Abstract:To investigate the effects of different drying methods on the quality of Astragalus membranaceus，fresh Astragalus membranaceus was used as raw material. The effects of hot air drying，heat pump drying，medium-short wave infrared drying，infrared combined heat pump drying，vacuum freeze-drying，and vacuum pulse drying on the sensory quality（color and rehydration ratio），edible quality（flavour and hardness），and functional quality （astragaloside IV content，calycosin glucoside content，and polysaccharide content） of Astragalus membranaceus were evaluated. Principal component analysis was used to determine the optimal drying method. The results showed that Astragalus membranaceus dried by heat pump had the lowest color difference value（ΔE=76.83） and the highest polysaccharide content （14.2%）；the rehydration ratio of vacuum freezedried samples was the highest（3.06%），with significant difference compared to other groups （P＜0.05）. The samples dried by infrared combined heat pump had the highest hardness （3.11 N） and the highest calycosin glucoside content （0.110%），both significantly different from other groups （P＜0.05）. The astragaloside IV content was the highest （1.11%） in the vacuum freeze-dried sample. The comprehensive score of the dried Astragalus membranaceus samples ranked from high to low as follows：vacuum freeze-drying＞infrared combined heat pump drying＞medium-short wave infrared combined hot air drying＞hot air drying＞vacuum pulse drying＞heat pump drying. In conclusion，infrared combined heat pump drying was a more suitable method for processing Astragalus membranaceus.