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Chemistry of Tender Coconut Water from the Cuddalore Coastal Region in Tamil Nadu, India

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Abstract

Tender coconut water (TCW) is rich in nutrients, presenting low fat levels, and considered to be an excellent isotonic drink. To understand the chemistry of TCW, samples of TCW with 6–7 and 11–12 months of maturity were collected from the same coconut trees in different locations in the coastal Cuddalore district. It was found that TCW is dominated by K+ among cations and by Cl− among anions. The pH of the TCW was acidic to neutral, with high electrical conductivity. Comparison of the TCW samples with drinking water standards show that the former contained certain ions more than the permissible limit. It was understood that the process of selective absorption by plants or by certain other chemical process taking place during the formation of kernel tissues would alter the chemical composition of coastal TCW in the Cuddalore district.

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Acknowledgments

The author SC would like to acknowledge the funding agency Department of Science and Technology, India under WAR for water (DST/WAR-W/WSI/06/2010 dated 25.02.2011) for sampling and analysis. The authors would also like to thank the Department of Earth Sciences for helping us to access the FIST facility. The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for their constructive comments and suggestions, which led to significant improvements to the manuscript. Special thanks to Dr. John Carranza (Editor-in-Chief) for fine tuning the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, 608002, India

    S. Chidambaram, C. Singaraja & M. Ganesan

  2. Department of Applied Geology, School of Engineering and Science, Curtin University, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia

    M. V. Prasanna

  3. National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Thiruvanathapuram, 695019, Kerala, India

    M. Sundararajan

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  1. S. Chidambaram
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Chidambaram, S., Singaraja, C., Prasanna, M.V. et al. Chemistry of Tender Coconut Water from the Cuddalore Coastal Region in Tamil Nadu, India. Nat Resour Res 22, 91–101 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-013-9203-y

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