Formulation and functional assessment of raw banana flour muffins as a dietary support for hypertension management: a pilot study

Fruits, especially bananas and their products, play a vital role in enhancing human health due to their abundance of bioactive compounds, fibers, resistant starch, and essential nutrients. This pilot study uniquely evaluated whether consuming muffins containing 35% or 40% raw banana flour (RBF) could beneficially affect blood pressure in individuals with hypertension. This study was performed among 34 patients with hypertension in a private hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. In this pilot study, patients received RBF-enriched muffins for 10 weeks. Participants were assigned to three groups: control (T0, n = 10), 35% raw banana flour (RBF) muffin group (T1, n = 12), and 40% RBF muffin group (T2, n = 12). All groups followed the same diet and lifestyle for 10 weeks, during which intervention groups received RBF-enriched muffins. Pre- and post-intervention measurements of anthropometric, lipid profile, and liver enzyme parameters were recorded. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of this study showed that body weight decreased from 82.10 ± 0.34 kg to 80.22 ± 0.45 kg in T 1 ( p = 0.032) and from 81.85 ± 0.21 kg to 79.24 ± 0.23 kg in T 2 ( p = 0.018), while BMI reduced from 29.70 ± 0.11 to 29.10 ± 0.75 kg/m 2 ( p = 0.041) in T 1 and from 29.01 ± 0.84 to 27.43 ± 0.34 kg/m 2 ( p = 0.027) in T 2 . Systolic blood pressure dropped from 139.80 to 138.29 mmHg ( p = 0.030) in T 1 and from 139.10 to 129.60 mmHg ( p = 0.014) in T 2 , while diastolic pressure declined significantly as well. Improvements in liver enzymes and lipid profiles were also observed: ALT decreased from 44.2 to 39.5 U/L ( p = 0.031) in T 1 , and LDL cholesterol dropped from 147.3 to 126.9 mg/dL ( p = 0.017) in T 2 . These findings suggest that 40% RBF muffin intervention (T2) produced more pronounced improvements in anthropometric, hepatic, and lipid parameters compared to the 35% RBF group (T1). Further studies are recommended to evaluate long-term cardiometabolic effects of RBF-enriched bakery products.