Journal of environmental chemical engineering

The experimental conditions that increase the starch production yield from plantain peel wastes are evaluated in this research in order to determine how the extraction parameters, antioxidant concentration and immersion time, affect the starch production yield and purity. The most favorable conditions are selected after two-way ANOVA statistical analysis.  The wet extraction method is used for starch extraction from Green plantain (Musa paradisiaca) peels. Balanced 4 × 4 factorial design was used for experimental design, with 4 ascorbic acid concentration levels, 4 immersion time levels, and 3 independent replications. The results were later analyzed with PAST v3.14 software for statistical evaluation.  Moisture content in plantain peels was an average 87.16%. The starch yield varied from 3.25 to 9.49 g starch (average 5.7 g) obtained from the original 150 g wet plantain peel samples, representing yields varying from 16.6 to 48.5% (average 29%) from dry mass. Higher starch yields are obtained with higher antioxidant concentrations, while immersion time has no-significant effect on the final yield. The starch purity degree varied from 57.52% ± 0.48% to 69.9% ± 0.76%.  Starch extraction from plantain peel wastes has proven potential for waste use and obtaining value-added products. Average starch yield was 29% (from dry mass), while purity reached almost 70%. Two-way ANOVA analysis reflects the ascorbic acid concentration effect on starch yield while it demonstrates that there is no significant interaction between ascorbic acid concentration and immersion time.

Starch extraction potential from plantain peel wastes