Dear Sivanathan, I guess the best condition to let your oven working is the temperature around 40 oC with ventilation . Under this condition, the plant will lose essentially water and will maintain safely its chemical constituents. One exception maybe essential oils, that need to be extracted immediately after the plant is collected.

To dry your samples in oven drying is 30-40C to retain its natural values.

30 to 40C with ventilation is the best temperature for the plant sample to retain the natural values

I am also agree with the answer of Ronan, you will loose the essential oil from plant. So, Must dry under Shed and extract immediately .

I would suggest you to perform shade drying as far as possible because heat application will lead to a certain loss of thermolabile constituents like essential oils. You can easily smell the vapors after a gentle heating also (30-40 C). Pl refrain from oven heat as far as possible.

If your plant does not contain essential oils, then you can apply oven heating at the temperatures suggested. But here also I would suggest you to perform sun drying which is the most natural and acceptable way of drying a crude drug. Yes you have to keep an eye over the exposure time depending upon the intensity of the sunlight.

I have once screen the metabolites composition of dried and fresh plants by HRMS. It was quite different in composition. So for searching new compound, fresh plant is better although U will have the difficulty in solvent evaporation step.

You should go for shade drying as far as possible. Because shade drying will retain all the chemical component of the plant and the volatile oil present in it. Secondly if you want to go for oven dry, you should be aware to how long the time for drying should be. The temperature range depends up on the nature of plants. If you drying some harder part of the plants such as root, stem etc. you need higher temperature and more time, if you are drying some softer part of the plant, you need lower range of the temperature and too less time.

It is always better to go for shade drying rather than oven drying. But in some samples even if you keep the sample spread in shade for days, it will not dry. Then we have to go for oven drying. Over night oven drying at 40 to 45 degrees will solve the issue

An ideal temperature would be 35 to 45 degrees centigrate

Temperature not exceeding 40 degrees centigrade with air circulation is good for drying a plant material in an oven. However, drying temperature depends on the purpose for which you are going to use the material after drying.

Plant materials should be air dried in shaded area free from dampness. Further drying mode depends on type of plant material and compounds it contained. Soft parts like leaves, flowers, etc should always be dried in shade. Essential oil bearing plant materials should also be dried in shade under normal conditions without applying extra heat. However, in case of plant materials like wood, bark, etc and in moist/humid seasons when shade drying takes so many days, hot air oven drying can be opted at temperature not exceeding 35-40 0C with careful monitoring at frequent intervals.

reference please support this temperature range of 30-40 C?????

Can anyone from this conversation thread lead me to any reference on using 40 centigrade for one day recommendation.

Dear I agree with all the above suggestion and you better go to soil and plant laboratory centers for better practical understanding.

Best Wishes!

It depends on your purpose. According to van Laar and Akça (2007):

The estimation of biomass components in relation to tree size requires that they are oven-dried separately. The drying temperature is normally around 70◦ C, but in Pinus radiata, Forrest (1968) recorded a 2% weight loss by increasing the temperature from 70◦ C to 105◦ C. In Picea mariana a weight loss of 3% was observed by increasing the drying temperature from 65◦ C to 103◦ C (Barney et al. 1978).

According to: Müller, J., Heindl, A., 2006. CHAPTER 17 DRYING OF MEDICINAL PLANTS, optimal temperature for medicinal plants between 30 and 50°C

40- 50 C under vacuum .

I recommend drying temperature range of 45 to 55 centigrade (depending on the plant's part)