Comparison of Chemical and Nutritional Values of Extracted Pectin from Selected Local Banana Cultivars of Bangladesh

The experiment was conducted to find out the chemical and nutritional values of pectin from selected Banana cultivars in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh. Pectin was extracted from the peels of banana at 1st stage of ripening (light green peel). The result showed that pectin content in banana peels at 1st stage of ripening varied from 36.10% to 46.12% based on cultivar type. The highest pectin content was found in peels of ‘Sagor’ banana. The pectin from unripe peels (1st stage of ripening) characterized by the moisture (23.29 and 24.75%), ash content (16.67 and 16.24%),equivalent weight (666.67 and 555.56), methoxyl content (26.66 and 12.40%), anhydrouronic acid content (177.76 and 102.08%), degree of esterification (85.15 and 68.97%), vitamin C (0.038 and 0.044%), beta carotene (0.73 and 1.01 mg g-1), vitamin A (1.21 and 1.68 mg g-1),and iron (0.26 and 0.47%) for the ‘Chinichampa’ and ‘Sagor’, respectively. Therefore, it infers that the extracted pectin from unripe banana peels could be compared as high methoxyl pectin which could be used to produce more-sticky gel from ‘Chinichampa’ followed by ‘Sagor’.