Development and Standardisation of Banana Pseudostem Based Novel Functional Blended Ready to Drink (RTD) Beverages and Studies Nutritional Changes during Storage

Banana pseudostem contributes about 30% of the total plant biomass which contains significant amount of minerals. The aim of the present investigation was to study the development and standardisation of functional ready to drink (RTD) banana pseudostem beverages using ginger rhizome and nannari root extracts and study their storage stability up to 6 months under ambient temperature and 13.5°C. Ginger rhizome and nannari root extracts at the concentration of 4% were found to be appropriate for the preparation of ginger and nannari-flavoured RTD banana pseudostem beverages. Nutrients analysis revealed that the flavoured RTD banana pseudostem beverages had significant amount of nutrients, namely total sugar (10.62 to 10.83 g/100 ml), total Carbohydrate (CHO) (13.92 to 16.08 g/100 ml), vitamin ‘C’ (0.673 to 0.707 mg/100 ml), sodium (0.920% to 0.935%), potassium (8.13% to 8.30%), zinc (1.034 to 1.117 ppm), copper (0.9183 to 0.9190 ppm) and manganese (0.9544 to 1.0144 ppm). After 6 months of storage, the drink blended with ginger rhizome extract was found best in terms of nutrient retention and colour and appearance, flavour, consistency, taste and overall acceptability followed by nannari-flavoured banana pseudostem RTD beverages.