Abstract:
The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera) is one of the most important crops grown
in humid tropics, cultivated for its multiple utilities, belongs to Arecaceae family.
Since most of the components of coconut palm is getting transformed to useful
products, it is referred to as “Tree of life”. Neera is a delicious health drink collected
from the immature unopened inflorescence of coconut palm. It is a nector like liquid
having slightly alkaline pH and translucent in color. Neera is a rich source of natural
sugars, minerals and vitamins and it contains substantial amounts of iron, phosphorus
and ascorbic acid. The major difficulty associated with neera production is its natural
fermentation. The product undergoes fermentation within 2-3 hours under ambient
temperature. Thus the shelf life of the sap is identified as a major issue in the long
distance transport of neera. The only solution is the development of neera powder by
spray drying technology, so that it will arrest the fermentation by reducing the
available water. This study mainly concentrated on development of a process protocol
for spray dried neera powder, standardization of the spray drying parameters and
quality analysis of neera powder. The neera used in the study was collected from two
different sources, CPCRI (Kalparasa) and KAU (Keramrutham). The optimum
parameters obtained for Kalparasa powder was 3.53% MD+0.353% GA as feed
material combination, an inlet air temperature of 168oC and 4.25 rpm feed flow rate.
Whereas for the Keramrutham powder the obtained optimum condition is 7.58%
MD+0.758% GA as feed material combination and 171.89oC inlet air temperature
with 4.82 rpm feed flow rate. The blower speed of 1200 rpm and air pressure 2kg/cm 2
were kept constant for developing the products. The physico chemical characteristics
such as pH, TSS, Colour, moisture content, and reconstitution properties were
determined. The optimally produced products were packed, stored in retort pouches
and the quality characteristics such as pH, moisture content, vitamine C, antioxidant
activity and phenolic content were also analysed up to 5 months. Both powdersshowed good acceptance in the sensory evaluation. The cost analysis of the product
was done and cost of one kilogram was estimated as Rs 2168.6/-.
