Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Banana (Musa ssp.) is one of the most consumed fruits in tropical and subtropical regions and is an important food crop in developing and emerging economies (Utrilla-Coello et al. , 2014). However, the onset of ripening due to the climacteric nature of the fruit makes banana susceptible to spoilage and short storage period. Thus, large quantities of this fruit are lost during commercialization, as a consequence of deficient post-harvest handling, leaving behind a substantial amount of residues in the form of peels and pulp (Anyasi et al. , 2015).
Because of a lack of infrastructure to handle a huge quantity of available biomass, lack of processing facilities and high processing cost, these residues represent a major disposal problem. Thus, presently, there are ongoing efforts and research to mitigate post-harvest losses of banana through post-harvest utilization and processing of the fruit (Babbar et al. , 2015).
Banana non-digestible carbohydrates, resistant starch and dietary fiber content in its unripe form make the fruit a suitable material for the production of flour with great application in glycemic index (GI) reduction of the diet, as in the prevention of diabetes and colon cancer (Anyasi et al. , 2013). It also contains many nutrients, including minerals and phenolic compounds, with antioxidant activity, besides being low in sodium and simple carbohydrates such as sucrose (Menezes et al. , 2011).
Fibers, especially, are primarily important in the prevention of diseases, mainly the non-communicable ones. These compounds, which are not absorbed in the small intestine, besides their reduced caloric content, are fermented by bacterial microbiota in the large bowel. This can affect a number of physiological functions, having different effects on health, for example, reduction of the glycemic and insulinemic responses, hypocholesterolemic action (de Angelis-Pereira et al. , 2013) and protective effects against colorectal cancer (Langkilde et al. , 2002).
In addition to its nutritional benefits, flour obtained from unripe banana cultivars is growing rapidly in its usage and application worldwide. Thus, the prospect of utilizing unripe banana flour for the production of ready-to-eat products provides a great opportunity to combine bioactive compounds otherwise missing nutrients in these products (Aurore et al. , 2009). Besides, by-products having high dietary fiber content could be used in bakery products, dairy products, jams,...