Abstract

The composition of coconut milk depends, to a large extent, on the extraction procedure. However, effect of extraction process conditions on the mineral composition of coconut milk has not been documented. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design (CCD), consisting three factors (extraction time, extraction temperature and coconut meat particle size) was used to study the effect of process conditions on the mineral content of coconut milk. Results revealed that process variables significantly (p<0.05) affected the mineral contents of coconut milk. The R2 for Ca, Na, and Mg were 0.9612, 0.8725 and 0.9885 respectively, indicating that over 87% proportion of variation in Ca, Na, and Mg were explained by the fitted models while, R2 for K and P were 0.7916 and 0.6544 respectively indicating that only 79.16% variation in K and 65.44% variation in P were explained by the fitted models. Ca, Na, Mg, K and P content of the coconut milk ranged from 0.26 to 0.48%, 0.11 to 0.18%, 0.04 to 0.09%, 0.28 to 0.50% and 0.0026 to 0.0040% respectively. The optimum conditions obtained for extraction of coconut milk with a desirability index of 86.4% were extraction time of 10.96 min, extraction temperature of 60°C and ≤ 1617μm particle size of coconut meat respectively. The optimum Ca, Na, Mg, K and P were estimated at 0.461, 0.171, 0.083, 0.459 and 0.004% respectively.

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