KASHYAP, BHARATISANGEETA, KUMARI2016-11-222016-11-22201548342http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/87061ABSTRACT The present investigations entitled, “Studies on drying and dyeing of Gomphrena globosa L. for value - addition” was carried out at the experimental laboratory of Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan (H.P) during March, 2014 – December, 2014. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (Factorial) with four experiments. First experiment was on drying of Gomphrena globosa ‘Magenta’(GGM) and Gomphrena globosa ‘White’ (GGW) in hot air oven, where four drying media viz., silica gel, mixture of sand and silica gel, borax and mixture of sand and borax were used for drying at 500C, 550C and 600C temperature for 24, 48 and 72 hours. In second experiment, both GGM and GGW were dried in silica gel and mixture of sand and silica gel for 3, 4 and 5 minutes in microwave oven with 24, 48 and 72 hours setting duration. In third experiment, dyeing of GGW with food, fabric, organic and indicator dyes was performed. In fourth experiment, keeping quality of both dried as well as dyed flowers were evaluated up to 120 days of storage in three different conditions of storage i. e. under open conditions without any covering, cellophane coverings and newspaper coverings. In case of quality parameters in microwave oven drying maximum score (19.20) out of a total of 20 was obtained by the flowers embedded in silica gel and kept for 3 minutes with 72 hours setting time in GGM and in case of GGW maximum score (18.60) was obtained when flowers embedded in silica gel and dried for 3 minutes and kept for 24 hours setting time. Amongst the four different categories of dyes used for the dyeing of GGW, fabric dye was found to be the best followed by indicator, food and organic dyes. Yellow fabric dyes was found to be suitable based on different quality parameters. Indicator dyes like Crystal Violet and Eosin Yellow was found to be suitable with the addition of mordants. Maximum score (7.93) and (7.40) out of a total of 10 was allotted to the GGM and GGW which were dried in microwave oven and were kept covered with newspaper and observed after 120 days of storage duration followed by cellophane sheets covering compared to open conditions. Hence, it was concluded for aesthetic quality and for longer presentability flowers should be dried after embedding in silica gel in microwave for 3 minutes with 72 hours setting durations. Dyeing of flowers with fabric dye was found to be best in terms of both qualities as well as for maximum presentability and dried and dyed flowers of Gomphrena globosa L. can be stored up to 120 days in newspaper coverings.enThesis