The Effect of Different Chemical Agents on the Prevention of Enzymatic Browning in Banana

Abstract

This study was conducted to test the concept of fresh cut banana slices with the effects of chemical treatments on the surface appearance and selected quality indexes of banana samples right after cutting and during 2-week of storage at refrigeration conditions (0-4 °C). Banana slices were treated with an ascorbic acid, sodium chloride, citric acid, calcium chloride, and sodium carbonate, water (room temperature), and hot water (65 °C). Quality attributes, e.g. color, PPO (polyphenol oxidase) activities, surface appearance of the cut bananas were compared. Banana slices immersed in sodium chloride, calcium chloride, citric acid and sodium ascorbate showed visual traces of browning during storage at 4 °C. After 14 days of storage, only ascorbic acid treated banana samples showed moderate browning, while all other treatments were severely affected. Browning was more severe for the samples immersed in water for all storage times. The browning measurement (a value) became increasingly positive from first to fourteenth day storage. It was observed that the inactivation of PPO enzyme was achieved for the ascorbic acid treated sample most. Rather than ascorbic acid treatment, cut banana samples showed less PPO enzyme activity for sodium chloride, citric acid, calcium chloride, sodium carbonate, hot water, and water (room temperature) treatments, subsequently. There were no significant changes observed on the different chemical treatments (sodium chloride, citric acid, calcium chloride, and sodium carbonate) except ascorbic acid. In overall, ascorbic acid was found to be the most efficient treatment on the inactivation of PPO enzyme activity among all the treatments. Beside the inactivation of the enzyme, ascorbic acid showed a better success to prevent color degradation of bananas. This study showed that ascorbic acid treatment is an effective chemical agent on the inactivation of browning enzymes.