• Corpus ID: 53312619

Studies on Utilization of Coconut Flour as a Source of Cell Wall Polysaccharides

@inproceedings{Yalegama2006StudiesOU,
  title={Studies on Utilization of Coconut Flour as a Source of Cell Wall Polysaccharides},
  author={L.L.W.C. Yalegama and J. K. Chavan},
  year={2006}
}

• L. Yalegama, J. K. Chavan
• Published 2006

Coconut flour was obtained by extraction of virgin coconut oil from Komet DD 85 expeller. The residue left after virgin oil extraction was ground to obtain flour. The composition of coconut flour; moisture 3.7%, fat 13.4%, protein 21.8%, ash 5.1%, total sugars 18.8% and crude fiber 9.3%. When it was fractionated into different fibers, it contained 38.3% neutral detergent fiber. Out of this, 24.2% are acid detergent fibers, 14.0% hemicelluloses and 10.3% celluloses. The flour was defatted with petroleum ether. The defatted flour was deproteinized with dilute sodium hydroxide (pH 13). Defatted, deprotenized flour was extracted with 80% hot ethanol to remove sugars. The purified fiber contained 81.4% neutral detergent fiber. Out of this, 44.5% acid detergent fibre and 36.9% are hemicelluloses. It also contained 16.1% celluloses and 1.3% lignin. An ingredient formula was standardized to make acceptable coconut fiber substituted cookies. It was observed that coconut fiber could be substituted to the level of 10% to prepare cookies with good overall acceptability. The substitution level could be increased to 20% with modification of the formula to increase neutral detergent fiber content from 0.9% in the control to 6.1% in fiber substituted cookies. INTRODUCTION Coconut is an important source of vegetable oil used for both edible and industrial applications. Coconut oil can be extracted either from fresh kernel (wet processing) or dry kernel (dry processing) of coconut fruit. The residue or press cake from these routes are wasted or used in animal feed to a limited extent. But this residue contains high protein (Chakraborty, 1985) and fiber contents (Trinidad et al., 2001), which can be utilized in preparation of various foods. The press cake from coconut oil processing contains; proteins 19-20%, crude fiber 12% and carbohydrates 43-45% (Saittagaroon et al., 1983). The composition indicates that it can be utilized in enrichment and fortification of foods if it is hygienically processed. At present, coconut oil is produced by dry processing of copra in Sri Lanka. Due to unhygienic way of processing, the copra press cake is not suitable for human consumption. Coconut flour is produced from hygienically produced press cake obtained from virgin coconut oil extraction. Coconut flour has been incorporated in many 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Mahatma Phule Agricultural University Maharastra State, India.