Encapsulation of banana peel extract (polyphenol) with whole milk, maltodextrin and gum acacia improves stability

The peel of bananas constitutes 35 % of the overall weight of the fruit and is the primary by-product that has the potential to provide useful compounds for the development of functional food. This work aims to quantify the antioxidant capabilities of banana peel extract and to determine the physico-chemical and storage stability of polyphenol fortified milk powder. The physiochemical characteristics, encapsulation efficiency and storage stability of encapsulated banana peel extract via freeze drying and spray drying were examined. The results show that ripe banana peel extract contains higher total phenolic content (TPC, 143.66±0.08 mg GAE/100 g) and total flavonoid content (TFC, 156.14±0.04 mg rutin/100 g) than unripe banana peel extract (118.23±0.17 mg GAE/100 g of TPC and 132.76±0.07 mg rutin/100 g of TFC, respectively). The DDPH antioxidant activity was 73.93 % for unripe banana peel and 80.41 % for ripen banana peel. Physico-chemical analysis revealed that freeze dried banana peel extract had no significant difference with spray dried banana peel extract. Solubility of encapsulated freeze dried milk powder (88.06 %) was higher than encapsulated spray dried milk powder (76.87 %). The findings revealed that freeze dried powder had a higher coefficient of efficiency (88.06 %) compared to spray dried powder (76.87 %). In conclusion, freeze dried powder exhibited greater stability in terms of TPC retention compared to spray dried powder.