Banana flour has been recognized as functional ingredient, owing to its healthy nutritional pattern. Nevertheless, unripe and ripe banana flours show different characteristics and scarce information is available about changes undergone during banana ripening. The experiment was carried out during 2021-22 at the College of Horticulture, Mudigere, under laboratory conditions. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with two factors viz., C- Cultivars of banana (C1 - Ney Poovan, C2 - Nendran, C3 - Mysore baale, C4 - Grand naine C5 - Rajapuri), M- Maturity stage (M1 - Unripe stage, M2 - Ripe stage) and their interaction (C×M) in 3 replications. The main objective was to evaluate banana cultivars and the stage of harvest for flour production. Powder recovery (%) was found to be maximum in C2M1 (Nendran at the unripe stage; 25.87%), drying duration was minimum (2 hrs. 55 min) in C1M1 (Ney Poovan at the unripe stage) and the highest overall organoleptic evaluation score was noticed in C2M1 (4.65). Based on Powder recovery (%) and organoleptic evaluation, it was proved that C2M1 is best suited for flour production.

Cultivars, maturity stage, powder recovery percentage, drying duration

The treatment combination C2M1 (Nendran at unripe stage) showed the maximum powder recovery percentage (25.87%), the minimum drying duration and a good sensory score. Based on the above findings, the cultivar C2 (Nendran) and unripe stage (M1) combination proved to be best for flour production.

Gururaj Basavaraj Bagalakot, H.S. Chaitanya, Y. Kantharaj, B.S. Shivakumar and S.M. Jayaprakash (2022). The Effect of Banana Cultivar and Maturity Stage on Flour Production. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 115-119.