Huma, the deterioration of the fleshy tissue is possible, but it all depends on the particular analyte you are trying to isolate from the material. In Hawai'i aloe is used for a multitude of purposes from dermatological ailments to gastrointestinal conditions. The many processes of extraction is what helps to bring to light the proper phytocompounds. Shade drying, or curing of plant material can cause decomposition, but usually if proper care and observation is taken you are able to determine the half-life of your drying process. One thing that was a great help for me starting out was sampling analyses for various phases of drying and solvent extraction. A wet process may also be undertook as mentioned previously where you skip drying/dehydration and continue with your extraction process and complete with a vacuum filtration process and/or drying, but I find that, in the case of orchids, sometimes it is better to skip drying and prepare slurry solutions then vacuum filter via fine sieves in a duplicate or triplicate manner to rid of a limited amount of solvent or diluent and any moisture or additional fleshy tissue. If you are concerned about the loss of analyte in question, I would recommend not drying the material before or after and using water or other complementary diluent as a solvent or no solvent prior to filtration. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and make mistakes, as errors are the predecessor of scientific discovery. Now, another technique you may undertake for drying would be to use an agitating steam bath to evaporate some of the fleshy material under low heat, but this, like all drying techniques, may lead to the destruction of vacuoles and their associated compounds stored for use; alcohols, acetonitrile, ethanol, etc. are also great for evaporating water based moisture in tissue, but this will also disassociate chemical bonds. I would like to also apologize that I am unable to link any related research for extraction techniques as I am out of the country until mid-August.

Jason

May be this will be helpful, I have also attached the file ,you may please download

http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/dna/dnaen.htm#2.1

Thanks for your answer but I am dealing with extraction of secondary metabolites in plant tissues not the DNA or Enzymes. The main theme of my question is  'how can someone dry Aloe vera leaves before their grinding' as pulpy material will got perish instead of drying. The highlighted text in attachment may clear the concept. 

Freeze-drying is the method of choice for plant preparation for secondary metabolite extraction. Much better than drying at room temp or in a ventilated oven, as it avoids both enzyme activilty an dinteraction with macromolecules. The freeze-dryed material if kept dry is generally easy to grind.

In my opinion you should not dry the fleshy plant material it self, you should extract the fresh material and then should dry the extract under vacuum or controlled condition. If you will dry the material under shade it will get detoriated.

"Fleshy" and "pulpy" refer to different kinds of tissue.  The 'fleshy' part of Aloe is mucilaginous tissue and non-woody stored in the mesophyll of leaves.  This non-photosynthetic tissue is protected from dessication by epidermal tissue.  This tissue appears to have a thick cuticle (unconfirmed, but a reasonable assumption).  "Pulpy" usually refers to woody tissue -- either xylem (as in forest 'pulp' for paper production) or internal parenchyma that breaks down and creates holes in stem tissue (as in the hollow stems of elderberry shrubs).

Check this thread for diverse drying methods

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_drying_methods_are_practiced_to_dry_plant_biomass_of_spices_agricultural_horticultural_medicinal_and_aromatic_plants

Aloha, much of my research involves botanical studies where many extractions are produced and analyzed or processes into nutraceutical products. In using pulpy type botanical leaf and stem tissues, I would recommend the following process: Initially dry the plant appendage either by shade drying or a low isotemp drying. Next you will want to either macerate, grind, or blend your material until is completely a slur. If you plan on adding a organic solvent to extract potential compounds it may be done either one of many ways. One would be to add your solvent and then to thoroughly homogenize your solution, then to vacuum filter via fine screen sieve to that you may have a fine slur; the same technique may also be used without solvent to reduce the amount of pulp. If you need more information or have greater inquiry please feel free to ask. Good luck!

Jason

Dear Mr. Patrick

As indicated above by Hariprasad Paikrao, shade drying will deteriorate the fleshy plant part....what's your suggestion in this regard? HAve you any research paper that describes use of any such fleshy plant material for bio activity analysis?

Huma, the deterioration of the fleshy tissue is possible, but it all depends on the particular analyte you are trying to isolate from the material. In Hawai'i aloe is used for a multitude of purposes from dermatological ailments to gastrointestinal conditions. The many processes of extraction is what helps to bring to light the proper phytocompounds. Shade drying, or curing of plant material can cause decomposition, but usually if proper care and observation is taken you are able to determine the half-life of your drying process. One thing that was a great help for me starting out was sampling analyses for various phases of drying and solvent extraction. A wet process may also be undertook as mentioned previously where you skip drying/dehydration and continue with your extraction process and complete with a vacuum filtration process and/or drying, but I find that, in the case of orchids, sometimes it is better to skip drying and prepare slurry solutions then vacuum filter via fine sieves in a duplicate or triplicate manner to rid of a limited amount of solvent or diluent and any moisture or additional fleshy tissue. If you are concerned about the loss of analyte in question, I would recommend not drying the material before or after and using water or other complementary diluent as a solvent or no solvent prior to filtration. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and make mistakes, as errors are the predecessor of scientific discovery. Now, another technique you may undertake for drying would be to use an agitating steam bath to evaporate some of the fleshy material under low heat, but this, like all drying techniques, may lead to the destruction of vacuoles and their associated compounds stored for use; alcohols, acetonitrile, ethanol, etc. are also great for evaporating water based moisture in tissue, but this will also disassociate chemical bonds. I would like to also apologize that I am unable to link any related research for extraction techniques as I am out of the country until mid-August.

Jason