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Research Article
ScienceAsia 31 (2005): 265-271 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2005.31.265
Preservation of Fiber-Rich Banana Blossom
as a Dehydrated Vegetable
Kanchana S. Wickramarachchi and Senaratne L. Ranamukhaarachchi*
ABSTRACT: Banana blossom is an excellent source of crude fiber in the human diet. Hot water blanching
adopted at cottage level is found ineffective for preserving the banana blossom due to enzymatic browning
which reduces market demand of the processed product. Therefore, attempts were made to develop a readyto-
cook dehydrated product from the banana blossoms, while maintaining the quality and minimizing
enzymatic browning and use of controversial sulfating agents.
Cutting the banana blossoms into slices of 3 mm directly into a 0.2 % citric acid solution and keeping the
slices immersed for 30 minute duration followed by drying at 50oC for 6 hr gave an acceptable product with
respect to appearance, flavor and overall quality. The quality of the product remained almost unchanged
when stored in Aluminum foil laminated with high density polyethylene (Al/HDPE) for more than a month.
Oriented polypropylene laminated with cast polypropylene (OPP/CPP) was by far inferior for storage of the
dehydrated banana blossom, of which moisture content increased by 2.9 % and L’ value decreased from 41.23
to 37.42.
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Agricultural System and Engineering Program, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
* Corresponding author, E-mail: ranamuka@yahoo.com
Received 25 Jan 2005,
Accepted 1 Jun 2005
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