International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology ISSN (Online):2278-5299

Volume 4, Issue 4: Page No.141-144, July-August 2015

http://www.mnkjournals.com/ijlrst.htm

TO STUDY THE BEHAVIOUR OF COLOUR

CHANGE IN SOME DEHYDRATED
ORNAMENTAL FLOWERS
Atul Batra
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226001, India
Email: batul3@rediffmail.com

Abstract-Beauty of fresh flower always attract the mankind from dawn of civilization. It may because of the attractive, charmness of
flower which is mainly due to the colour of flower. The scope of utility and importance of flower have been realized throughout the world.
Dehydration technique has enabled to preserve certain flowers and foliages in such a way that their fresh look appearance is maintained
for several months or even years until in natural processing of drying will fade the flower colour. Dried and preserved plant materials are
increasingly popular for home décor. Colour of dried flower should be maintained is a very difficult task and important issue for best
production of value added product. Aesthetic value of various artistic arrangements depends on the colour intensity of dried flower. Colour
plays an important role, affected slightly or in negligible amount in dehydration. For a best value addition it is necessary to know the
suitability of technique. The present paper concerned with the change in the behaviour of different colour of flower during dehydration.
The results of this study clearly indicate that behaviour of flower colour after dehydration was not only dependent on the specific category
of colour but also it may be internal and ultra structural, factors too.

Keywords: Aesthetic, Dehydration, Dried, Value added

I. INTRODUCTION
Flower is one of the beautiful creations of God having an
excellent potential for commercial purpose. The reason to
love flowers is probably due to their vivid range of colours.
None the less, a wide range of spectrum of colour are
available in annual flowers, particularly crimson red,
orange, dark pink, yellow, blue, purple, etc. (Bassapa et al.
1991).
To enhance the value of coloured flowers, the dehydration
techniques are commonly in practice. Drying of the flowers
or floral parts are the most common and fundamental
method for post-harvest preservation of plants, as it allows
for the quick conservation of the qualities of the plant
material in an uncomplicated manner. Drying is actually the
decreasing of the moisture content and preserving the
product for extended shelf life (Muller et al. 2006). Floral
dehydration technique provides to preserve the bounty and
colour of fresh flowers. Many researchers have described
various approaches or methods to dehydrate flowers and
their ornamental plants (Bhutani 1995, Dubois & Joyce
1989, Westland 1995). The art of drying gives an
opportunity to the fresh flower to be freed from the bondage
of season and to be used their beauty and colour for pleasure
or for profit (Kher and Bhutani 1979). Dried and preserved
flowers and plant materials may be used in the form of
artistic expressions.
The colour of fresh flowers is an important factor to
obtain good aesthetic quality of dried flower. The faded
colour appear usually in natural drying processes, which
decreases the market value of decorative products but when
they went through the embedding process of dehydration,
the artifacts in them may be rectified successfully. Plants
shows huge diversity and shades in their flower colour, to
describe them the Munsell system is commonly under
practice (Leonard and Perry 2001). The basic parameter of
this system is the hue which concerns with major colour,
value with the brightness of the colour and chroma with the
degree of saturation of colour. The chart which can identify
the flower colours is provided with numbers instead of their
definitive names (RHS England, 1963).
in the present study, plants from different families were
chosen and categorized on the basis of their colour. Some of
the flowers showed outstanding results after dehydration but
unlike some show negligible changes in their colour
intensity and aesthetic value. To find out the changes in the
behaviour of various flowers during processing of
dehydration, the present study has been framed as the data
available on this aspect is also very scanty.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The studies were conducted at the experimental field of
Botanic Garden of CSIR- National Botanical Research
Institute, Lucknow. Fresh flowers of 10 genera viz
Centaurea cyanus L. (Asteraceae), Viola tricolor L.
(Violaceae), Echium vulgare L. (Boraginaceae), Delphinium
sp. L. (Ranunculaceae), Nymphaea caerulea Sav.
(Nymphaeaceae), Gladiolus L.(Iridaceae), Chrysanthemum
(Asteraceae), Tagetes erecta L. (Asteraceae), Lineria
purpurea (Scrophulariaceae), Bougainvillea sp. Comm. ex
Juss.(Nyctaginaceae), etc. were collected from the
experimental field in the late morning hours between 10:00-
11:00 am to avoid dew drops on the plant surface. The
colour, texture and weight of each flower were taken. The
colour of fresh flower was recorded using the RHS colour

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chart developed by the ‘Royal Horticulture Society London’
in association with the Flower Council of Holland (1963) for
describing the colour of flowers. The texture of flowers was
observed thigmotrophically. All the data were recorded
immediately after harvest. The samples were embedded in
silica gel (60-120 mesh) using as dehydrating agent. For
this, fresh flowers were kept in earthen pot in upright
position which was half filled with desiccants and with the
support of wall of earthen pot more amount of desiccants
were added and totally covered the sample. The samples
were finally dried by keeping these pots in a thermo-
controlled electrically operated hot air oven, at 460C and Figure 1 .1: Effect of dehydration on blue coloured flower
recorded its weight till constant and the samples were Abbreviation used: Co-Corn Flower (Centaurea cyanus L.),
completely dry. In support of our findings that the material Pa-Pansy (Viola tricolor L.), Ec- Echium (Echium vulgare L.),
has been dried properly, the moisture content (Table-1) was De- Delphinium (Delphinium sp. L.), Ny-Nymphea
also calculated by using the formula Safeena (2005), (Nymphaea caerulea Sav.)

