Persimmon has long been established as one of the major fruits in Korea. The southern parts of Korea were traditionally the pocket areas for good persimmon production; however, rising temperatures have gradually rendered the southern regions unsuitable for successful harvest. Ecology of fruit growing areas affects the productivity of various types of crops, including fruit trees such as persimmon. The quality characteristics of the fruit of persimmon cv. Dongchul grown in Gangwondo, which lies in the northern part of South Korea, were investigated. Different physicochemical, nutritional, and antioxidant properties of fruit were evaluated to assess the locational effect on the quality of persimmon fruits grown in Gangwondo. The results of this study showed that persimmon cv. Dongchul grown in Gangwondo maintains many of the physicochemical (4.33% crude protein and 4.32% crude fiber), nutritional (total mineral content: 461.51 and vitamin C content: 15.28 ㎎/100 g), and antioxidant properties (polyphenol content: 633.1 ㎎ gallic acid equivalent/100 g) those are found in other three commercial cultivars ‘Daebong’, ‘Kyengsan Bansi’, and ‘Sangju Doongsi’ grown in Korea. Overall results of this study imply that ‘Dongchul’ cultivar of persimmon could commercially be grown in Kangwondo, Korea.

Ion exchange performance to remove nitrate in water was studied using commercially available strong base anion exchange resin of Cl^- type in the batch and continuous column reactors. The performance was tested using the effluent concentration histories for continuous column or equilibrium concentrations for batch reactor as a function of time until resins were exhausted or reached ionic equilibrium between resin and solution. Anion exchange resin used in this study was more effective than activated carbon or zeolite for nitrate removal. With large resin amount or low initial concentration, nitrate removal characteristics for a typical gel-type resin was increased. On considering the relation between the breakthrough capacity and nitrate concentration of the influent, the use of anion exchange resin were suitable for the higher order water treatment. The nitrate removal of above 90% could be possible until the effluent of above 650 BV was passed to the column. Thus, the commercially available strong base anion exchange resin of Cl^- type used in this study could be effectively used as economic material for treatment of the groundwater. The breakthrough curves showed the sequence of resin selectivity as SO_4^2- > NO_3, > NO^2- > HCO_3^-. The results of this study could be scaled up and used as a design tool for the water purification system of the real groundwater and surface water treatment processes.