Banana Tree

Banana Tree - Lalikal Village - Hosuru

Bananas….The Super Fruit!!!

When storing bananas, whether you have them on the counter or hanging up, it is best to keep them bunched together than breaking them all apart.  The bananas still continue to feed off the little nutrients left, where the bunch was once connected to the tree.  Hopefully some of the info I give you will teach you how to get more bang for your banana buck.

Bananas are herbs.  Although referred to as banana trees, they are not trees at all but a perennial herb. That’s right. Banana plants are actually giant herbaceous perennials that grow 10 to 25 feet tall or more. Because they are herbs, they do not have woody stems like trees do. Its trunk is not a true one, but many leaves tightly wrapped around a single stem which emerges at the top as the fruit-bearing flower stalk.

The fruit fingers grow in clumps known as hands, since they resemble a hand with fingers. The entire stalk, known as a bunch, takes up to a year for the fruit to ripen enough to be harvested. The original stem dies after producing fruit, but side shoots rise from the same underground corm to produce a new plant to be harvested the following year. The fruit itself is sterile, unable to produce a plant from the miniscule dark seeds within.  Some banana trees continue producing up to one hundred years, although most banana plantations renew their stock every ten to twenty-five years.

Native to Southeast Asia, bananas, and their relatives the plantains, grow in the tropical regions of the world and are a staple food in parts of Africa and most of the Caribbean. The tree itself also has uses. The leaves are used as wrappers to steam foods in Latin, Caribbean, and Asian cultures. The banana flower is also edible, but if you eat the flower, you obviously won’t get any fruit. In addition, the banana is a distant cousin to ginger, turmeric and cardamom, and is botanically classified as a berry.

Some bananas such as plantains, are considered vegetables, but most are what we call fruits. Plantains are not eaten raw the way bananas are. The majority of plantains are inedible until cooked, typically boiled, and then fried or pickled. Green bananas and plantains are high in starch. As they ripen to a yellow color, the starch turns to sugar. Some bananas actually turn red in color instead of yellow when ripe.

Both bananas and plantains are low in fat and a good source of fiber, potassium, magnesium, iron, and folic acid. The pulp and peel of the ripe banana have anti-microbial properties against certain types of bacteria and some say that the inside of the peel is also good for treating mild cases of sunburn. The sugars in ripe bananas are easily assimilated by the body and provide a quick source of energy–the perfect snack for people on the go. There are over four hundred varieties of bananas with the yellow Cavendish being the most favored in America. Americans consume an annual average of twenty-five pounds of bananas per person. Bananas are the world’s best-selling fruit, outranking the apple and orange.

So you may be wondering, Why are there so many varieties of bananas?

The original banana has been cultivated and used since ancient times, even pre-dating the cultivation of rice. While the banana thrived in Africa, its origins are said to be of East Asia and Oceania. Antonius Musa was the personal physician to Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus, and it was he who was credited for promoting cultivation of the exotic African fruit from 63 to 14 B.C.

Portuguese sailors brought bananas to Europe from West Africa in the early fifteenth century. Its Guinean name banema, which became banana in English, was first found in print in the seventeenth century. The banana was carried by sailors to the Canary Islands and the West Indies, finally making it to North America with Spanish missionary Friar Tomas de Berlanga.

One odd fact about today’s commonly known banana is that sweet bananas are mutants. The historically famous bananas mentioned previously were not the sweet yellow banana we know today, but the red and green cooking variety, now usually referred to as plantains to distinguish them from the sweet type.

The yellow sweet banana is a mutant strain of the cooking banana, discovered in 1836 by Jamaican Jean Francois Poujot, who found one of the banana trees on his plantation was bearing yellow fruit rather than green or red. Upon tasting the new discovery, he found it to be sweet in its raw state, without the need for cooking. He quickly began cultivating this sweet variety.

Soon they were being imported from the Caribbean to New Orleans, Boston, and New York, and were considered such an exotic treat, they were eaten on a plate using a knife and fork. Sweet bananas were all the rage at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, selling for a hefty ten cents each.

One little known fact is what I refer to as the ultimate super-power of the produce world.  What is that power you ask?

Bananas can help cure or prevent hangovers. The main causes of hangovers are dehydration and depletion of potassium, both direct results of alcohol consumption. Bananas are an excellent source of potassium, second only to the avocado, with over 450 mg. per one banana serving, as well as being high in magnesium, which can help relax those pounding blood vessels causing that nasty hangover headache.

Bananas also contain tryptophan, the same amino acid found in turkey that makes you sleepy,      as well as high amounts of vitamin C.

So, if you’re out partying and want to avoid a hangover, drink sixteen ounces of water and eat a banana before heading for bed for a good night’s sleep.

Before I stop extolling the health benefits of bananas…one more tip: bananas are a natural antacid and will get rid of a nasty case of heartburn in most cases.

I hope you’ve learned some valuable info about the banana and enjoy this hilarious video I found as well.