Chemical composition of banana peel

Banana is a herbaceous plant of the family Musaceae. It is known to have originated from the tropical region of Southern Asia.

The fruit grows in hanging clusters, with 20 fruits to a tie and 3-20 tie to a bunch. The fruit is protected by its peel which is discarded as waste after the inner fleshy portion is eaten. Banana peel accounts about 40% of overall weight of the fresh fruit. Banana peels have different medical advantages to amazing dietary status, and it treats the intestinal sore, looseness of the bowels, diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, nephritis, gout, heart infection, hypertension and diabetes.

This resulted in 200 tons of waste from banana peels generated each day and this amount tends to increase annually. The banana peels waste is normally disposed in municipal landfills, which contribute to the existing environmental problems.

Moisture content of the peel to be 6.7%. The value is relatively low, and may perhaps be due to the time of harvest. The low value also designate that the peel can be amass for a long time without growing moldy. The ash content was found to 8.50%.

The organic matter content was found to be 91.50%. Organic matter measures the nutritional value (lipids, proteins and carbohydrate) of a plant material. The high value indicates that banana peels are good sources of nutrients. On the average, banana peels contain 6-9% dry matter of protein and 20- 30% fiber (measured as NDF). Green plantain peels contain 40% starch that is transformed into sugars after ripening.

The high dietary fiber content of banana peel (about 50 g/ 100 g) is indicative of a good source of dietary fiber.

Banana peel is rich in phytochemical compounds mainly antioxidants. The total amount of phenolic compounds in banana peel has been represented for from 0.90 to 3.0 g/100 g dry weight.

It also contains antioxidant compounds including polyphenols, catecholamins and carotenoids. Dietary polyphenols, with the aid of its wonderful antioxidant properties that cross beyond the adjustment of oxidative stress, play a critical function in the prevention of degenerative diseases especially, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

The antifungal, antibiotic properties of banana peel can put to be good use. The peel is used for home remedy for treating several skin problems including allergies and skin irritations.

Banana peels are used as feedstock as they have some nutritional values. Banana peels are widely used for that purpose on small farms in regions where bananas are grown. There are some concerns over the impact of tannins contained in the peels on animals that consume them.

In recent times, banana peel has been utilized for various industrial applications including bio-fuel production, bio-sorbents, pulp and paper, cosmetics, energy related activities, organic fertilizer, environmental clean-up and biotechnology related processes.
Chemical composition of banana peel

Chemical composition of banana peels

The studies showed that flour prepared from unpeeled banana had enhanced nutrition values with higher concentrations of mineral, dietary fiber and total phenolics.

In addition, researches indicated that flour fortified with peel showed higher antioxidant activity and had better properties that flour without peel.

Musa sapientum peels were analyzed for minerals, nutritional and anti –nutritional contents. The result of mineral content indicate the concentrations (mg/g) of potassium, calcium, sodium, iron, manganese, bromine, rubidium, strontium, zirconium and niobium to be 78.10, 19.20, 24.30, 0.61, 76.20, 0.04, 0.21, 0.03, 0.02 and 0.02 respectively (Electronic Journal of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Chemistry 01/2009; 8(6):437-4442).

The percentage concentrations of protein, crude lipid, carbohydrate and crude fibre were 0.90, 1.70, 59.00 and 31.70 respectively.

The results indicate that if the peels are properly exploited and process, they could be a high-quality and cheap source of carbohydrates and minerals for livestock.

Banana peel composition from diverse varieties and different ripening stages has been studied to evaluate its potential applications in diverse varieties and ripening stages. In general, crude protein, which increases with the ripening stage ranged between 6.3% and 11.2%.

Starch content in the peel decreased with the ripening stage, but in stage 1 (green), significant differences in the component were found, depending on the subgroup, because the plantain subgroup had a higher starch amount than the subgroups Cavendish and Ibota.
Chemical composition of banana peels

Chemical composition of banana pulp

Banana and pulp concentrates are used in diverse applications such as bakery products, beverages, dairy products, and baby foods.

The chemical composition of banana varieties depends of the ripening state; however, agronomic traits, the type of soil, and climatic conditions alter the major and minor components of the fruit.

There is extensive information that chemical composition of banana pulp changes with the ripening state of the fruit.

On one study, lower, moisture content was found in the unripe pulp of banana (69%) than in ripe banana pulp (74%), the carbohydrate content was higher in the former sample (28.7%) than in ripe banana (21.8%), but an inverse was obtained for fiber.

The unripe pulp had 2.90% and the ripe pulp had 0.5%; this pattern might be related to the higher pectin levels present in the ripe state of the pulp.

Another research shows that bananas pulp contains 5% protein, 1% fat, and 84 % nitrogen free extract on a dry matter basis.

Studies have revealed that a loss of firmness or softening in fruit as a result of cooking or heating, involves a loss of turgor, a series of chemical changes in the cell polysaccharides matrix, along with starch swelling and gelatinization.
Chemical composition of banana pulp