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Gardenia jasminoides Ellis is widely used as healthy food and herbal medicine for its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antihypertensive, and antiviral functions. The drying behavior and physicochemical quality of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis were studied to evaluate its adaptability under four drying techniques: hot air drying (HAD), medium-and short-wave infrared drying (MSWID), pulsed vacuum drying (PVD), and radio frequency-HAD (RF-HAD). Compared with HAD and MSWID, PVD and RF-HAD can form beneficial microporous channels for moisture migration inside Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, thus shortening drying time by 32.56–42.51 % and increasing geniposide content by 3.31–13.77 %, while better preserving the brightness and redness. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis confirmed the RF-HAD dried samples showed the best antioxidant activity with the highest content of active ingredients (chlorogenic acid, geniposide), and there was a significant positive correlation between sample color and yellow pigment content. After comprehensive comparison, RF-HAD is proposed to be the most suitable method for Gardenia jasminoides Ellis drying. This research could provide scientific basis and technical support for promoting the high quality development of industrial processing of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis.