EVALUATION OF THE PROXIMATE COMPOSITIONS, DIETARY FIBRE AND RESISTANT STARCH CONTENTS OF SELECTED VARIETIES OF BANANA AND PLANTAIN
I. I. UDO *
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
O. U. ETOKAKPAN
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
S. P. UKWO
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
E. O. UKPONG
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This work examines the Dietary Fibre Content, Resistant Starch Content, Amylose/amylopectin Content and the Proximate Compositions of Selected Plantain and Banana varieties, in relation to diets for Diabetics and Obese. Four varieties of Banana and two varieties of plantain were used in this study. The result indicates that Amylose contents ranged between 14.11± 0.95 in semi cooked Plantain and 21.87±1.27 in Lady’s Finger banana. The Lady’s Finger which recorded the highest content of amylose content also had the highest content of resistant starch. The plantain varieties recorded the highest values for Dietary fibre (7.17± 0.65 and 8.10± 0.20) while the semi cooked common banana sample recorded the least (4.96±0.13). The crude fibre content ranged from 2.50±0.53 in common plantain (P1) to 5.03± 0.38 in the French horn plantain while the carbohydrate contents ranged from 56.99±0.90 for Lady’s finger bananas to 69.29±0.45 for semi-cooked common banana variety. The means of the samples were statistically significance at 95% level. Result indicates that, these varieties of banana and plantain - Lady’s Finger, Star Finger and French horn are rich sources of resistant starch, amylose and dietary fibre contents, which are components associated with a number of health benefits. Resistant starch and dietary fibre are not digested in the small intestine thereby reducing the production of glucose from such foods that contains them. The consumption of foods rich in these bioactive components, would result in a reduction in the blood sugar level, especially among diabetic prone individuals and obese. The need to preserve these varieties which are rich in bioactive components, becomes the cardinal aim of this research.
Keywords: Plantain, banana, Dietary Fibre, resistant starch, diabetes and obese.