Effect of Banana Leaf Extract, Pumpkin Seed Extract and Bee Honey Treatment on the Inhibition of Browning of Fresh Cut Guava

Purpose: Enzymatic browning is one of the most common phenomena happenings in guava slices as well as in all fresh-cut produces. This research was aimed at studying the potentiality of bee honey (BH), banana leaf extract (BLE), and pumpkin seed extract (PSE) for inhibition of enzymatic browning of fresh-cut guava slices.

Research Method: Guava slices were dipped in solution (slice: solution = 1:1) containing either BH or BLE or PSE for 5 min and the changes in physicochemical properties such as browning intensity, color, vitamin C, acidity and microbial attributes were evaluated during their storage at 4°C up to 6 days.

Findings: All treatments had the potentiality to inhibit enzymatic browning reactions. Treatment with BH had the best browning inhibition capacity (75.68%) followed by BLE (59.93%) and PSE (36.67%). Moreover, all three treatments worked against increasing of microbial load, degradation of acidity, ascorbic acid and color. All treated samples had higher lightness (L*) values upon storage than control (without treatment). The reaction rate constants for degradation of vitamin C based on 1st order kinetic model were as 0.0153, 0.0117, 0.0047 and 0.0037 per day for control, PSE, BLE and BH treatments, respectively.

Originality: Findings of this study indicate that the BH, BLE and PSE had potency against quality deterioration and browning of fresh cut guava slices during storage.