• Green banana flour (GBF), pretreated with acids, offered the highest GBF yield and improved techno-functional properties. • Plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) confirmed higher mineral profiles in pretreated GBF than control. • In vitro starch digestibility results revealed that the GBF was resistant to enzyme digestion. • Among all the GBF samples, GBF pretreated with 1% citric acid (CA) exhibited the most favorable flour properties. The potential functionality and health benefits of green banana flour (GBF) arise from its resistant starch (RS) and high bioactive compound concentrations. Thus, we investigated the physicochemical, structural, in vitro digestibility, starch hydrolysis, and estimated glycemic index (e-GI) properties of GBF. Green bananas were dried using a hot air oven at 60°C after being pretreated with citric acid (CA) and sodium metabisulfite (SMS). The highest yield of 56% was achieved by GBF treated with 1% CA. GBF prepared with 1% CA showed the highest water holding capacity (WHC), indicating strong water-binding ability. Minerals were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), 1% CA pretreated GBF exhibited significantly higher concentrations compared to the other pretreated samples. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that pretreated GBF samples exhibited a combination of elongated and spherical shapes. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) spectra revealed that the GBF samples exhibited B-type crystallinity. GBF samples treated with 1% CA exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, total phenolic content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC). Finally, we evaluated the in vitro starch digestibility and found that the RS ranged from 82.83-95.54% of the total starch, making the flour highly resistant to enzymatic digestion. The results were statistically significant (P < 0.05), indicating that GBF pretreated with 1% CA outperformed other treatments in several physicochemical properties. Considering its characteristics, GBF has the potential to serve as a prebiotic, expanding its applications in promoting gut health as well as in bakery products and snacks.
Mushtaq et al. (Wed,) studied this question.