eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal 0974-6242 2021-12-30 14 4 1767 1780 10.13005/bpj/2276 41652 article Thompson T. Falowo 1 Ikechukwu P. Ejidike 2 Labunmi Lajide 1 Hadley S. Clayton 2 Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Florida 1710, South Africa. Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Science Education, Anchor University, Lagos, Nigeria. Polyphenols are known for their bioactive potentials and have been used as drugs and preservatives for decades. The drive around this research is to estimate the usefulness of bananas and plantain bracts. The bracts of banana (Musa acuminata) and plantain (Musa paradisiaca) were investigated for their chemical composition, antibacterial, and antioxidant capacity. The result of proximate analysis revealed appreciable amount of moisture content (8.45%; 7.83%), crude protein (1.53%; 1.57%), crude fiber (21.2%; 16.5%), fat content (2.01%; 2.25%), ash content (16.60 %; 15.10%), and carbohydrate (52.6%; 56.8%) dry matter (DM) for M. acuminata and M. paradisiaca respectively. The cellulose and lignin content of the bract samples revealed M. acuminata (34.61 ± 1.06%; 9.13 ± 0.31%) and M. paradisiaca (35.68 ± 0.31%; 11.68 ± 0.75%) respectively. The phytochemical analysis showed that the bracts contained (g/100g) tannins (29.01%; 24.21%), flavonoids (8.35%; 6.33%), saponins (26.02%; 25.08%), phenol (0.56%; 0.34%), and alkaloids (3.30 %; 3.74%), respectively for M. acuminata and M. paradisiaca respectively. Antimicrobial activity of the methanolic, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane extracts presented a wide range of inhibition against studied strains. Methanolic and ethyl acetate extracts demonstrated considerable effect against most of the strains. The zones of inhibition ranged from 2 to 10 mm for the extracts. Methanolic extract of M. acuminata bract exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ = 2.14±4.17 mg/ml) against DPPH radical. Meanwhile, methanolic extract of the bracts showed iron-chelating ability (2.03±1.48 mg/ml; 2.14±1.46 mg/ml), and FRAP assay (15.36±0.25 mg/ml; 23.09±0.17 mg/ml) for M.acuminata and M. paradisiaca respectively. The presence of polyphenols and essential nutrients present in the bracts showed potential to be exploited as a cradle for feed enhancement, antimicrobial agent, and protective agent against oxidative stress. https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol14no4/polyphenolic-content-of-musa-acuminata-and-musa-paradisiaca-bracts-chemical-composition-antioxidant-and-antimicrobial-potentials/ Antimicrobial  Free Radical Scavenging  Musa acuminata byproduct  Musa paradisiaca byproduct Polyphenolic content Proximate analysis