SUPERVISOR: Thomas ROSENAU 

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Hoai Thi TRAN

Seedy banana belongs to the family Musaceae, which originated from Southeast Asia. All parts of this plant including tree-trunk, leaves, roots, fruits and seeds are used as traditional medicines in different countries such as Vietnam, Srilanka and India. In particular, the fruits are used to treat diabetes, respiratory tract disorders, hypertension, cancer, ulcers, diarrhea, urolithiasis, Alzheimer’s disease, infections and others. The immature seedy banana fruits have an astringent taste. This property and the uses of fruits in traditional medicine may, at least partially, be explained by the presence of phenolic compounds. However, little information about the chemical compositions of seedy banana is available and its pharmaceutical properties, therefore, are still not fully understood.

In this project, the phenolic compounds as well as other bioactive compounds with the most potential antioxidant and antidiabetic activities will be fractionated, identified and quantified. These findings could highlight the potential of seedy bananas, a wild plant and limited cultivated species of Vietnam, as a source of health-promoting fruits.