Fruit Morphological Characteristics and β-carotene Content of Three Indonesian Dessert and Cooking Banana Cultivars

Abstract

Approximately, 325 cultivars of bananas were found in Indonesia. They have variation in shape, taste, color of fruit pulp, essential vitamins and mineral. The β-carotene is one of essential nutrient in banana with various concentration in every cultivar. The aims of this research were to describe the morphological characteristics and to analyze β-carotene content of mature fruits of three different genomic groups of Indonesian dessert and cooking banana cultivars namely Berlin (AA/ dessert), Barangan (AAA/dessert), and Kepok (ABB/cooking). Morphological characterizations of fruits were conducted according to Descriptor for Banana from International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. The β-carotene content of mature banana pulp was analyzed using High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with three replications. Banana fruit characters were analyzed based on 15 descriptors. The bananas were then subjected to clustering analysis. The result showed that β-carotene content were 27 μg 100g-1, 5 µg 100g-1, and 3 μg 100g-1 fresh weight respectively. Berlin showed the highest value of β-carotene. Cluster analy-ses formed two groups. The first group consists of Berlin and Barangan while the second one consists of Kepok. This study can be used as a reference for people to consume bananas with high content of β-carotene in meeting the needs of vitamin A and as a consideration for the plant breeding especially for β-carotene improvement purpose.