Value-added banana products to boost rural economy: BARC

Country's largest produced and highly perishable fruit""banana- has been found to have excellent scope for development of several value added products like juice, biscuit, banana powder and industrial amylase enzyme with longer shelf life.

If the technologies developed for this is translated into commercial practice, "it could generate positive impact on agro-based economy as well as rural India", says Dr K K Surendranathan of the bioprocess development and biochemical application section of nuclear agriculture division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here.

Exposing the shoot-culture of banana to gamma rays for a very low dose could develop a variety of bananas known as "Basari 10GY" and fruits from this variety were found to be sweeter, less fibrous and quicker to ripen, Surendranathan said.

BARC has adopted a novel technology to make products from banana of consumer interest and "it could have sustainable potential and the "the products include banana juice, ripe banana powder and value addition of banana peel", he said.

Unlike other fruits, juice cannot be extracted out of banana by simple methods like grinding, crushing or squeezing.

BARC has developed a process that enables extraction of over 80 per cent moisture as juice from the fruit ""-about 600 to 700 ml juice per kg Basrai (10 GY) variety.

Commercial banana juice 200 ml would cost just 35-50 paise while a 200 ml concentrate would cost Rs 2, the scientist said while elaborating on the operational and commerical cost of the juice.

The operational cost of the juice making including the cost of banana, labour and electricity is estimated to be less than Rs 8,000 for generating 550 to 600 litres of concentrated juice which could be a starting material for making over 1800-2000 litres of commercial banana juice.

The important feature of the process, besides the yield, is that no external agent like peptolytic enzymes or water is added for the extraction of the banana juice, he added.

The left over pulp after making the juice was found to have excellent banana flavour and was dried and ground to a free flowing powder.

Usually, ripe banana will form a sticky mass on drying, which cannot be powdered, he said adding that this powder from the left over pulp retained aroma and taste of the fruit.

Explaining how the industrial enzyme amylase could be made out of the banana peels, Surendranathan said about 35 to 40 tonnes of peel get accumulated when 100 tonnes of fruits are processed.

BARC has developed a method for the solid-state fermentation of the banana peels into amylase with high specific gravity and could be used for industrial purposes, after improving the protein concentration, Surendranathan said.