Processing of coconut sap into sugar syrup using rotary evaporation, microwave, and open-heat evaporation techniques.

BACKGROUND: Coconut sugar has a caramel color with a taste like brown sugar. It is commonly used as natural sweetener. However, coconut sugar has been produced from coconut sap using a traditional method that involves heating the sap at high temperature (>100 °C) in an open pan for a long period (3-5 h). This conventional method results in an over-cooked sugar, which leads to quality deterioration in terms of both its physical and chemical properties. The current study aimed to investigate the processing of coconut sap into sugar syrup using alternative processing techniques such as rotary vacuum evaporation (RE) and microwave evaporation (ME), comparing them with open-heat evaporation (OHE) technique. RESULTS: Coconut sugar syrup produced by rotary evaporation at 60 °C and 250 mbar vacuum (RE-60) required the shortest production time (12.2 min) and the lowest processing temperature (54.8 °C) when compared with ME (13 min and 103.2 °C) and OHE (46.8 min and 101.6 °C). It also had a light brownish color with a higher L* value (35.17) than the ME (29.84) and OHE (23.84) methods. It was found to contain higher amounts of monosaccharides (fructose and glucose) and lower amounts of disaccharides (sucrose). Furthermore, the amount of energy required for RE-60 (0.35 kWh) was much less than for OHE (0.83 kWh). CONCLUSION: This study provided an alternative processing method for the sugar processing industry to produce coconut sugar using the rotary evaporation method at 60 °C under 250 mbar vacuum with better physicochemical qualities, shorter processing time, and minimum input energy. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

A modified mini nutritional assessment without BMI predicts nutritional status of community-living elderly in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: The study was to determine whether a modified MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) which adopted population-specific anthropometric cut-points but without BMI could maintain its predicting ability in community-living elderly in Taiwan. DESIGN: Purposive sampling. SETTING: Community-living elderly. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred and one (138 male and 163 female) > 65-year-old outpatients seeking free annual health examination at an area hospital in central Taiwan. MEASUREMENTS: A structured questionnaire elicited personal data, lifestyle information and answers to the MNA. Laboratory results from health checkup provided the needed biochemical data. Each subject's nutritional status was assessed with the MNA in three versions: the original, the MNA-TI (with population-specific cut-points), and the MNA-TII (further eliminated the BMI question and redistributed its score to the MAC and CC questions). RESULTS: All three versions identified the same 0.7% elderly malnourished. The proportions predicted at risk of malnutrition were 16.6, 12.0 and 10% according to the original, MNA-TI and MNA-TII, respectively. Friedman Test and post hoc analysis indicated that the pattern predicted by the original MNA was different from that predicted by the two modified versions whereas the patterns predicted by the two modified versions were not different from each other. CONCLUSION: Adoption of population-specific anthropometric cut-points improves the predicting ability of the MNA in Taiwanese elderly, and the improved functionality is maintained in a version without BMI (but with adjusted MAC and CC scores). A MNA without BMI has greater applicability and can enhance professional efficiency of healthcare workers.