Bioved, 28(2) : 359–365, 2017 KAMALJIT KAUR et al. http://biovedjournal.

org/
359

Development and evaluation of gluten free muffins utilizing green

banana flour
Kamaljit Kaur, Gurinderpal Singh and Navdeep Singh
Department of Food Science and Technology, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana
Received April 13, 2017 and Accepted July 2, 2017
ABSTRACT : Gluten free muffins are generally prepared from purified flours and starches having
poor quality attributes. In this regard, this work was undertaken to explore utilization of green ba-
nanas that are starchy food, which contains a high proportion of indigestible compounds such as
resistant starch, non-starch polysaccharides and is gluten free. Green banana flour (GBF) was pre-
pared and gluten free muffins were developed and analyzed. Muffins were prepared by 100% GBF,
composite of GBF: Rice flour in ratio of 50:50 and compared with control i.e. wheat flour (100%).
Muffins prepared from GBF were rich in minerals, less firm, less L* and b* values and had more
volume and overall acceptability. Physicochemical, baking, texture and sensory evaluation showed
that muffins prepared from 100 % GBF had a favorable effect on muffin quality. This study dem-
onstrated that muffins prepared from whole GBF can be successfully utilized as gluten free prod-
uct.
Key Words : Green banana flour, gluten free muffins, rice flour, baking.

