Pectin and banana

Bananas are a good source of pectin, a form of fiber. Pectin is an excellent carbohydrate polymer and is the structural component of plant cell wall. It is isolated from fruit peels and has been attributed to various applications. Chemically, pectin is poly α-1, 4-galacturonic acid, with varying degree of methylation of carboxylic acid residues.

Pectin with more than 50% methyl ester groups is classified as high-methoxyl (HM) and those with less than 50% methyl ester groups as low-methoxyl (LM). Pectin is broadly utilized both in the food (as gelling, thickening, and stabilizer agent) and in pharmaceutical (as bioactive components) industries including biomedical applications as inventive uses

Pectin form gels under certain circumstances, the gelling mechanism is highly dependent on the degree of methoxylation (DM).

Pectin yield from banana pulp decreased significantly with ripening (P<0.05) from between 18.1 to 22.65% at green maturity to between 0.65 to 1.28% at stage 7 of ripening. Pectin yield from banana peels was generally lower decreasing from between 5.34 to 6.61% at green maturity to between 1.01 to 1.38% at stage 7. (Journal of Food Research; Vol. 9, No. 5; 2020)

It was reported higher pectin content in banana peels compared to plantain peels at all the stages of maturation, with the average molecular weights of the extracted pectin in the range of 132.6 - 573.8 kDa.

Some of the pectin in bananas is water-soluble. When bananas ripen, the proportion of water-soluble pectin increases, which is one of the main reasons why bananas turn soft as they age.
Pectin and banana