your response. Would it be better to place air-dried samples along with Silica gel in paper bags or would plastic bags work as well?

Thanks again!

Vani

Dear Vani,

I know that it is possible to dry the plants at 60ºC (but the temperature always depends of kind of plant) recovering them with a filter paper. However, if you can not  do it, the option of using air to dry the plants with Silica gel in paper bags or plastic bags is a good solution as well.

Good luck!

Bea

Thanks Bea!

Dear Vani,

If you incline to use desiccant:

1. You can use Desiccants such as those suggested by Said. In our Institute, we use one of the desiccants called DRIERITE (see attached picture). The material, when dry, it is in blue color, when saturated/wet, turns into pink. It is easy to tell. And you can re-use them (for saving money). See the descriptions of this product:

"(1) DRIERITE is anhydrous calcium sulfate desiccant which turns from blue to pink when saturated. (2) DRIERITE indicating desiccant can be easily be regenerated repeatedly for re-use by simply heating in an oven. (3) Re-dried desiccant is ready for use when the materials turns back from pink to blue."

2. Try to use a desiccator (see attached picture). In the picture, you can see the 'blue materials' are in the bottom of the desiccator. And you can place your plant materials in a bag (not sealed) and put them in the desiccator. Cover the lid of the desiccator tightly (no leaking).

3. If you don't have a desiccator, place your plant materials inside a sealed plastic bag/container with desiccant such as DRIRITE. Not to use a paper bag, the humid air can come in and out of the paper bag freely, which will diminish the function or effectiveness of the desiccant inside.

Good luck,

Dear Yuan

Thank you for your detailed and very helpful response. From all the suggestions I've received here, I think using Silica Gel (with colour indicator) seems like the best option to dry plant samples. A few follow up questions in this regard -

Thanks again for the helpful suggestions and inputs!

Vani