Title Pending 9825

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This experiment examined the impact of three drying methods: microwave, oven drying, and a low-temperature freezer dehydration method, on the retention of polyphenols and flavonoids in leaf extracts of Ocimum basilicum L. Six extracts, each prepared using ethanol, were tested for the presence of polyphenols using FeCl₃ and flavonoids using AlCl₃ reagents. The loss of color intensity was measured using HEX and RGB values, enabling a direct comparison of the compound retention across the drying methods One-way ANOVA identified significant differences among the groups (p < 0.05), indicating that the low-temperature freezer dehydration method retained the most bioactive compounds, the least being retained by oven drying, and the middle level being retained by the microwave drying method. This study emphasizes the significance of the drying method in phytochemical retention and serves as an exploratory model for small laboratories and mass nutraceutical production.