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Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

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solution at room temperature, showed significant differences between fibre (18.3%), pith<br />

(22.1%) and rind (11.9%). However, Kelly and Rutherford (1957) did not find any<br />

difference between these materials for their cane samples.<br />

4.3.8 Sugar cane sections<br />

Mangion and Player (1991) analysed various sections of the sugar cane plant and found the<br />

highest Brix-free water value in cane tops and the lowest in cane roots. For one cane<br />

variety, they obtained the following results: cane top (23.5%), 1/3 top (19.2%), 1/3 middle<br />

(18.9%), 1/3 bottom (20.3%), roots (6.7%) and trash (19.7%).<br />

4.3.9 Crop location<br />

Mangion and Player (1991) analysed 20 samples each of two cane varieties grown in three<br />

locations, and found that crop location did not consistently affect Brix-free water results<br />

for the varieties tested. While there was a statistical difference in the values obtained<br />

between two locations for a particular variety, it was not true for the other cane variety<br />

grown in the same cane areas.<br />

4.4 DEVELOPMENT OF A BRIX-FREE WATER DETERMINATION METHOD<br />

FOR CANE FIBRES<br />

From what has been described in the previous section it is clear that there is no one<br />

accepted method for the determination of Brix-free water in fibres. Also no one has<br />

previously determined the Brix-free water content for the range of sugar cane component<br />

parts studied in this work. There was therefore a need to devise a suitable method<br />

applicable to the samples investigated in this work.<br />

The method of Mangion and Player (1991) for Brix-free water determination described in<br />

Section 4.2 was tried, and various aspects were investigated in order to adapt the method to<br />

the sugar cane plant fibre samples obtained by the separation method described in Chapter<br />

3.<br />

4.4.1 Residual sucrose in cane fibres<br />

Some stalk fibre, stalk pith, green leaf fibre and rind fibre samples from a trial series were<br />

analysed for Brix-free water content according to Mangion and Player’s method, with the<br />

difference that instead of the 8 g sample, a smaller sample size of 6 g was used; also,<br />

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