A study on proximate mineral composition of plantain (musa paradisiaca) wastes; a potential nutritive source in the formulation of animal feeds

Plantain fruit constitute an important source of energy as a staple diet in the tropics. The peel of the fruit is discarded as waste after the edible portion is eaten; thereby constituting a menace to the environment, especially where its consumption is common, while the bracts are left on the farm as wastes. This research work has comprehensively investigated the presence of proximate mineral composition and secondary metabolites in the Musa Paradisiaca bract waste by using standard methods of AOAC. In this study different solvent extract namely aqueous, ethanol, acetone and hexane extract were prepared from Musa Paradisiaca bract for screening its biochemical constituents. The 10 g of waste sample contains 1.79 % of moisture content, 4.19 % of Ash content, and 8.0 - 13.0 mg of carbohydrate, 8.5 - 9.5 mg of Proteins. Plantain bract is rich in iron (5.0 – 7.0 mg) and magnesium (2.0 – 3.0 mg).it also contains huge amount of total phenol (2.0 - 3.5 mg) and flavonoids (3.0 - 4.5 mg) per 10 g of sample. This study is mainly carried out to identify the presence of Anthocyanin pigment in Musa Paradisiaca bract sample. Result of this study confirmed the presence of anthocyanin pigment in fresh extract of Musa Paradisiaca bract. The knowledge gained by our present study suggest for use of anthocyanin pigment extracted from the Banana extract in textile industry for dyeing a cotton fabric in the presence of mordants. Plantain wastes pose to be potential good sources of nutrients for production of animal feeds, and their utilization for this purpose should be encouraged, as this will also help in reducing the menace of plantain waste in the environment.