The proportion of all-trans-b-carotene in relation to the other provitamin A carotenoids for all the plantains after ripening ranged from 49.4% to 63.5% (Fig. 1). While ‘Hung Tu’ showed significant increases in its all-trans-b-carotene proportions with ripening, ‘Lahi’, ‘Bira’ and ‘Bugaoisan’ showed a significant decrease (P < 0.05). Among the dessert banana cultivars, ‘To’o’ and ‘Hung Tu’ had t-BC >65%, while ‘Sepi’ had the lowest all-trans-b-carotene proportion (50%) after ripening (Fig. 1). Both ‘To’o’ and ‘Hung Tu’ had statistically significant changes with a decrease in all-trans-carotene
and an increase in cis proportions with ripening (P < 0.05). Fig. 1 also shows that the proportion of cis carotenoids increase as the fruit progressed from unripe to ripe; this could be due to enzymatic or non-enzymatic isomerization of trans carotenoids to cis-isomers.