2.1. Plant materials and pretreatment
Non-commercial banana cultivars: Luvhele (Musa ABB), Mabonde (Musa AAA) and M-red (Musa balbisiana cv Muomvared) obtained at unripe stage of maturity from household banana farms in Thohoyandou, South Africa were used for the conduct of this research. Fruit pulp from all three non-commercial cultivars was cut to 4 mm size and pretreated with organic acids: ascorbic, citric and lactic acid at concentrations of 10, 15 and 20 g/L for 10 min. The mixture containing pretreated and sliced pulp was allowed to drain for 2 min after which sliced banana fruit pulp was vacuum dried in an oven at a temperature of 70 C for 12 h.