Nopporn Jaroonchon, Wachiraya Imsabai, and Krisana Krisanapook

pp. 533 - 537

Abstract

Many researches have reported that nucleic acid in coconut water is in free form and at very low yields which makes
it difficult to process in molecular studies. Our research attempted to compare two extraction methods to obtain a higher
yield of total RNA in aromatic coconut water and monitor its change at various fruit stages. The first method used ethanol
and sodium acetate as reagents; the second method used lithium chloride. We found that extraction using only lithium
chloride gave a higher total RNA yield than the method using ethanol to precipitate nucleic acid. In addition, the total RNA
from both methods could be used in amplification of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase2 (Badh2) genes, which is involved
in coconut aroma biosynthesis, and could be used to perform further study as we expected. From the molecular study, the
nucleic acid found in coconut water increased with fruit age.