Abstract:
The study on fermentation kinetics of the coconut inflorescence sap is important to understand its shelf
life at different storage conditions and to develop suitable value added products. The coconut inflorescence sap
collected by using in-house developed coco-sap chiller
device is called Kalparasa. The fermentation characteristics of Kalparasa were investigated at every 1-h interval
under ambient (31 ± 2 C) and refrigerated (5 ± 1 C)
storage conditions. The results reveal that pH of the sap
and total sugar content decline rapidly under ambient
conditions than under refrigerated conditions. Acidity,
turbidity, and reducing sugar content significantly
(p\0.001) increases for the sap stored under ambient
conditions. The reaction rate constant (k) of the vitamin C
and total sugar degradation increases with the atmospheric
fermentation. The degradation kinetics of vitamin C and
total sugar in Kalparasa during natural fermentation (ambient condition) follow second-order equation whereas the
reducing sugar follows the first-order equation.
