The tender coconuts were cut open with a sanitized stainless
steel knife and its water was strained into a beaker inside the
laminar air flow. The microfiltration process was also carried out
inside the laminar flow. The collected water was first filtered in a
filter and clamp connection through a Whatman No. 4 filter paper.
The filtered water was transferred through the Teflon pipe to a
bacterial filtration unit with a 0.8 mm membrane filter which was
attached to a vacuum pump. The filtrate was collected and the
process was repeated to filter through a second filtration unit with
a 0.45 mmfilter. Any spillage of coconut water inside the laminar air
flow was cleaned with cotton dipped in alcohol. The final filtered
coconutwaterwas transferred slowly to a heavy duty vacuum flask.
Following this accurately weighed and calculated amount of citric
acid, ascorbic acid and L-cysteine were added to the heavy duty
vacuum flask and mixed slowly. The processed tender coconut
water was then filled into sterilized plastic (Tarsons) and glass
bottles of 50 mL each. The headspacewas flushed with nitrogen gas
inside a laminar hood. The lids were closed tightly and the samples
were stored under refrigerated condition at 4 C.