Functional Properties and Chemical Composition of Composite Flour Made from Cooking Banana (Musa Paradisiaca) and Yellow Maize (Zea Mays)

Cooking banana is an underutilized crop, high in fibre and important in the management of diabetes. Maize on the other hand, is one of the widely grown cereals and cash crop in Nigeria. The study was carried out to determine the functional properties and chemical composition of cooking banana and yellow maize flour blend. Cooking banana and yellow maize were processed and milled into flour. The samples were coded as follows: A = 100% Yellow Maize Flour, B= 90:10 Yellow maize and cooking banana flour, C= 80:20 Yellow maize and cooking banana, D= 70:30 Yellow maize and cooking banana, E=60:40 Yellow maize and cooking banana and F 100% cooking banana. All the samples were subjected to laboratory analysis for proximate, minerals and functional properties using standard methods. Data was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean was separated using Duncan New Multiple Range (P<0.05).The results were; 2.20-4.20%, 2.10-6.20%, 0.82- 4.21%, 2.23-4.21%, 8.20-13.10 and 74.05-80.07% for protein, fat, Ash, fibre, moisture and carbohydrate respectively. The mineral contents were; 4.02-12.20mg, 0.86-130.40mg, 39.14-90.65mg, 1.38-2.06mg, 120.53- 163.15mg, 10.20-24.70mg and 67.48-130.43mg/100g for iron, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, sodium and potassium respectively and the functional properties for the samples were0.63-0.78g/ml, 137.67-175.42g/g, 110.24-130.66g/g, 2.30-2.68% and 3.08-5.00v/v for bulk density, WAC, OAC, foam capacity and swelling capacity respectively. The study revealed the production of nutrient dense composite flour from blends of yellow maize and cooking banana flour.

Keywords: Yellow maize, cooking banana, functional properties, composite flour.