The demand of gluten free products is increas-
ing as near to one per cent of the world population
is suffering from gluten intolerance (Shevkani and
Singh, 2014). Increasing sensitivity to wheat gluten,
increase in number of cases of celiac disease and
obesity is the serious public health problems all
around the world. Celiac disease (CD) is a life-long
autoimmune disease in the small intestine that affect
genetically susceptible individuals worldwide. CD is
one of the most common genetic disease that result
from both environmental (gluten) and genetic (HLA
and non-HLA genes) factors (Gujral et al., 2012). CD
is a serious genetic autoimmune disease that dam-
ages the villi of small intestine and interferes with
absorption of nutrients from food. There is no phar-
maceutical cure for celiac disease. A hundred per
cent gluten free diet is the only existing treatment for
celiac today. The only treatment is a being lifelong
adherence to a gluten-free (GF) lifestyle. So, it is
necessary to develop consumer acceptable gluten
free foods. Greater awareness of celiac disease
throughout the world has leads to growing demand
for gluten-free products such as cookies, bread,
pasta and cakes (Gallagher et al., 2003).
Banana is the 5th most important crop in world
export trade after coffee, cereals, sugar and cocoa
(Aurore et al., 2009). Banana is a climacteric fruit,
generally consumed in ripe state, however ripe ba-
nana losses are more during commercialization. They
are highly perishable and if harvesting, handling and
transportation are not done properly, the ripe ba-
nana soon gets decomposed and become unwhole-
some for human consumption. To reduce the losses,
one of the most interesting processing method is the
production of unripe banana flour (Rodriguez-
Ambriz et al., 2008). The benefits of unripe banana
flour is that it is rich in resistant starch (42%)
(Ovando-Martinez et al., 2009) and dietary fiber con-
tent (14.5%) (Alkarkhi et al., 2011). Resistant starch
by definition, is a part of the starch that is not bro-
ken down by enzymes in small intestine. It enters the
large intestine where it is partially or wholly fer-
mented by microorganisms. Resistant starch is gen-
erally considered as one of the components that
make up total dietary fiber (Ovando-Martinez et al.,
2009).
Banana flour is a starchy food and it is gluten-
free that may contribute to the gluten intolerance
problem. Banana flour also a way of utilizing these
green bananas (Chong, 2007), in addition the shelf
360 BIOVED
life can be extended and provide easy storage. Ba-
nana flour produced by peeled and sliced bananas
are dried, milled, sieved then stored. This prepared
flour can be suitably used as thickeners in soups
(Mohapatra et al., 2010) and as starch based ingredi-
ent for extruded and bakery products. Muffins are
sweet, spongy breakfast or evening snack food pre-
pared traditionally from wheat flour, sugar, oil/fat,
milk and eggs. However, wheat-free muffins are of
interest in the present times not only for people who
are gluten tolerant, but also for people interested in
gluten free foods (Nachay, 2010). Rice flour is one of
the most suitable raw material because of its
hypoallergenic properties, free from gluten, low so-
dium content, bland taste, light color and easy avail-
ability. The present study was designed to prepare
green banana flour for preparation of gluten free
muffins and comparison was done with wheat flour
muffins and a gluten free formulation with 55:50 ratio
of GBF and rice flour.
Materials and Methods
Fresh green bananas were purchased from local
market. A total of 3 combs of banana (36 bananas)
were used in this study. Wheat flour (WF), rice flour
(RF) were purchased from local market. Chemicals
and reagents used in the analysis were of analytical
grade. Basic ingredients for muffins preparation
were purchased from local market.
Preparation of green banana flour (GBF)
Green banana flour was prepared according to
the method of Ovando-Martinez et al. (2009) with
little modifications. Green bananas was peeled, cut
into slices of approximately 1 cm thickness and
rinsed in citric acid solution (0.3% w/v) to reduce en-
zymatic browning. The slices were dried at 50±2°C in
convection oven for overnight, ground by using a
commercial grinder and stored at 25°C in sealed plas-
tic container.
Muffin Formulation and Processing
For making muffins, the formula according to
Askar et al. (1987) was used with slight modifica-
tions. Initial trials were conducted for preparation of
muffins by taking various levels of rice flour and
GBF. Based upon muffin making characteristics,
three formulations were selected to make a compari-
son with market muffins (100% wheat flour), second
formulation was selected as another gluten free for-
mulation i.e. Mixture of GBF: rice flour (50:50) and
these formulations were compared with 100% GBF
for muffin preparation.
Proximate Analysis
The Muffins were analyzed for moisture, ash,
protein, fat and mineral according to AOAC (2012)
procedures. Muffins were defatted before ash, pro-
tein and mineral analysis. For Mineral analysis 1 g
sample was digested with 10 ml diacid (Nitric acid:
Perchloric acid, 3:1) and made 25 ml with distilled wa-
ter in 150 ml standard flask before the mineral ele-
ments were determined by atomic absorption spec-
trophotometer (PYE Unicon, UK).
Texture Evaluation
The textural characteristics of the muffins were
studied using a textural profile analysis by a TA-
XT2 Texture Analyzer with 35 mm diameter cylindri-
cal flat probe with a test speed of 1mm/s. Cubes of
3.5 cm height were evaluated by compressing them
with twice to 50% of its original height. The Textural
variables from force and area measurements were:
hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess
and chewiness (Miguel et al., 1999).
Specific Muffin volume by rapeseed displacement
method
The muffin volume was measured by rapeseed
displacement. Muffins were weighed and placed in a
pan. After the rapeseeds are poured over the muf-
fins, those seeds that were displaced by muffin mea-
sured as the volume of the muffins.
Determination of crust and crumb color
The objective measurement of the muffin color
was carried out with a Hunter Labscan II colorimeter,
and the results were expressed according to CIELAB
system.
Sensory evaluation test using Nine Hedonic scales
The method for sensory evaluation of nine he-
donic scales was used to evaluate the sensory qual-
ity of the muffins. Characteristics of the muffins
 KAMALJIT KAUR et al.
evaluated were appearance, taste, texture, color and
overall acceptance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
was used for statistical analysis of data (Gomez and
Gomez, 2010).
Results and Discussion
Proximate and Mineral Analysis of Muffins
Muffins prepared from wheat flour, composite
(Green banana flour: rice flour) and green banana
flour were evaluated for moisture, protein, fat and
ash content. The chemical composition of muffins
with different formulations is presented in Table-1.
The moisture content of muffins with wheat flour
was observed maximum than other two muffin for-
mulations. This pattern is related to the decrease in
fat content and protein content as well. Difference in
moisture content may be due to lack of network pro-
duced by gluten in composite flour and GBF and
consequently the separation of water during the
cooking is higher. A similar trend was found by
Ovando-Martinez et al. (2009), who reported that
moisture content decreased when banana flour
added to the product. Low moisture content is im-
portant in the shelf-life of the products. Ash content
was observed more in GBF muffins as compared to
control muffins whereas protein and fat content de-
creased slightly.
Total sodium, potassium, magnesium and cal-
cium content were the highest in muffins prepared
from 100% green banana flour composition. Table-1
showed that muffins prepared from three composi-
tions mainly had between 30 to 35.31 mg/kg sodium
and 75 to 122.2 mg/kg of potassium and 18.35 to
27.18 mg/kg of calcium being significantly different
from each other. The zinc content in three samples
was ranging between 0.84 to 0.811 mg/kg with high-
est zinc content in composite flour formulation. The
substitution of 50% green banana flour with rice
flour in composition resulted in significant increase
in iron and zinc content of the muffins. The maximum
amount of potassium and calcium was recorded for
muffins with 100% GBF which showed that unripe
banana flour contains good amount of calcium and
potassium.
361
Textural properties of Muffins
From texture profile analysis, typical textural pa-
rameters were generated to indicated textural proper-
ties of muffins (Table-2). TPA (Texture profile analy-
sis) was carried out at 50% of compression. The
hardness values of muffins with 100%green banana
flour were significantly higher than those of control
muffins and composite muffins; the lowest hardness
value was for the control muffins. Muffins with
100% GBF were harder, gummier and chewier than
the control muffins and composite flour muffins.
These changes in muffin texture are related to height
differences. Incorporation of banana flour in wheat
flour for preparation of muffins increased their den-
sity which reduced the number of air pockets,
thereby increasing the force needed for compres-
sion. However, significant differences in muffin
springiness were not found. Springiness is the rate
at which a product springs back to its original condi-
tion after the deformation force is removed. This pa-
rameter is related to muffin weight which remained
almost constant in all formulations. Substitution of
50% green banana flour with rice flour generated a
slight difference in the springiness, but the decrease
was not significant (P=0.05). Cohesiveness is the ex-
tent to which a material can be deformed before it
ruptures. GBF muffins exhibited the highest cohe-
siveness value among all of the samples. The cohe-
siveness of composite flour muffins was signifi-
cantly lower than WF muffins when it was substi-
tuted with 50% of rice flour in the formulation. In
general, gradual decrease in the cohesiveness,
springiness, gumminess, chewiness of GBF muffins
was noted with a substitution of 50% rice flour in
it.Lu et al. (2010) observed increase in firmness,
gumminess and decrease in springiness of sponge
cakes with the addition of green tea powder.
Muffin baking and Color quality
The addition of 50% rice flour to GBF produced
a very slight decrease in weight of muffin, but the
decrease was not significant (P=0.05). The muffin
volume of the GBF was highest i.e. 53 ml and lowest
volume was for composite flour. This decrease in
muffin volume was so slight that there were no sig-
Table-1: Proximate and Mineral Composition of Muffins. 362

