Table of Contents
Conceptual Literature
An investigation by Brazilian environmental scientist Gustavo Castro, proves how the skin of a banana is the most nutritious part, and how it can be used for many things. He discovered that the peel can help remove heavy metals from water. He found the existence of nitrogen, sulfur and carboxylic acids in the peels, and these substances can chemically bind with metals in polluted water. The banana peels will be a natural insecticide, which can be non-toxic to humans and pets and safe for the environment. (Permasofty 2012)
According to Anderson, banana peels can be an alternative fertilizer and a good insecticide to the plants found in the lawns. This will create a good and big help to the household with more plants since there are no more insects found in the plants, and it will also give potassium to the soil, making the soil fertilized. A main problem of the society is price hike of gases and banana peels are just a trash in everybody’s household. A study in the year 2012 revealed that banana peels can also be a good source of methane gas. (G. Ayate, 2012) Banana (Musa acuminata cv. Cavendish) is a commercially significant tropical fruit with innumerable varieties (Prabha and Bhagyalakshmi, 1998). Ten of the major banana producing countries accounted for about 75% of world production in 2003, whereas India, Ecuador, Brazil and China provided almost 50% of the total production in that year (Zhang et al., 2005).
Banana is one of the earliest crops cultivated in the history of human agriculture. The origin of this particular plant family stretches from India to Papua New Guinea which includes the Southeast Asian region (Arvanitoyannis and Mavromatis 2009; De Lange et al. 2009). Its mass cultivation and consumption in the recent decades made it the world second largest fruit crop with an estimated gross production exceeds 139 million tons (FAO 2010a). World leading banana and plantain producers are India, China, Uganda, Ecuador, Philippines, and Nigeria.
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Most of the edible bananas are cultivated mainly for their fruits, thus banana farms could generate several tons of underused by-products and wastes. Therefore, without proper agricultural waste management practice, huge amount of valuable untapped commodity will be lost and causing serious ecological damages (Essien et al. 2005; Shah et al. 2005; Yabaya and Ado 2008). The native people have been utilizing these plants more than just for food purposes but have begun to explore the possibilities of utilizing banana plants in their daily life.
Related Studies
According to the African Journal of Food and Science Technology, banana peels can be alternative wine vinegar. The banana wine vinegar which complied with the standard ranges of brewed vinegar after complete fermentation. The aroma of the vinegar produced was appreciated by the consumers who were acquainted with vinegar. (African Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2014) In the Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, banana pulp and banana peel have been successfully used to treat tomato fungus in a agricultural setting.
Also, tannins present in ripe banana peel act as tanning agents in leather processing. (Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 2013) Pine apple and banana peels ethanol yields were significantly higher than plantain peel ethanol yield. The findings of this study suggest that wastes from fruits that contain fermentable sugars can no longer be discarded into our environment, but should be converted to useful products like bio-ethanol that can serve as alternative energy source. (International Journal of Environment Science and Development, 2013) Banana peels particles can be effectively used as a replacement for asbestos in brake pad manufacture in automobiles. (Idris, 2013)
Another, banana peel is also used in treating warts, treating poison ivy rashes, bruises, mosquito bites, and it even helps in combating alcohol addiction by drinking the water in the boiled banana peels. (Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 2012) The banana peels will be a natural insecticide, which can be non-toxic to humans and pets and safe for the environment. (Permasoftly, 2012) Reader’s Digest once suggested that aphid-infected lawns and gardens should bury dried-up banana peels since it kills or terminates the insects found in anybody’s lawn. (Reader’s Digest, 2012) Banana peels can be a good source of wine through its compound called tannin that is common as a tanning agent and as a food preserver. (Idise, 2012)
According to the Indian Journal of Biotechnology, banana peels can be used for the production of Amylase through the use of Aspergillusniger. (Indian Journal of Biotechnology, 2012) Banana peels can be ensiled but it lacks the appropriate amounts of easily fermentable carbohydrates that are needed for good quality preservation, they should be ensiled together with a feed rich in fermentable carbohydrates. (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2012) Banana peel, an underutilized source of phenolic compounds is considered as a good source of antioxidants for foods and functional foods against cancer and heart disease. The peel of the fruit contains various antioxidant compounds such as gallocatechin and dopamine. (Food and Nutrition Sources, 2011)
In the Asian Journal of Food and Agro-Industry, banana peel is said to be a source of valuable components, the nutritional composition, and antioxidants components. Banana peel is rich in Dietaryfibre, proteins, essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and potassium, good source of carotenoids, relief from pain, swelling, itching, bruising, wrinkles and sunburn. (Asian Journal of Food and Agro-Industry, 2011) According to the Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, materials that contain cellulose can be used to treat heavy metal waste and one of the biomaterial that proved to be as heavy metals sorbent was bagasse. Cellulose can be used as an adsorbent for the carboxyl and hydroxyl functional group which becomes the active binding site of metal.
References
- Characterization and Valuation of Wash Water Powder for Reuse in Liquid Detergent
- Banana peel – Google Scholar results
- Valorization of Food Waste: Innovative Applications for Banana Peels
- Chemical composition and potential uses of banana pseudo-stem (Musa spp.) waste
- Evaluation of Banana Pseudostems for Production of MDF- Wood Plastic Composites (WPC)
