The Effect of Ripening on the Nutrient Composition of Mature Locally Cultivated Pink Banana Cultivar (Musa spp) Peel and its Possible Uses

Background: The stage of maturity of food plants greatly affects the concentrations of nutrients in them and lack of this information makes these plants to be highly underutilized.Material and Methods: Matured unripe pink banana cultivar were collected from Ussa, Ussa LGA, and divided into two portions.One portion was covered with jut bag and kept in the dark under room temperature to ripen. The peel of the other portion (unripe) were immediatetly removed, cut into pieces, dried at 50 C, milled into powder and stored under referigeration temperature (10 C). The peel of the ripe pink banana cultiver were processed as the unripe peel.The chemical composition of the powdered bananas peels (unripe andripe) were determined using standard methods.Results: The moisture, protein and carbohydrate content of the pink banana cultiver decreased from 8.82 to 7.83, 5.39 to 5.19 and 72.79%, respectively. While the ash, fats and fibre content increased from 4.66 to 5.34, 5.29 to 6.22 and 3.10 to 3.17%, respectively, on ripening.An increase in vitamin C (0.08 to 0.14mg/100g), vitamin E (92.0 to 113.10 mg/100g), and decrease in starch (1.13 to 0.92mg/100g) and lignin (5.22 to 5.11mg/100g)on ripening. The potassium and phosphorous content of the banana peels increased from 4.16 to 4.31 and 0.28 to 0.35mg/100g, repectively, on ripening.Conclusion: Ripening has relatively improve the macronutrients and micronutrients of the unripe banana cultivar peels and could therefore be used in enrichment of food products