Students Develop Banana Flour to Prevent Coronary Heart Disease

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - Students of the Food Science Department of Widya Mandala University in Surabaya, East Java, is developing banana flour that can help prevent coronary heart disease. William Kusnanto, Widya Mandala Student Team member, said here on Sunday that the banana flour which is processed from raw bananas contains resistant starch, a form of dietary starch that "resists" digestion, and is gluten free. Kusnanto, who did the research along with some of his colleagues, Christian Liguori and Witny Widjaya, said the resistant starch is good for consumption by people who are on diet or those with autism that need to consume gluten-free food. "Resistant starch can not be broken by digestive enzyme and thus, it is stored in the colon," Kusnanto said. Like vegetables and fruits that contain fiber, the resistant starch will be fermented by bacteria inside the colon to produce propionate acid which can prevent cancer, he said. "It works like cholesterol-lowering drugs that the banana flour can prevent coronary heart disease," he said. Kusnanto's teammate, Witny Widjaya, said their research focused on how to prevent coronary heart disease by consuming food that contain resistant starch. "We use banana because it is a local fruit and available at all seasons. It can be used as an alternative food," Widjaya said. Banana is also cheap, he said adding "it will increase added value to Indonesia's food products." The banana flour can also be used as ingredients to make cake, cookies, pasta or noodles, he said adding that banana also has good antioxidant agent. Their research entitled 'Breakthrough in Food Technology: Banana Against Coronary Hearty Disease' has made them the winner of the 11th National Student Paper Competition held by the Bogor Agriculture Institute (IPB) on September 28, 2013.(*)