Characteristics of liquid sugar from old oil palm trunk sap as affected by processing methods

The sap of old oil palm trunks contains appreciable sugar, but it has not been considered a potential sugar source. This study aimed to find the best method for producing oil palm liquid sugar that complies with the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) The non-factorial experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with 6 replications. The treatments were a combination of lime-rotary vacuum evaporation (P1), without lime-vacuum rotary evaporation (P2), lime-atmospheric evaporation (P3); without lime-atmospheric evaporation (P4). The parameters observed were pH, °brix, reducing sugar, color, aroma, and overall acceptance. The data were subjected to ANOVA to determine the effects of the treatments and then, continued testing using HSD at α 0,05 for means separation. The best treatment was found on liquid sugar processed using lime, and atmospheric evaporation with brix of 68.75%, pH of 5.4, moisture content of 17.74, ash content of 0.86%, reducing sugar of 44.31%, sensory score of color, aroma, and overall acceptance were f 3.42 (brownies yellow), 4.4 (like), and 4.04 (like).Keywords: lime, liquid sugar, old oil palm trunk, sensory, vacuum rotary evaporator