Modeling the color evolution: insight into the browning pigmentation mechanism and bioactive compounds evaluation of coconut syrup production

Abstract This study aims to better understand the color formation in coconut syrup production by modeling the dynamics of color evolution. Coconut sap was processed (105 ± 5 °C), with for samples intermittent analysis. Besides the modeling evaluation, bioactive compounds including total phenolic, flavonoid content and DPPH assay were also evaluated. The exponential model provided the greatest fit, with R 2 values of 0.84903–0.9798, lowest Chi-square (χ 2 ) values of 3.14 × 10 −4 –6.789, and root mean square error (RMSE) of 8.17305–0.1784. Heating time was found to correlate positively with both browning reactions, resulting in an increase of 15.16 and 2.44 folds in the enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning indexes, respectively. The second-order polynomials characterized the browning reactions more accurately than Weibull’s model. A rise in bioactive chemicals was detected at the conclusion of the processing period, which closely linked with a * and b * color and enzymatic browning reactions, demonstrating the nature of the reliance between them.