Assessment of the Nutritional, Anti nutritional and Antioxidant capacity of Uripe, ripe, and over ripe Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) Peels

Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) peels are the major by-product of plantain fruits, constituting about 40% of the fruits but are presently underutilized. This study was carried out to investigate the nutrient, antinutrients contents and antioxidant capacity, of the unripe (UPP), ripe (RPP), and over-ripe (OPP) plantain peels. The plantain pulps were removed from the fruits, leaving the peels only. The peels where thoroughly washed, cut into small pieces, air dried and grounded into powder. Thereafter, the mineral analysis, proximate food analysi, antinutrients contents and antioxidant capacity of the peels were all assessed. The results showed the availability of minerals, the UPP had the highest values of Na (162 mg/g), K (235 mg/g), Ca (100 mg/g), Mg (76 mg/g), P (360 mg/g) and Fe (5.6 mg/g), and OPP had the least values of the minerals. Carbohydrate, crude protein, crude fibre, fat, ash, and moisture contents of the peels ranged from 52.26 - 62.53, 4.21 - 7.89, 0.51 – 0.74, 2.9 -5.23, 12.50 - 17.24 and 13.28 – 20.38 respectively, with the UPPs having the highest contents. Furthermore, the composition for tannins, saponins, phytate, and oxalate ranged from 2.84 – 5.39, 3.27 – 7.73, 9.88 – 11.12 and 0.36 – 0.81 mg/g respectively. For the antioxidant capacity, the UPP extract had the highest values for the total phenolic content (8.94mg.GAE/g), highest for total flavonoid (1.0mg.QUE/g), and same in the Vitamin C content (11.72mg/100g). All the plantain peel extracts were able to scavenge the free radical from ABTS (2, 21- azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid). These results reveal that plantain peels thrown away as waste contains an appreciable amount of nutrient, vitamin, mineral elements and low level of toxicants. Plantain peels (UPP, RPP and OPP) can be further processed to remove or reduce drastically the anti-nutrients and used as nutraceuticals in food, animal feeds, and pharmaceutical industry.