ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the aforementioned native plants. These herbs are usually incorporated as the essential oil or as a milled form of the dried herb. The chapter provides a brief overview of the current industry practices in terms of storage of the native herbs and recent research findings with regard to packaging conditions and its effect on product quality, most importantly aroma. Herbs and spices have traditionally been traded as dried products. For most of the commonly used herbs and spices, drying, grinding, packaging and storage constitute the most integral steps of the processing protocol. Traditionally, lemon and anise myrtle industry used low-density polyethylene (LDPE) materials for storage, while Tasmanian pepper leaf industry used high-density polyethylene (HDPE) packaging. The major target volatiles monitored in our study were neral and geranial for lemon myrtle, estragole and anethole for anise myrtle and eucalyptol and eugenol for Tasmanian pepper leaves.