Properties Moisture Protein Fat Ash Ca Mg K Sodium Copper Iron Zinc

(%) (%) (%) (%) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg)

Wheat Flour 23.12 9.37 20.32 1.24 18.35 9.56 75 30 0.049 1.50 0.84
±1.41a ±0.73a ±0.55a ±0.12a ±0.23c ±0.56b ±0.58b ±0.35c ±0.01a ±0.12b ±0.21b
Composite 22.12 9.03 18.67 0.84 21.93 11.54 77.19 32.24 0.098 5.852 10.73
±1.13a ±0.55a ±0.72a ±0.09a ±0.41b ±0.22b ±0.84b ±0.43b ±0.01a ±0.17a ±0.26a
UBF 22.30 8.57 19.03 1.06 27.18 17.21 122.2 35.31 0.117 0.986 0.811
±0.42a ±0.38a ±0.31a ±0.09a ±0.26a ±0.97a ±2.68a ±0.57a ±0.01a ±0.06b ±0.04b

Values are mean of duplicate ±SD and means followed by different subscripts in the same column are significantly differently at p=0.05

Table-2: Texture evaluation of Muffins.

Hardness Springiness Cohesiveness Gumminess Chewiness

(N) (cm) (N) (N.mm)
BIOVED

Wheat Flour 2265.53±5.444c 0.853±0.099a 0.645±0.026a 1461.5±4.921b 1246.84±4.652b

Composite 2533.07±6.539b 0.761±0.043a 0.557±0.007b 1397.37±6.858c 1063.11±2.107c
UBF 3458.16±7.360a 0.858±0.031a 0.671±0.036a 2321.43±5.522a 1992.37±2.962a
Values are mean of duplicate ±SD and means followed by different subscripts in the same column are significantly differently at p=0.05

Table-3: Effect of various formulations on Muffin making and Color quality.

