Chemical and biological studies on banana fruit.

Chemical and biological evaluation of both the edible and nonedible portion of banana fruit was carried out. The possibility of using the nonedible portion (peel) as animal feed was also explored. The results showed a remarkable difference concerning the chemical composition of both the edible and nonedible portions. The amino acid contents were proved to vastly deficient with regard to the indispensable amino acids with exception of phenylalanine which was found in good amounts in the edible portion (pulp). The biological results demonstrated that neither the pulp nor the peel portions yielded good P.E.R. values when used at 6% protein level. The P.E.R values showed negative values which amounted to -1.75, -5.85 and -4.67 for the pulp and peel diets respectively. Incorporation of the stock diet to the peel diet resulted in a slight increase which amounted to 6% in both male and female rat groups.