The drying of pumpkinseeds was investigated in the present study. Pumpkinseed has a thin liquid film on its surface and has rough-surfaced peel. The most important parameter affecting its drying kinetics and increasing the drying rate is the temperature of the drying air. Drying was carried out with the surrounding air first at ambient temperature, and secondly an experimental rig was built to increase air temperature by using solar energy. A single layer of the pumpkinseed was dried in two different ways by free and forced convection. In these methods, pumpkinseeds were either placed in the tray exposed to the natural environment or placed in sieves on the experimental rig. The drying curves and variation of drying rate curves obtained were dependent on product moisture content. The drying air velocity can take moisture until saturation has a secondary effect on the moisture transfer. In the analysis, pumpkinseed was considered like a measurable rectangular prism. Fick's analytical solution, including effective diffusion coefficient, was applied to the present model. The results obtained from the present analytical model were compared with the experimental data and a good agreement was found. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.