Use of agricultural wastes to design natural products for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or risk factors for CVD, such as diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, are the leading cause of death worldwide. Therefore, the use of agricultural by-products as a source of functional ingredients, particularly those from crop plants, has received significant interest. For example, banana (Musa spp.) is a common food crop worldwide and is the primary production on Madeira island in Portugal. Still, its peel is usually rejected like other agricultural by-products [1]. However, the banana peel has been consumed as food and medicine in some regions of the world, so possibly it can be transformed into functional food. Furthermore, it has been reported that banana peel presents a broad range of bioactive chemical constituents and biological activities, which seems to support the proposed use of banana peel in several food industries [1].

In this work, banana peels and puree were incorporated into sweet food products as butter and sugar substitutes, enhancing the nutritional content. The results show that the final product's dietary fibre and phenolic content increased while lipidic and total sugar content decreased. The obtained results show that banana peels have a great potential to be developed into beneficial functional foods and nutraceuticals.

As future work, it is intended to perform further analyses of the chemical composition of the products, such as the content of minerals, and study their biological characterization to assess their potential value as a functional food. Despite the nutrients offered by banana peels, the assessment of anti-nutrient content such as tannins is also necessary.

References

[1] Zaini, H.M., Roslan, J., Saallah, S., Munsu, E., Sulaiman, N.S. and Pindi, W., 2022. Banana peels as a bioactive ingredient and its potential application in the food industry. Journal of Functional Foods, 92, p.105054.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from REQUIMTE/LAQV—UIDB/50006/2020, UIDP/50006/2020 and LA/P/0008/2020, financed by FCT/MCTES and the project SYSTEMIC, "An integrated approach to the challenge of sustainable food systems: adaptive and mitigatory strategies to address climate change and malnutrition". The Knowledge hub on Nutrition and Food Security received funding from national research funding parties in Belgium (FWO), France (INRA), Germany (BLE), Italy (MIPAAF), Latvia (IZM), Norway (RCN), Portugal (FCT), and Spain (AEI) in a joint action of JPI HDHL, JPI-OCEANS, and FACCE-JPI launched in 2019 under the ERA-NET ERA-HDHL (n° 696295).