Abstract
In the flue curing process, the wet bulb temperature is usually controlled at a constant level. To improve the quality of flue cured leaves, we studied the effect of the cyclic change of wet bulb temperature at the yellowing stage of flue curing on physical properties of cured leaves. The wet bulb temperature was automatically controlled between preset high (38℃) and low point (35℃) every one hour cyclically. As a result, the acceleration of the increase in the physical properties of cured leaves were observed. The leaves cured by this method were more or less orange in color, better bodied, and less brittle compared with the leaves produced by conventional curing. However, the leaves cured by this method had a little sharpness and harshness. As to the physical properties, there was decreased in occurrence of flat leaves than that of conventional ones. On the other hand, in case of cyclic curing method, increase of price per kg reached to 2-3% compared with those of conventional ones.