EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF CHANGES IN THE PEEL AND PULP OF CAVENDISH BASRAI BANANA RIPENING UNDER VARIOUS STORED STAGES.

Cavendish basrai is considered as the most commonly used banana in Pakistan. This experiment was executed to examine the assortment of basic quality profile of Cavendish basrai. Study was carried out on the diversity of four different bioactive characteristics including physical attributes, chemical composition, phenolic constituents and antioxidant potential on Cavendish basrai pulp and peel during storage at room temperature from unripe to ripe and ripped to over ripe (R1 to R8) at regular intervals of three days. The continuous increase was observed in pulp to peel ratio, which directly effects on all the bioactive constituents of both pulp and peel. As a result, moisture and sugar contents, TSS, titratable acidity, TDS, conductance, % NaCl and ash contents continuously increased with regular trends from R1 to R8 stages while regular decrease in total organic matter, total dry matter and pH was founded. Chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoids were found to have irregular trends. Phenolic constituents including total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid contents (TFC), and total antioxidant activity evaluated by three different assays (reducing power, phosphomolybdenum and DPPH assays) increased from R1 to R6 but suddenly decreased from R7 to R8. R5 to R8 considered suitable stages for the utilization of Cavendish basrai banana. In comparison to peel, significant fall down observed in bioactive characteristics with decay from R1 to R8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]