American Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2014, Vol. 2, No. 3, 80-87 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajfst/2/3/1 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajfst-2-3-1 Nutritional Composition of Culinary Musa ABB at Different Stages of Development P. Khawas, A. J. Das, N. Sit, L. S. Badwaik, S. C. Deka * Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Tezpur University, Napaam, Assam, India *Corresponding author: sankar@tezu.ernet.in Received March 24, 2014; Revised April 11, 2014; Accepted May 09, 2014 Abstract Culinary banana (Musa ABB) is an important ingredient of several dishes and is yet to be scientifically studied its nutritional and other biochemical compositions at different stages of development. It is one of the important nutritionally riches Musa sp and is a part of a balanced diet in Northeast India. Variations in nutritional and biochemical compositions associated with growth were studied at 20 (stage I), 35 (stage II), 50 (stage III), 65 (stage IV) and 80 (stage V) days after emergence (DAE) of banana inflorescence. Ash (7.03 g/100 g), protein (10.56 g/100 g), fat (1.50 g/100 g), phenol content (307.99 mg/100 g), radical scavenging activity (59.12% SA), linoleic acid (2.081 mg/100 g) and linolenic acid (1.210 mg/100 g) gradually declined with maturity. A rise in starch content from 12.36 to 22.66 g/100 g was observed with the maturity of banana. Maximum total carbohydrate was observed at stage III (32.15 g/100 g) and declined gradually. Out of 8 minerals tested, magnesium (Mg) was recorded the highest followed by potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) irrespective of the developmental stages of banana. Essential amino acids were found to be present at all the stages of development. The carotenoids (0.130 - 0.159 mg/100 g), vitamin A (0.028 - 0.038 mg/100 g) and thiamine (0.002 – 0.032 mg/100 g) were recorded at various stages of development of culinary banana. Pulp to peel ratio and total soluble sugars suggest that 50 DAE is the optimum stage of harvesting for culinary banana. However, young stages are rich in antioxidants, amino acids and fatty acids. Keywords: Culinary Musa ABB, biochemical compositions, days after emergence of inflorescence, developmental stages Cite This Article: P. Khawas, A. J. Das, N. Sit, L. S. Badwaik, and S. C. Deka, “Nutritional Composition of Culinary Musa ABB at Different Stages of Development.” American Journal of Food Science and Technology, vol. 2, no. 3 (2014): 80-87. doi: 10.12691/ajfst-2-3-1. 1. Introduction Banana plants are the world’s biggest herbs, grown in many countries. Culinary bananas, often called as plantains, are mostly evolved from the edible varieties of two species Musa acuminata (genome “A”)and Musa balbisiana (genome “B”) (Stover and Simmonds, 1987). Considering the nutritional aspect, plantains and bananas are the world’s 4 th leading agricultural crop (Ganapathi et al., 1999). Plantains and cooking bananas look almost similar to unripe dessert bananas, but they are larger in size, more fleshy and starchy (Emaga et al., 2008). The cooking type banana is a major staple food in some countries (Seenappa et al., 1986). They are considered to be one of the most important sources of energy and starchy staple food for the people of tropical humid regions (Onwuka and Onwuka, 2005). According to Doymaz (2010) bananas and plantains are rich in nutrients, starch, sugar and vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium. Plantains are nutritionally low protein food material but relatively high in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals (Offem and Njoku, 1993). Compared to culinary banana, most available reports are on changes in chemical composition of dessert banana cultivars during ripening (Emaga et al., 2008; Cheirsilp and Umsakul, 2008; Yang and Hoffman, 1984; Marriott et al., 1981).Culinary bananas are rich source of nutrients and the biochemical composition varies with growth stage and maturity (Emagaet al., 2008). The Musa ABB culinary banana (locally called kachkal) found only in Northeast India, and is used as a vegetable in preparing various traditional dishes (Khawas et al., 2014). However, till today no scientific effort has been undertaken for its complete nutritional studies at various stages of development. The nutritional studies will be useful for exploitation of the crop at different stages of growth to obtain value added products. Therefore, the present work was undertaken to study the nutritional and biochemical compositions at various developmental stages of banana Musa ABB which can be exploited for developing value added products. 2. Methods 2.1. Sample Collection and Preparation Samples were collected from the experimental plot of Tezpur University, Assam, India. The fingers were harvested at growth stages of 20 days after emergence