Musa paradisiaca (banana) as source of fiber

Banana is one of the most important fruit crop plants and belongs to the genus

Musa. After harvesting the fruit, the plant is cut down and thrown away, mostly as waste.

The banana plant is largely divided into three parts- pseudostem, peduncle and leaf. The

pseudo stem portion of the plant fiber is suitable for making ropes and twines (Saikia et

al., 1997).

In 135 countries and territories across the tropics and subtropics, Bananas are

being produced. The majority producers are farmers who grow the crop for either home

consumption or for local markets [CITATION Véz15 \l 13321 ] .Banana is the second most

produced fruit after citrus. It has 16% contribution in the world’s total fruit production. It

has also stated that India is the most or the largest producer of banana in the world

estimating up to 27% of banana’s production. According to them the banana is useful in

every part just like food, feed, pharmaceutical, packaging, and many other industrial

applications [ CITATION Deb10 \l 13321 ].

As stated by Vigneswara, Pavithra, Gayathri, and Mythili (2015), banana fibers

have a huge contribution for textile and packaging industry. However, the banana stem

forms a major source of waste material. But today, most of banana fibers are used for

making ropes and cordage. They have compositions, properties, and structures that are

suitable for using in industrial applications[ CITATION Vig15 \l 13321 ].

Banana (Musa paradisiaca, family Musaceae) is a central fruit crop of the tropical

and subtropical regions of the world grown on about 8.8 million hectares [ CITATION

Moh10 \l 1033 ]. It is possibly the world's oldest cultivated crop [ CITATION Kum12 \l
1033 ]. It is one of the tallest herbaceous plants with a pseudostem. Its tough treelike

pliable stem is composed of the sheathing twisting leaf bases, which contains fibers of

sufficient strengths to keep the tree upright. In different countries, about 300 varieties of

bananas are grown, of which a vast majority are grown in tropical Asia [ CITATION Sim62

\l 1033 ].

Banana is one of most important fruit crops grown in India. With continuous

increase of production, huge quantity of waste biomass from Pseudo stem, burnt or left

situ causing detrimental impact on environment. They have available technologies for

extraction of fibers and paper making from Pseudo stem, but it is not being adopted in

industries due to lack of awareness [ CITATION Rav16 \l 13321 ].

In the study of Mohiuddin, Saha, Hossian, and Ferdoushi (2013), Banana is one of

the most important fruit crops grown everywhere in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, pseudo

stem is abandoned and is a hazardous waste while other countries used it to make

different products. The study provided the usefulness of banana, not only the fruit itself,

but also the benefits of recreation through banana pseudostem. They concluded that the

research information they gathered will be of immense help to the farmers, entrepreneurs,

planners, scientists as well as the Bangladesh government to take proper initiatives for the

betterment of their nation.

The banana plant has a very juicy aerial stem, properly denoted as the

pseudostem, which is a clustered, cylindrical aggregation comprised of leaf stalk bases of

leaf-petiole sheaths [ CITATION Muk08 \l 1033 ]. There is also a subterranean stem,

known as the corm, as well as the part that supports the banana fruit, peduncle, stalk, or
rachis. The leaves and stalk of the pseudostem are disposed of after the fruit has been

harvested. Collectively, the waste of banana production is an estimated 220 tons of

byproduct per hectare annually (Padam et al., 2012).

Banana has long been considered a food, fruit and fodder crop. In addition to this,

now a day, it is also gaining importance as a source of fiber. Annually about 1.5 million

tons of dry banana fibers can be produced from the outer sheath of pseudostem. Being a

rich source of natural fibers, the pseudostem can be profitably utilized for numerous

applications and preparation of various products [ CITATION Kum12 \l 1033 ].

Banana pseudostem is a large biomass resource that is usually wasted, inspite of

the possibility that it can be used as a source of organic compounds such as cellulose and

hemicellulose (Pereira et al., 2014).The banana fiber spin ability and weaving

performance were invested, so that it can be used as a good substitute for jute in making

of sacks and packaging materials (Sinha, 1973).

