BANANA PEELS CAN BE PROCESSED INTO ANTIHIPERCHOLESTEROL CANDY

People buy banana in lambaro market, Aceh Besar, sunday ( 6 / 29 ).Besides use its fruit, peel of the banana can be processed becoming soft candy antihiperkolesterol.(ANTARA photo/Irwansyah Putra)

Malang, 19 Ramadan 1435/17 July 2014 (MINA) – Three students of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java find a way to change the peels of banana becoming soft candy antihiperkolesterol.

“Peels of banana that has not been exploited well is able to reduce blood cholesterol. We make Peel of banana becoming a candy,” said the leader of research team Lukman Azis, Wednesday. Antaranews quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Lukman along with Nisa Alfilasarida and Clara Arha can change the pectin from peel of banana into the marshmallow with guidance of their professors, Nur Ida Panca, in Student Creativity and Research Program.

They sorted peel of banana, slice it and steam it for about ten minutes. After that, the peels is dried and made flour.

Then the flour is extracted using solid-liquid extraction method at temperature of 90 Celsius decree with acid solvent to produce basic materials of marshmallows.

The material is heated and purified with alcohol 70 and 96 percent. Then it is filtered to obtain pectin.

According to the research, consumping pectin from peel of banana for two weeks can lower blood cholesterol levels up to 52 percent.

They registerit their product to get licency right while they are researching other potential benefits.(T/Syt/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)