## 4 Discussion  
Reversible electroporation can reduce the drying time of Thai basil leaves when used as pretreatment for both convective and vacuum drying (Table 1). The faster drying rate induced by the reversible electroporation and guard cells electroporation was previously reported by [PERSON] et al. [4], where the drying time for basil dried at 50 \({}^{\circ}\)C was reported to be reduced 37% in comparison with the control. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [12], drying basil at 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C, reduced the drying time by 57%. In this investigation, the PEF-treated samples were allowed to rest for 24 h in darkness before drying. In both convective and vacuum drying, the PEF-rested samples had a faster drying time than controls (21-77%). This result can be explained by the stomatal opening caused by guard cell electroporation, which persists during the 24 h resting period, as described by [PERSON] et al. [17]. Under the study conditions, the higher cell and tissue damage caused by vacuum drying in comparison with air drying can be explained by the different mechanisms by which water is removed from the tissue. In convective drying, a constant drying rate occurs as the food's internal moisture migrates outward to the surface at the same mass transportation rate as the moisture evaporation at the food's surface. This allows the internal moisture to remain liquid until the surface moisture has mostly evaporated [16]. As a result, the main damage to the cells may be caused by the heat of the drying process, in which the protective effect of resting may be able to protect the cells at certain levels of dehydration. Vacuum drying, on the other hand, exposes food tissues to a very low vapor pressure, resulting in an extreme vapor pressure difference between the food tissues and the atmosphere, which lowers the boiling point of the moisture in the food tissues [16]. As a result, the internal moisture of food tissues evaporates directly as vapor from the food structure. However, the better preservation of color obtained by vacuum drying (Figure 6) underlines the damaging effect of heating on quality preservation, as it provokes the degradation of chlorophyll (for a review see [PERSON] et al. [22]) Therefore, vacuum dried samples show higher cell damage but better color preservation than air-dried samples. Our results also show that the effect of resting after PEF treatment on protecting the cells upon certain levels of dehydration (Table 2, Figures 3 and 4) is limited to high water activities and could not be seen upon complete dehydration (Figure 4). However, the more intact trichomes present on the PEF-rested samples (Table 3) is remarkable for the effect of reversible permeabilization on these tissue structures. This is a surprising result, as it might be expected that collapse and cell damage would occur at every level of the tissue upon complete dehydration. Our hypothesis is that resting after reversible PEF treatment still exerts a protective effect on the leaf surface, including the trichomes. PEF-induced stress may act as an abiotic stress, inducing metabolic responses capable of protecting cells or tissue structures upon further stress [23; 24; 25], such as in this case of drying. Abiotic stress conditions, such as UV irradiation, have been reported to increase the concentration of polyphenols, including lignin deposition in sharp-headed trichomes [26]. Leaf trichomes play a crucial protective role against several biotic and abiotic plant stress factors [27] as they are directly exposed to the surroundings, often first encountering challenging environmental conditions [28]. Therefore, trichomes can act as a component of physical defense against stress, and their morphology and secretory properties may adapt accordingly.