ABSTRACT
The use of artificial fruit ripening agents has become prevalent mostly due to the commercial purposes. People consume fruits, ripened with hazardous chemicals like calcium carbide which pose great health risks to the population. Therefore, this present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of biological and chemical ripening agents on the physical and chemical properties of Benin native banana (Musa spp.) fruits. The study was carried out from 24th of November to 24th of December, 2022 in the Main laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. The treatments consisted of: (i)Calcium carbide, (ii)Potash, (iii)Apple, (iv)Avocado, (v)Pear (Pyrus sp.), (vi)Tomato, (vii)Pawpaw, (viii)Palm fruits (Banga), (ix)Control in bag, (x)Control in open air and (xi)Untreated unripe banana.
The ten banana fingers used for each treatment were placed in black bags with the exception of control in open air and unripe. The ripening agents were added to each bag and were tied up with twines. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. Results indicated that there was significant differences among the ripening agents in both physical and chemical properties except in pulp% and pH. Calcium carbide was earliest in days (5) to 100% ripening but was comparable to potash (5.33), apple (5.33), pear (5.33) and tomato (5.33). However, calcium carbide and potash ripened banana had pulp to peel ratio of 1.80 and 1.70 respectively, while pear(pyrus), apple, avocado and tomato ripened banana had 1.99, 1.57, 1.53 and 1.62 respectively. The untreated unripe banana had pulp to peel ratio of 1.05. Calcium carbide ripened banana had the lowest percentage of ash and protein compared to potash and biological ripening agents. Also chemical ripening agents(calcium carbide and potash) had the highest level of zinc, copper, manganese and lead compared to biological ripening agents. Thus, biological ripening agents like apple, tomato and pear(pyrus) should be adopted as ripening agents to avoid possible health risks from calcium carbide.
