## 1 Introduction  
A pulsed electric field (PEF) has been used as pretreatment to increase the rate of mass transfer during drying of foodstuffs such as vegetables, meat, fruit, and herbs [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11]. However, the majority of these PEF applications were designed to cause irreversible electroporation of cells, which would greatly increase mass transfer but result in numerous changes in food quality, including aroma, color, and texture [4]. Irreversibly electroporated sweet basil leaves appear to lose their aroma and color significantly when compared to untreated and reversibly electroporated samples upon drying in air at 50 \({}^{\circ}\)C [4].  
By inducing electroporation on guard cells of the stomata and, at the same time, keep the rest of the cells viable, reversible electroporation could be used to improve the drying of plant leaves [4]. The electroporated guard cells cause long-term stomatal opening, which aids in the drying process [12]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [12] evaluated the effects of reversible electroporation on the structure, rehydration capacity, color, and sensory quality of basil leaves dried using convective drying at 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C, vacuum drying, and freeze-drying. The authors found that reversible electroporation causing stomatal opening of sweet basil leaves reduced the drying time in all studied drying methods, and PEF resulted in better preservation of the leaf structure when used prior to convective and vacuum drying, as compared to the untreated control. In a previous paper, [PERSON] et al. [13] reported that reversible electroporation followed by resting (storage under saturated moisture at 21 \(\pm\) 2 \({}^{\circ}\)C) allows survival of cells in Thai basil leaves at certain levels of dehydration (aw \(>\) 0.6). Resting after PEF and prior to drying allowed the cells to establish protective mechanisms in response to the temporary loss of metabolic homeostasis caused by the electroporation process. Maintenance of cell integrity after rehydration would allow keeping the fresh characteristics of the product.  
Structural integrity of the epidermal and cuticle layers of herbs may be an important aspect for the preservation of aromatic volatile compounds during drying, mainly regarding the integrity of trichomes that produce and accumulate terpenoid oils [14]. The integrity of the trichomes is strongly influenced by the drying conditions and the drying method in lemon verbena [15]. In basil, vacuum drying resulted in a better preservation of the integrity of trichomes than hot air drying at 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C [12]. Vacuum drying is suitable for heat-sensitive food materials [16], having the advantage of low drying temperatures and time, improving the preservation of color [16].  
In the present investigation, the advantages of reversible permeabilization and post-electroporation resting documented by [PERSON] et al. [17] at MR of 0.2 and 0.1 on cell preservation were tested for complete dehydration (aw = 0.05) using both air drying at 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C and vacuum drying at room temperature. High-resolution optical microscopy with digital 3D surface reconstruction was used as a non-invasive and non-destructive method for evaluating the integrity of trichomes in the leaves after dehydration and rehydration. Non-destructive methods are especially relevant when trichome damage is the investigation's primary goal. Other strategies for trichome evaluation such as chemical fixation, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy require extensive sample preparation processes, which may significantly affect the trichomes [18]. We aim at comparing the properties of the dried and rehydrated products using reversible PEF and resting prior to dehydration.