Moisture content = Fresh wt. – Dry wt. (in grams) X 100

Fresh wt.

When the samples were completely dried, texture of floral

petals became papery in touch, immediately they were
picked, cleaned and remaining desiccant was finally
removed with the help of a fine hair brush. On the basis of
the availability, yellow, blue and purple coloured flowers
were selected for the study. Quality parameters were
assessed by means of sensory evaluation and the
experimental data of colour change in flowers (when they
had under gone through dehydration process), was observed
and marked (Table-1).
Figure 1.2: Effect of dehydration on purple coloured flower
Abbreviation used: Li-Lineria (Lineria purpurea,Bo-
Table: 1. Change in the flower colours after dehydration
Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea Comm. ex Juss.)

Figure 1.3: Effect of dehydration on yellow coloured flower

Abbreviation used: Gla-Gladiolus (Gladiolus) L., Chr-
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum), Ta-Tagetus (Tagetes
erecta) L.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Using silica gel as a dehydrating agent, at 460C, with
*Colour (F) : Fresh duration of 30-120 h, the floral petals became papery in
**Colour (D) : Dried touch indicated the completion of dehydration process. The
duration from 24 to 130 h at constant temperature of 460C
was important because in between, the samples did not show
colour discoloration and were easy to handle, as in
Delphinium, Echium, Iberis, Bellis, etc. (Mishra et al.,
2014). Champox (1999) has reported silica gel as the best
medium for getting excellent dried flowers that retained
colour and shape as in support of our observation. The
aesthetic qualities of dried flowers depend on the colour

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change or their colour retention capacity during the process
of dehydration.
The plants identified for this study were categorized on
the basis of their freshness of the flower colour into blue,
yellow and purple. Although the colors observed visibly, are
the results of the reflected light from various plant pigments
(Leonard and Perry 2001) and pink, red, blue and purple
colour is due to the presence of anthocyanin pigment while
yellow colour is due to presence of the carotenoid pigment
in them. Jean and Lesley (1982) has reported that some of
flowers lose their ornamental value after drying and turned
into dark brown due to degradation of pigment and they
were not suitable for future use. The first category was the
blue colored flowers, which included Centaurea cyanus L.,
Pansy (Viola tricolor L.), Echium (Echium vulgare L.),
Delphinium (Delphinium sp. L.), Nymphea (Nymphaea
caerulea Sav.). The colour of Centaurea cyanus L., and
Viola tricolor L. was recorded Violet Blue Group 98A Fan 2
and Blue Group 103A Fan 2 colours, respectively with RHS
colour chart and after dehydration no change in colour was
noticed when dried at 460C. According to Maghsodi et al.
(2012) higher temperatures dehydration consume lesser time
and the byproduct produced is of poor quality. Violet Blue
Group 96C Fan 2 was the colour of fresh Echium and a
slight change in colour was recorded i.e. Violet Blue 98AF2.
Interestingly, both flowers had blue colour but only
Centaneura and Viola retained their colour as original and
the Echium showed a slight shifting from its original shade.
Delphinium and Nymphea showed a negligible difference
yet their colour was slightly altered. As reported in the
database of Fairchild Tropical Garden Herbarium (2007)
that most of the red and blue colour flowers have a form of
the pigment, anthocyanin, dissolved in the vacuoles of the
epidermal cells of the petal. The sample of Gladiolus and
Tagetes show very slight changes in the petal of the flowers
while the petals of Chrysanthemum shows no change. The
colour of many yellow and orange flowers was derived from
carotenoid pigments present within the tiny plastids of the
epidermal cells and deep within the petal surface (Fairchild
Tropical Garden Herbarium). Kher and Bhutani (1979)
reported that white, red and blue coloured flowers were
darken considerably specially at high temperature but yellow
colour flower does not change their colour. According to
Rogers (1988), the flowers of chrysanthemum, pansy, and
marigold responded well to the drying technique applied to
them. The colour of fresh Chrysanthemum flowers was
Yellow Group 12A Fan 1 and after drying and it retains the
original colour. In Marigold predominant yellow colour was
produced by the accumulation of carotenoid pigment (water
insoluble) located in chromoplast. The flower colour of
Lineria was purple (Purple Group 77A Fan-2) when it was
in fresh conditions and after drying the colour was slightly
changed with maintained range of purple while in
Bougainvillea, the colour was not much affected neither in
fresh condition nor after drying. Singh et al. (2002) observed
that excessive drying might be the other reason to result
faded colour and reduces the quality and also causes petal
shedding during handling. Pertuit (2002) reported that blue
and yellow flowers retained their colour when air dried but
pink flowers showed fadedness in some plants.
During drying process, some general observations
regarding the colour change was also reported by White et
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al. (2003) where they were reported that the pink colour
changes into red, red turns dark purple or bluish, pure blue
acquire a lavender or purplish colour while magenta turns to
lavender. It was a constant factor that yellow and orange
colours were usually well preserved and intensified well.
In all, the three colours which are included in this study
indicated that colour retention capacity was not dependent
on type of factor. The plotted graph (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) clearly
show that same type of coloured flowers produce different
results after drying. It may be concluded that the behavior of
flower colour after dehydration was not dependent only on
the category of colour; there may be internal and ultra
structural, factors too.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
The author is gratefully acknowledging the Director,
CSIR-NBRI,Lucknow for providing all the facilities and
extending his support to complete this work.
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