Quantification of Nutritional Composition and Some Antinutrient Factors of Banana Peels and Pineapple Skins

Abstract

Agricultural wastes are by-products generated from growing and processing of agricultural commodities such as vegetables, fruits, meats, poultry and crops. The modernisation of agricultural practises creates huge number of wastes namely animals’ carcass, seeds and skins from crop and also trace of pesticide, along the chain. If these wastes are released without proper disposal procedure, it may cause negative effects to environment and jeopardize human health. Banana and pineapple are amongst the most common crops cultivated in tropical countries. With its bright colour, juicy delicious flesh, and well-studied beneficial compounds, these two fruits are being enjoyed as fresh consumption or in the form of food products like chips and jam. Unfortunately, the peel and the skin are currently being dumped to the landfill as waste. The objective of our study was to evaluate the chemical composition of banana peel and pineapple skin, in order to explore the utilisation of these so-called wastes as food ingredients. The samples were analysed for nutritional composition, anti-nutrients level and sugar profile. Proximate analysis according to AOAC 2000 method were conducted to collect the nutritional composition of samples, antinutrients factors were study via spectrophotometery analysis and sugar profile were achieved by using HPLC-ELSD method.  The results showed that ash, moisture, fat, protein were in the acceptable level (7.0±0.14, 7.55±1.48, 13.95±1.62, 5.0±2.82, 67.25±3.80  g/100 g respectively for banana peels and 3.49±0.02, 8.65±0.87, 0.38±0.07, 4.84±1.73 and 83.31±3.49 g/100 g for pineapple skins respectively) and acceptable levels of tannin and phytic acid for both samples. Analysis of sugar profile revealed that these high values agricultural waste contain fructose, glucose and sucrose – potentially being utilised as a good source of sweetners. Finally, we recommend that banana peels and pineapple skins should properly be processed and exploited as a high quality and inexpensive source of food ingredients.