Profiling of agronomic traits and folic acid in five dessert bananas (Musa spp.)

Many varieties of Musa spp. have been used as edible fruits around the world. Bananas belong to the genus Musa, whose fruits contain high calories and nutritional values. There is little data on agronomic traits and folic acid (FA) concentrations of different types of dessert bananas in Vietnam. This study aimed to determine such information in the fruits of five banana varieties, including Cau, Xiem, Gia Huong, Com, and Dole. Agronomic characteristics were considered, including fruit size and weight, peel colour and pulp firmness, while FA concentrations were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The results showed significant differences among agronomic values and FA contents. Dole had the heaviest weight (175.48 g), followed by Xiem (123.71 g), Gia Huong (121.77 g), Com (103.12 g) and Cau (52.07 g). The size (length × width) of 5 cultivars has significant differences, including Dole (16.22 × 4.17 cm), Xiem (11.78 × 4.44 cm), Gia Huong (15.44 × 4.22 cm), Com (11.59 × 3.88 cm) and Cau (9.00 × 3.79 cm). For the colour results, most banana cultivars had yellow peels, except Gia Huong which remained green colour at ripening stages (b/a<0). The pulp firmness is expressed with the hardest value from Xiem (0.59 N), then Dole (0.36 N), Com (0.32 N), Cau and Gia Huong (0.29 N). The FA concentrations ranged 3-12 μg /100 g fresh weight. The cultivar Cau had the highest level of FA per 100 g fresh weight (12.04 μg), followed by Gia Huong (8.76 μg), Dole (6.00 μg), Xiem (4.62 μg), and Com (3.14 μg). The FA contents were positively correlated with the colour brightness L, performed by Pearson value, with r = 0.755 (p<0.001). On the other hand, an inverse correlation was found between FA concentration and the fruit weight (r = -0.542, p<0.001) and the pulp firmness (r = -0.337, p<0.05). In conclusion on 5 varieties of dessert bananas, measured values of agronomic traits and FA have been recorded, and Pearson analysis shows a positive relation between FA and colour brightness and a negative one between FA and fruit weight/firmness.