Studies on diversity nutritive and antioxidant values of edible pseudostems of banana from Manipur India

Abstract

Bananas are large herbaceous monocarpic plants belonging to the genus Musa of newlinethe family Musaceae under the order Zingiberales. The stem of the banana plant known as newlinepseudostem produces a single and large inflorescence with a bunch of banana fruits before newlinedying. This crop generates a large amount of biomass residue from the pseudostem and newlineleaves after harvesting the bunch of bananas fruits. About 72 million tons (mt) of banana newlinepseudostem is wasted annually in India. The banana pseudostem occupy about 61% of the newlinebiomass weight. These banana waste residue materials are rich in minerals and nutrients, newlineespecially dietary fiber. The banana pseudostem could potentially be used more in food newlinerather than in other industries. The young pseudostems of wild and cultivated Musa species newlinehave been used as a common vegetable food item by different communities of Manipur. newlineThe banana pseudostems are sold in all the vegetable markets of all districts in Manipur newlineand play key roles in socio-economic development activities. Despite large scale newlineharvesting, marketing and consumption of different species and cultivars of young banana newlinepseudostems in Manipur, there has been no scientific investigation conducted to identify newlinethe different species and their nutritive values. Moreover, no efforts have been made to newlineevaluate the commercial and economic values of pseudostem and impacts of harvesting of newlineyoung pseudostems on the natural population and diversity in the wild habitats. The present newlinestudy has been conducted to identify edible wild species and cultivars of Musa, determine newlinenutritive and antioxidant values and evaluate the impact of harvesting of edible pseudostem newlineand their role in socio-economic development of different communities in Manipur, North newlineEastern India.