Influence of pressure cooking on antioxidant activity of wild (Ensete superbum) and commercial banana (Musa paradisiaca var. Monthan) unripe fruit and flower.

Banana is a highly nutritious fruit crop consumed by many people's worldwide while endangered species are consumed by limited peoples and their health benefits are not explored. The unripe fruits and flowers of wild and commercial banana are consumed by peoples after cooking only. Hence, the present study was undertaken to evaluate and compare the effect of pressure cooking on antioxidant activity of wild and commercial banana species. The raw and processed samples were extracted with 70 % acetone. Except wild flower, thermal processing enhanced the content of phenolics, tannins, flavonoids, DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, hydroxyl and peroxidation activity than raw. Wild species presented higher phenolics, tannins, DPPH, ABTS and FRAP activity than commercial ones. Except few samples, wild species and commercial species exhibit similar activity in superoxide, hydroxyl and peroxidation activity. FRAP (r (2)  = 0.922; 0.977) and hydroxyl (r (2)  = 0.773; 0.744) activities were dependent on phenolics and tannin content whereas tannins may be responsible for DPPH scavenging activity (r (2)  = 0.745). Thermal processing enhanced the antioxidant activity might be due to the release of bound phenolics from cell wall and oxidation and polymerisation of compounds present in it. This wild species may be an alternative to commercial ones and will be valuable to consumers for protecting from chronic diseases.