Dry Plant leaf samples for DNA extraction - (May/26/2009 )

I will collect leaf samples for DNA extraction but I will not do the extraction immediately.
I have read that, in this case, tissue can be dried after harvesting to allow storage at room temperature and that, to ensure DNA quality, samples should be completely dried within 24 hours of collection.

Does anyone know which is the best method to dry the samples within 24h? Should I use a drying oven (For how long and which temperature? Could this damage DNA?

Or could/should I do it using silica gel? The problem is that, with silica gel i doubt if samples will be dry within 24h

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Bruno

50 degree drying oven should be fine overnight. Otherwise I would try pressing the leaves between blotting paper, as you would for mounting specimens. It is relatively easy to extract DNA from herbarium specimens so you shouldn't have a problem.