The Application of a New Drying Method on the Quality of Voucher Specimen

DOI

10.2991/absr.k.220406.002How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Moisture loss; Non-Woody plants; Woody plants

Abstract

Drying the specimens is one of the crucial steps in plant preservation and the process of making Herbarium voucher specimens. This research was conducted to investigate the effect of the drying method on specimens in the laboratory using the standard method (oven) and drying in the field using a novel method. There are 3 samples used for each drying method and 2 species were chosen which are Canthium horridum and Leptaspis sp. The novel method is made from recycle items and designed based on Forced-air space heaters. The optimum temperature that is suitable for drying the specimens is also determined. After the drying process is carried out, the herbarium voucher specimens are evaluated for durability from bacteria or fungus growth. Drying the specimen involves removing the moisture or the water in the specimen. Specimens collected are randomly picked at Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang (TNJGL). The weight of the specimens is recorded before drying. After drying is completed, the specimens are again weighed to get the final weight. The moisture loss was calculated. The results show that drying in the laboratory using standard method is better. This is because the specimen is well-dried, no fungal growth present, and low fragility. Thus, drying in the laboratory using standard method (oven) is preferred. Some improvements can be made for drying in the field using novel method. In conclusion, it is possible to use the drying method in the field to ensure that the quality of plant specimens is at its best after collection. But some improvements are needed such as in the aspect of uniform drying. This novel method is designed to dry specimen using air and instead of only using heat. In addition, some parts of the specimen are not well-dried using this novel method. Thus, drying in the laboratory using standard method (oven) is recommended.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mohd Amril Ramzi Bin Mohd Rahimi
AU  - Furzani Pa’ee
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/02
TI  - The Application of a New Drying Method on the Quality of Voucher Specimen
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Biological Science (ICBS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 5
EP  - 10
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/absr.k.220406.002
DO  - 10.2991/absr.k.220406.002
ID  - Rahimi2022
ER  -