<p>Nitrate contamination in water sources, mainly due to agricultural runoff, industrial effluents, and urban wastewater, poses serious environmental and public health concerns. A green sugar-based aluminum coordination polymer adsorbent was prepared using edible sugar (sucrose) as the organic ligand and aluminum nitrate nonahydrate as the metal precursor in ethanol. The novelty of this work is the use of edible sugar as a low-cost bio-based ligand to prepare an aluminum coordination polymer adsorbent by an oxidant-free route. The reaction mixture was treated under mild thermal conditions, and the resulting solid was washed with water and ethanol and dried. The synthesized material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy, confirming a crystalline coordination framework with a porous nanostructured morphology. Nitrogen adsorption and desorption analysis indicated mesoporous characteristics with a BET surface area of 4.46 m²g⁻¹ and an average pore diameter of 3.45&#xa0;nm. Batch adsorption experiments were performed at room temperature. Under the optimized conditions (C₀ = 200&#xa0;mg L⁻¹, pH 7.5, adsorbent mass 0.008&#xa0;g, and solution volume 75&#xa0;mL), the adsorbent achieved about 85 percent nitrate removal within 20&#xa0;min and more than 95 percent within 30&#xa0;min. The experimental adsorption capacity reached 1456.5 to 2077.5&#xa0;mg g⁻¹ depending on adsorbent dosage. Kinetic analysis showed that the adsorption data followed a pseudo-second order model with R² = 0.9999. Regeneration with 0.1&#xa0;M NaOH demonstrated good reusability over repeated cycles. Overall, Al-CP is an effective green nitrate adsorbent.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>