CHEMICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL STUDIES ON DRIED BANANA

Abstract

Bananas are tropical fruits belonging to the genus Musa and the family Musaceae. Bananas are nutritious with a pleasant flavor and are widely consumed throughout the world (Simmonds, 1966, Palmer, 1971 and Robinson, 1996). Bananas are considered good sources of carbohydrates, starch, sugars besides vitamins as B and C and minerals such as potassium, phosphorus, iron, calcium and magnesium (Chandler, 1995 and Mohapatra et a/., 2010) and recommended as dietary supplements for individuals suffering from digestive disorders (Mota eta/., 2000 and Smale, 2007). During the peak production seasons, large quantities of bananas are produced but cannot find immediate use (Stover and Simmonds, 1987a). Therefore, in order to minimize these huge losses, bananas can be preserved using dehydration processes and many other different ways. Drying is one of preservation methods; applied to increase product stability and to decrease transport and storage costs by means of volume and weight reduction. In conventional drying procedures, such as hot-air or sun drying techniques and deep­ fat frying, a major disadvantage is the thermal degradation of important flavor and nutritional substances (Maskan, 2000 and Ofor and Ibeawuchi, 2010). Although freeze-drying usually results in good retention of flavor compounds (King, 1970 and Somogyi and Luh, 1986), this technique is costly and time-consuming (Okos et a/., 1992).

There are many different products produced from bananas such as banana puree, sliced ripe bananas in acidified syrup, banana essence, dried banana slices, flour and powder ground from dried whole green and ripe fruit and the most common form of processed products is the banana chip, made from frying thin banana slices in vegetable oil. The most common banana varieties in Egypt are Sapientun, Cavendishii, accuminata and Paradica. Paradica variety has thick short fingers with high starch content. It is less desirable for the Egyptian consumer due to its starchy taste and it would be of interest to process this variety-to increase its marketability (Nasr, 1994). Therefore it is interesting to investigate the influence of some anti-browning

agents as citric and ascorbic acids on the inhibition of polyphenol oxidase in this