What is green banana?

The green banana or unripe banana has a white and almost insipid flesh. In this state it is scarcely contains any sugar; it is starch that predominates.

A green banana will not taste as sweet as a ripe yellow banana. Unripened fruit is also sometimes hard to digest, so may cause a stomachache.

Bananas are always picked when they are green. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree they tend to lose their taste and become mealy.

The sugar content increases as soon as the banana is picked and increases from 2 percent to 20 percent.

Green banana flour is high in dietary fiber and resistant starch. Study shows that substituted wheat flour with 30% green banana flour and found an increase in water-holding capacity crude fiber, dietary fiber and resistant starch but decreased steamed bread volume (Noor Aziah 2012. Int. Food Res. J. 19,869-876)
What is green banana?

Sugar content in banana

Bananas are always picked when they are green. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree they tend to lose their taste and become mealy. Green banana peel contains about 3% starch, localized mostly in cells adjacent to the pulp. Only about 20.5% amylose has been reported in banana starch.

As bananas ripen, enzyme in them turns the starch to sugar. As fruit continues to ripen, sugar content increases. The hydrolysis of starch and the accumulation of sugars in peel and pulp alter both taste and texture of banana fruits.

In banana, sugar is the main soluble solids component which ultimately indicates sweetness.

The sugar increase results in a sweeter, more palatable pulp, associated with optimum fruit quality. The sugar to acid balance is also important for providing the peasant fruit taste.

The sugars content, normally 1-2% in the pulp of green fruits, increase to 15-20% in the ripe pulp.

Soluble sugars in banana pulp are mainly sucrose (66%), glucose (20%), fructose (14%) and only traces of maltose.
Sugar content in banana

Ripening process of banana

Bananas are good sources of carbohydrate, whether unripe or overripe. The green banana is dry and bitter; the ripening process makes the fruits become edible. They become sweeter less green and soft.

Tissue softening commences, during which starch is degraded to sugars in both pulp and peel, and rupture strength of cell walls slowly deteriorates. The ripening process involves the hydrolysis of the starch in the ripening plant. There is a rapid decline in starch content and a corresponding increase in sugar content.

Most of the sugar in ripe banana is sucrose, glucose, and fructose, sucrose being predominant.

This activity is a form of autolysis (self-digestion). The starch also can be broken down after consumption via action of pancreatic alpha-amylases, as well as other enzymes.

The water content of the pulp increase by 3 to 4% during the 10-11 days required for ripening to ‘eating ripe’.

During ripening, peel color changes from dark green to bright yellow and this is due to chlorophyll breakdown which gradually unmasks the carotenoid pigments also present in the unripe peel.

During the color changes the pulp becomes softer and sweeter as the ration of sugars to starch increases.
Ripening process of banana