Nutritional composition of processed and unprocessed samples of unripe plantain (musa*paradisiaca)

Abstract

People usually think food processing bring about reduction in food nutrients as well as the quantity because few quantities must have been lost or wasted during processing, many said food processing affect the taste and color of the food when compared to its whole form. Meanwhile, food processing which also includes its preparation makes food last longer than when in its whole form (increases its shelf life), although its positive effects are numerous but its negative effects cannot be overlooked as it is agreed on that it affect the nutritional quality of food such as loses of some essential vitamins and minerals. In order to investigate this, three different methods (sun dry, oven dry, air dry) were considered to process plantain from a single source and it was compared to a fresh sample of the plantain from the same source. Proximate analysis, phytochemical screening, mineral, and organic matter and dry matter were carried out according to AOAC methods of analysis. The results showed that the unripe plantains pulp (fresh) contained 58.783% moisture, which is way higher than others. The ash 2.00%, fat 1.894%, crude protein 7.964%, are higher in fresh pulp sample compared to others whereas the organic matter, dry matter and the carbohydrate values are smaller compared to SPF, 0PF and APF. The sodium 0.154, Calcium 0.312, iron 0.921 are very high in the fresh sample than SPF, 0PF and APF. Glycoside, Saponin, tannins, alkaloids phlobatannins, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, and steroids were not detected in all the samples. However, the fresh sample has the highest moisture content which implies that there is going to be an increase in the rate of microbial growth which can spoil it and decrease its shelf life. Oven drying in the other hand gave the lowest moisture value in the flour samples, this suggests its ability to prevent microbial growth and decay in dried sample, hence prolonging storage life.