NUTRACEUTICAL APPLICATION AND VALUE ADDITION OF BANANA (MUSA PARADISICA L. VARIETY BHUSAWAL KELIâ€) PEEL: A REVIEW

Musa paradisica L. (Musaseae) has been used in many cultures for prevention and treatment of a wide number of health disorders such as inflammation, diabetes, diarrhea, dental plaque etc. Banana popularity is on the rise due to its high nutraceutics and pharmaceutical value. Banana is unique because each of its parts—fruit, pulp, peel, seed, leaves, flowers and the bark—are utilizable. Banana is the second largest after citrus and it accounts around 15% of global fruit production (Food and Agriculture Organization statistical databases, 2008). India's participation in the world banana production is 27% (Mohapatra, et al. 2010) and it also contributes about 37% of the total fruit production in India. The main by-product of banana processing industry is peel, which represents almost 30% of fruit (Arora, et al. 2008). However, nobody pays attention to banana peel, which is unfortunate because they could be helpful in many medicinal applications (Kumar, et al. 2012). As a natural source of various polyphenols and bioactive molecules (Arora, et al.2008), it possesses many curative properties and able to cure many kinds of illnesses (Jahan, et al. 2011). This review aims at providing an updated overview of the chemical constituents, traditional uses, photochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Musa paradisica L. Moreover, the focus of this review is the possible exploitation of Musa paradisica peel to treat different diseases and to suggest future investigations