Formulations Weight Volume Sp. volume Color

For Muffins (g) (cc) (cc/g) L* a* b*
Crust Crumb Crust Crumb Crust Crumb
Wheat Flour 26.06±0.70a 45.8±0.28b 1.757±0.03b 40.66±0.54a 59.32±0.80a 18.68±0.27a 8.85±0.44a 28.38±0.58a 26.77±0.49a
Composite Flour 25.88±1.47a 44.5±1.20c 1.71±0.05b 37.27±0.65b 43.89±0.60b 14.79±0.41b 3.00±0.83b 23.89±0.43c 17.02±0.32b
UBF 26.4±1.41a 53±4.94a 2.00±0.07a 38.33±0.36b 40.59±0.32b 15.47±0.33b 3.74±0.23b 25.87±0.20b 14.63±0.13c
Values are mean of duplicate ±SD and means followed by different subscripts in the same column are significantly differently at p=0.05
 KAMALJIT KAUR et al.
Fig.-1: Effect of various formulations on the Mean Panel Scores (Max 9) for Sensory Evaluation of Muffins.
nificant differences compared to control muffins,
composite flour muffins as well as GBF muffins. The
specific muffin volume, which is the ratio of muffin
volume to muffin weight, has been generally
adopted in the literature as a more reliable measure
of muffin size. The results showed that the highest
specific volume was observed for green banana
flour muffins and there was significant difference in
specific volume of control muffins, composite flour
muffins and GBF muffins. Majzoobi et al. (2016) pre-
pared gluten free sponge cake by adding carrot
pomace powder (CPP) at various levels in rice and
corn flour (1:1w/w) as base. It was observed that ad-
dition of 30 % CPP resulted in an acceptable gluten
free cake. Singh et al. (2016) explored application of
black carrot pomace dietary fibre concentrate (BCF)
and xanthan gum (XG) in gluten free rice muffins and
observed that BCF and XG can be used as viable
functional ingredient in the preparation of gluten
free muffins.
Color of a baked product can be attributed to
the individual ingredients present in it and their in-
363
teractions. Consumers intercept darker muffins as
being healthier than the light ones (Walker et al.,
2014). The variations in the color parameters are
shown in Table-3. The Crust lightness (L*) of the
muffin samples varied from 37.27 to 40.66 being sig-
nificantly different from each other. Highest value of
crust lightness was observed for wheat flour muf-
fins. Same trend was observed for crumb lightness
also. The decrease in lightness was because of loss
of characteristic white color of the composite and
green banana flour. As we substituted wheat flour
with green banana flour the same observations were
also recorded for yellowness and redness for crust
and crumb of muffins with significant difference in
values.
Sensory Analysis of Muffins
In the present study, the sensory evaluation of
muffins prepared from composite flour and GBF flour
was carried out with the objective of choosing the
best muffins in comparison to control muffins. The
mean sensory liking scores for color, texture, taste,
flavor and overall acceptability of muffins are shown
364 BIOVED
in Fig.-1. The sensory characteristics of muffins pre-
pared from Composite flour and GBF varied signifi-
cantly for color, texture, taste, flavor and overall ac-
ceptability. The overall acceptability of the samples
varied from 7.41 to 8.03. The high value obtained for
the samples might be contributed for all other at-
tributes. Besides, the higher concentration of GBF
in the formulation was observed to be more pre-
ferred with mean score 8.03. Meanwhile, the addi-
tions of Rice flour in the formulations were observed
less preferred with mean score 7.41 for overall ac-
ceptability. Singh et al. (2015) prepared antioxidant
rich gluten free eggless muffins from rice flour and
blended it with jambolan fruit pulp and xanthan gum.
Sensory analysis revealed that jambolan fruit pulp
and xanthan gum improved the texture, volume and
crumb structure of muffins.
The preparation of GBF may be an alternative to
the use of this food crop for production of gluten
free products. The present study concluded that
green banana flour is suitable for preparation of glu-
ten free muffins. GBF can be successfully used at
100 per cent level for preparation of muffins with ac-
ceptable sensory attributes and improved nutritional
profile. GBF muffins had higher calcium, magnesium
and potassium content than control and composite
muffins. Hence, development and utilization of such
functional foods will not only improve the nutri-
tional status of the population, but also helps those
suffering from celiac disease. The finding of this
study may help generate technology to diversify the
use of GBF by the food processing enterprises, spe-
cially baking industries. More studies should be
conducted to investigate the possibility of using
GBF as an ingredient in other food products in order
to increase application of such value-added food in-
gredients.
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Head, Department
of Food Science and Technology, Punjab Agricul-
tural University for providing necessary laboratory
facilities.
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