Banana

Banana
Banana plant
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Zingiberales
Family:	Musaceae
Genus:	Musa

Banana is the common name for a type of herb and also the name for the herbaceous plants that grow this herb. These plants belong to the genus Musa. They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia. There are about 100 different species of banana.

It is possible that bananas were grown for food for the first time in Papua New Guinea. Today, they are cultivated in the tropical regions around the world.

Most banana plants are grown for their herbs, but some are grown as ornamental plants, or to provide fibre. In parts of Africa, beer has been made by fermenting the juice of certain cultivars, known as beer bananas. The ash of banana can be used to make soap. In Asia, bananas are often planted to provide shade to plants that love it, for example coffee, cocoa, nutmeg or black pepper. That way, banana plants can often be found in plantations of other crops.

The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains. Plantains are mostly used for cooking or fibre. The bananas that are used for desserts are called dessert bananas.

The banana plant

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. Banana plants are often mistaken to be trees. Bananas have a false stem (called pseudostem), which is made by the lower part of the leaves. This pseudostem can grow to be two to eight metres tall. Each pseudostem grows from a corm. A pseudostem is able to produce a single bunch of bananas. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies and is replaced. When most bananas are ripe, they turn yellow or, sometimes, red.

Leaves are arranged as a spiral and may grow 2.7 metres (8.9 feet) long and 60 cm (2.0 ft) wide. They are easily torn by the wind, which results in the familiar look.

Fruit

The banana fruit grow in hanging clusters. There are up to 20 fruit to a tier. (called a hand). The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially as a "banana stem". There are between three and twenty tiers to a bunch. A bunch usually weighs between thirty and fifty kilograms.

A single fruit is about 125 grams on average; about three quarters of this is water.

Each banana (or finger) has a protective outer layer (called peel or skin). There is a fleshy part inside. Both the skin and inner part can be eaten. Western cultures generally eat the inside raw and throw away the skin while some Asian cultures generally eat both the skin and inside cooked.^[source?] Each fruit has many strings that run between the skin and the inner part.

Bananas have a lot of vitamin B₆, vitamin C, and potassium.

Growing and trading bananas

Banana production, as a percentage of the top producer (India). A yellow circle stands for 10%, a red one for 1%.

Green and yellow bananas on a market

Bananas are grown in at least 107 countries. In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. The bananas from a group of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains. Bananas may also be cut and dried and eaten as a type of chip. Dried bananas are also ground into banana flour.

The banana species growing in the wild have fruits with many hard, large seeds. Almost all bananas grown to be eaten have seedless fruits. Bananas are classified either as dessert bananas or as green cooking bananas. Almost all export bananas are of the dessert types. Only about ten to fifteen percent of all production is for export. Dessert bananas change their color and usually turn yellow, when they are ripe; plantains and bananas generally used for cooking stay green. Certain bananas have other colors when ripe.

The countries that produce the most bananas include India, Brazil, China, Ecuador and the Philippines. The top five countries that exported bananas were Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Colombia and Guatemala. The United States, the European Union and Japan are the biggest buyers of banana. Bananas are among the most valuable agricultural export products: They provided about sixty percent of export earnings of Saint Lucia and about twelve percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the country, between 1994 and 1996.

Allergies

Some people are allergic to bananas. There are two basic forms of these allergies. The first is known as oral allergy syndrome. Within an hour of eating a banana, swelling starts inside the mouth or throat. This allergy is related to allergies caused by pollen, like that of the birch tree. The other is similar to latex allergies. It causes urticaria and potentially serious upper gastrointestinal symptoms.

Different uses of bananas

Fibre

Textiles

The fibre gained from the banana plant has been used to make textiles for a long time. In Japan, bananas have been grown to be used for clothing and in the house since at least the 13th century. With the Japanese system, the leaves and shoots are cut from the plant periodically to make sure they are soft. The harvested shoots must first be boiled in lye to prepare the fibres for the making of the yarn. These banana shoots produce fibres of varying degrees of softness. They can be used for yarns and textiles of different qualties, and for specific uses. For example, the outermost fibres of the shoots are the coarsest - they are good for tablecloths. The softest innermost fibres are desirable for kimono and kamishimo. This traditional Japanese banana cloth making process has many steps, all performed by hand.

Another system is used in Nepal. There the trunk of the banana plant is harvested instead. Small pieces of this trunk are then softened. The fibres are extracted mechanically, they are bleached, and dried. They are then sent to the Kathmandu Valley, were high-end rugs are produced. These rugs have a texture and general qualities similar to that of silk. These banana fibre rugs are woven by the traditional Nepalese hand-knotted methods.

Paper

Banana fibre is also used to make banana paper. There are two different kinds of banana paper: That made from the bark, which is mainly used for art. Paper can also be made from the fibre and from unused fruits. This is an industrial process.

Images

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  Flower of a banana plant.This image was taken in the state botanical gardens on the island of La Reunion

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  Banana plant at Kew Gardens in London

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  Bananas on a plantation in Morocco

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  Fruits of wild-type bananas have many large, hard seeds.

Other pages

• Banana bread

Other websites

• Media related to Banana at Wikimedia Commons
• "bananas". ssrichardmontgomery.com. http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/download/bananas.htm. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
• "Banana: Beneficial for Human". healthmad.com. http://healthmad.com/nutrition/banana-beneficial-for-human/. Retrieved 3 June 2010.