Determination of the Antioxidant Potentials of Two Different Varieties of Banana Peels in Two Different Solvents

Fruit wastes which are perishable pose a big problem to pollution monitoring agencies; however these problems can be reduced by utilizing the high value compounds present in the food waste. Banana peels contain a reasonable number of antioxidant compounds such as gallocatechin and dopamine. This paper investigates the anti-oxidant potential of two different varieties of Banana peels (Dwarf cavandish and Musa omini). The peels were extracted with two different solvents (Methanol and Ethanol) using the soxhlet extractor. The results show that ethanolic extracts have higher phenolics and flavonoid contents (336.83 - 383.83 mgGAE/100g, 242.83 - 252.82 mgRutin/100g) compared to the methanolic extracts of the same banana varieties (299.42 - 344 mgGAE/100g, 240.77 - 241.23 mgRutin/100g). However methanolic extracts exhibit higher DPPH Antioxidants Activity (30.82% - 51.66%) compared to ethanolic extracts (25.44% - 30.27%). This implies that antioxidative compounds other than phenolics and flavonoids were also involved in inhibiting the DPPH Radicals. It was also observed that at any concentration between 0.5 - 2.5 mg, ethanol extracts of both dwarf cavandish and musa omini had higher reducing power than the other two varieties.