Physico chemical and microbiological characteristics of the purple banana flour (Musa acuminata) red dacca, produced in the Mocache, El Empalme and La Maná cantons

Características físicas, químicas y microbiológicas de la harina de banano morado (Musa acuminata) red dacca, producidos en los cantones Mocache, El Empalme y La Maná

Bananas are one of the main agricultural products of Ecuador, however, being commercialized and consumed as fresh fruit, there are few industrialization alternatives that are available. In this sense this research aimed to obtain purple banana flour (Musa acuminata) of fruit harvested in locations with different altitudinal levels, including the cantons of La Maná (200 m.s.n.m.), El Empalme (71 m.s.n.m.) and Mocache (45 m.s.n.m.); and with two maturity stages (green and pintón). Prior to the elaboration of the flour, the fruit was characterized to determine the, pH, acidity, ° Brix and maturity index were analyzed. In the flour the physical-chemical and microbiological characteristics were analyzed; For the development of the research, six treatments were used, applying Completely Random Design (DCA) with AxB factorial arrangement, the means were compared with the Tukey test (p£0.05). For ° Brix parameter, the highest value was obtained for T1a2 (Mocache / pintón) with an average of 11.30 and the lowest one for T3a2 (El Empalme / pintón) with values ​​of 8.80; the humidity of T1a1 (Mocache / green) was 13.95% being the highest value found and 5.07% the lowest value for T2a1 (La Maná / pintón). Regarding the carbohydrates determination on a dry basis, T2a1 (La Maná / verde) was 91.32% while T3a2 (El Empalme / pintón) with a value of 90.04% was the minimum data in the analyzed samples. The highest value for total polyphenols was obtained for the T1a2 treatment (Mocache / Pintón) with 2.43 mg GAE / g, while the lowest T3a1 with 1.99 mg GAE / g presented the lowest one. 28.70 μg Beta-carotene / g was the highest concentration found for Carotenoids, in the T2a2 (La Manna / Pintón) treatment, while the treatment T3a1 (El Empalme / Verde) presented the lowest value (22.20 μg Betacarotene / g).