Nutritional Composition of Plantain Flour of ( Musa Paradisiaca ): the Effect of Various Drying Methods in Rwanda

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the nutritional composition of plantain flour processed using three drying methods namely sun drying, oven drying, and microwave drying. A variety of Musa paradisiaca grown in Rwanda and locally named “inshakara” was peeled, sliced, dried and ground. Vitamin C, pro-vitamin A, and proteins of both fresh and flour samples were determined to examine possible losses of nutrients due to drying. Moisture content was also analyzed for the fresh sample only. The results found were 70.59%, 72.3% and 74.05% moisture loss due to sun, oven and microwave drying respectively. 6.45mg of vitamin C was determined in the fresh sample while 4.808mg, 4.156mg and 3.875mg of ascorbic acid were found in flour processed by sun drying, oven drying, and microwave drying respectively. The results obtained for s-carotene determination were 5.674µg for the fresh sample, 5.546µg for microwave dried plantain flour, 3.215µg for sun-dried plantain flour and 2.17µg for oven dried plantain flour. Proteins resulted in 1.8712% fresh sample, 1.1786% sun dried plantain flour, 1.3266% oven dried plantain flour and 0.9851% microwave dried plantain flour. The losses of nutrients varied due to the drying system applied.