HR-MS-based bioactive profiling of green Banana flour and millets-based Murukku snack

Globally, there is a surge in the demand for functional snacks in the food industry. The utilization of unripened fruits and millet grains in developing ethnic products is greatly enhanced. In recent years, omics methodologies have emerged as quantitative and qualitative approaches for screening various functional foods. This study explores the development of Murukku snacks incorporating green banana flour (GBF) and millet. Additionally, it investigates several metabolites in the developed Murukku using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS/Orbitrap). GBF and millets contain a wide range of phytochemicals that aid the functionality of the ethnic snack. A total of 40 major metabolites, including ginsenoside, orotic acid, campesteryl glucoside, tocotrienol, apigenin, etc. were determined in the snack which are involved in various health benefits. Identified bioactive compounds are known for their anti-carcinogenic, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, anti-CVD, etc. attributes. The principal component analysis (PCA) plots were drawn to reveal the pattern of the bioactive compounds formed in the Murukku sourced from GBF and millets during the snack development. This study has shown the developed Murukku snack is a functional food owing to multifaceted health benefits. Also, research has provided new opportunities for developing unripened fruits and millet-based snacks and investigating their bioactivity and functionality with different foodomics tools.