It was concluded that banana fiber can replace certain percentage of Mesta, a

cellulosic fiber in the composition of agricultural ropes. The Mesta or allied fibers thus

saved could be more profitably be used for packaging textiles and other materials fiber

yarn makes the cloth brighter, impart better dyeing properties and can also be bleached.

This additional outlet for the products of banana plantations would benefit the farmer, but

a prerequisite for economic use of banana fiber will be a steady bulk supply, initially at a

somewhat lower price than that of the existing comparable fibers. The fibers are 1.5-2.7m

long have a tensile strength and are traditionally used for making ropes (Karolia, 2005).
 Many authors, who have studied the utilization of banana pseudostem as a

bioresource, even using a biorefinery, usually consider the whole trunk as a uniform

material (Akpabio et al., 2012). However, the pseudostem can be separated into several

sheaths. The physicochemical properties of each sheath may be different, because they

have different physiological ages and functions. So, it could be possible to fractionate the

same pseudostem in several sheaths, as a simple physical pretreatment, and each group of

sheaths can be used for the most suitable application in accordance to its properties

instead of using a mixture of all the fractions and performing chemical treatments to

separate each organic fraction (Gabhane et al., 2014).

Pseudostem and peduncle are the major source of fibre for banana. These fibers

can be used as raw material for making paper, cardboards, tea bags, and etc. The strong

property of pseudostem as a fiber is an advantage for it to be a main product for making a

rope since it contains a massive amount of cellulose. And cellulose contains an

indigestible or insoluble substance, making it hard [ CITATION Pre13 \l 13321 ].

According to M.K.V Karthikeyan, A.N. D. Balaji and V. Vignesh ( 2016 ) Banana

ribbon is a new natural fiber, it has a polyester composites and have more improvement

than a regular fiber, they studied about the fiber and use electron microscope to probe the

fiber matrix interaction, and they learned that mat composites are used to fabricate

windshield of cars and mudguard of two wheelers.

Banana fibers are completely biodegradable, recyclable and are more environment

friendly than synthetic fibers both in terms of production and their disposal [ CITATION

Muk08 \l 1033 ]. Therefore, the banana products have export potential. Unlike synthetic
fibers which are largely produced from non-renewable resources, banana fibers are made

of renewable resources.

Banana

The word "BANANA" is a general term embracing a number of species or hybrids in the

genus Musa of the family Musaceae. Some species such as M. Basjoo Sieb. & Zucc. of Japan

and M. ornata Roxb., native from Pakistan to Burma, are grown only as ornamental plants or

for fiber. M. textilis Nee of the Philippines is grown only for its fiber, prized for strong ropes

and also for tissue-thin tea bags. The so-called Abyssinian banana, Ensete

ventricosum Cheesman, formerly E. edule Horan, Musa ensete Gmel., is cultivated in Ethiopia

for fiber and for the staple foods derived from the young shoot, the base of the stem, and the

corm. Most edible-fruited bananas, usually seedless, belong to the species M.

acuminata Colla (M. cavendishii Lamb. ex Paxt., M. chinensis Sweet, M. nana Auth. NOT

Lour., M. zebrina Van Houtee ex Planch.), or to the hybrid M. X paradisiaca L. (M.

X sapientum L.; M. acumianta X M. balbisiana Colla).

Banana peels

Musa sapientum peels were analysed for minerals, nutritional and anti-nutritional

contents. The result of mineral content indicate the concentrations (mg g 1) of potassium,

calcium, sodium, iron, manganese, bromine, rubidium, strontium, zirconium and niobium

to be 78.10, 19.20, 24.30, 0.61, 76.20, 0.04, 0.21, 0.03, 0.02 and 0.02, respectively. The

percentage concentrations of protein, crude lipid, carbohydrate and crude fibre were 0.90,

1.70, 59.00 and 31.70, respectively. The results indicate that if the peels are properly

exploited and process, they could be a high-quality and cheap source of carbohydrates

and minerals for livestock.