Valorization of Banana Biomass: Nutritional and Phytochemical Insights With Applications in Food and Allied Industries

The global banana processing industry generates substantial organic waste in the form of peels, leaves, stems, and flowers, posing both environmental challenges and opportunities for valorization within a circular economy framework. This review provides a critical and integrative synthesis of the recent literature on nutritional composition, phytochemical diversity, pharmacological potential, food, and non-food applications of various bananas parts with a dedicated focus on safety/toxicity, sustainability, and industrial feasibility. Evidence indicates that banana peels and other underutilized parts are rich in primary and secondary metabolites, supporting their application in functional foods, edible packaging films, animal feed, and also as biofertilizers. Green extraction approaches using ethanol and water emerge as suitable techniques for food grade applications, while organic solvents such as methanol and ethyl acetate for cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industry. However, the available evidence is primarily based on in vitro studies, animal modeling, and pilot-scale processing. This review concludes that while sustainable upcycling of banana by-products is scientifically justified, it remains translationally limited, necessitating rigorous clinical trials and comprehensive techno-economic evaluations to enable large scale industrial adoption.