Prebiotic from tropical fruits

Abstract

Inulin is a prebiotic which is found widely in nature as plant storage complex carbohydrate. The present commercial sources of inulin are from chicory, Jerusalem and artichoke. In this research, selected tropical fruits from local sources were used. Inulin was extracted from edible portion of banana, soursop and noni. The fruits extract was identified by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. The FT-IR spectroscopy was used in the qualitative identification of the inulin compound in those fruits. The average of IR bands (KBr): 3395, 2940, 1650 and 1128 cm-1. The spectrum of inulin obtained from those fruits are similar to infra-red characteristics of the standard inulin. HPLC method was used as the quantitative determination of this inulin content in those fruits. The results obtained are 0.387g/g for banana, 0.391 g/g for noni and 0.381 g/g for soursop fruits. The results obtained are comparable to that existing data.