Chemical and Nutritional Evaluation of Banana Peels and Their Potential Use in Improving The Egyptian Balady Bread

Banana (Musa Saptienum) is the largest herbaceous plant in the world and is among the ten most important crops. However, A large portion of their production is waste mainly peels, causing environmental pollution. In the present study, 60 kg of bananas grown in Egypt were divided into three maturation stages namely unripe (green), ripe (yellow) and after the ripe stage (AR) were peeled washed, dried and packed in glass containers for further and analysis. Results of the proximate chemical analysis revealed that the unripe stage (green) contained the highest moisture and crude fiber, whereas, the ripe(yellow) stage contained, the highest protein and ash.The AR stage, exhibited the highest significant content of total phenolic and flavonoids of 31.31 mg GAE/g and 25.63 g QE /100g, respectively. Also, the AR stage exhibited the highest antioxidant activity as measured by DPPH inhibition and FRAP (89.60% and 48.15 mg Te/g) as compared to the other stages. Sensory evaluation of Balady bread showed that the 15% substitution by AR stage powder was highly accepted by panelists. The accepted level of bread was further subjected to proximate chemical analysis against control to reveal its effect on the nutritional and health benefits. Results revealed a significant rise in all chemical parameters (protein, ash and fat) except for moisture and carbohydrate, while the total phenolics revealed a higher significant increase value than the control (139. 35mg GAE/100g). This study showed that banana peel incorporated in bread can provide nutritional and health added value product.