Categories
Herbs & Plants

Plantain Fruit

[amazon_link asins=’B018U47O6K,B00BF84KAC,B01LOK7R8C,B00RUDOI6W,B00T6TK1PA,B00VPFV7T2,B00D8PVRFG,B06XTXZPR5,B01M075QOM’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2dea8578-7e5a-11e7-b03b-230a512dd524′][amazon_link asins=’B015K8P5BK,B018I6OQR0,B01LY4TKX6,B017OL4CYM,B01JDRSR64,B00WGIQX7I,B01M7NE2RI,B00VSRYBJK,B01LYS950P’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’5e968b4f-7e5a-11e7-a3b1-e7a72a72792a’]

Botanical Name :Musa paradisiaca,Musa sapientum
Family:
Musaceae
Genus:
Musa
Species:
M. × paradisiaca
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Zingiberales

Synonym: Bananas.

Common Names : Banana, pisang, plantain.
(
Musa × paradisiaca is the accepted name for the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars either of this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. Linnaeus originally used the name M. paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but the modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus’s name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is thus a synonym of Musa × paradisiaca.)

Habitat : Musa paradisiaca is a tropical fruit known as Plantain belongs to the genus Musa, which contains about forty species, widely distributed throughout the tropics of the Old World and in some cases introduced into the New World.

Description:
Banana is a tropical tree-like herb, with large leaves of which the overlapping bases form the so-called false trunk. Fully grown, the stem reaches a height of 10 – to 30 feet.
From the center of the crown spring the flowers. Only female flowers develop into a banana fruit that vary in length from about 4 – 12 inches. The average weight of a bunch is about 25 lbs.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
Each banana plant bears fruit only once.
The propagation is through shoots from the rhizomes, since most of the seeds species are sterile.

CLICL & SEE
The unripe fruit of banana, rich in starch, is cooked as food or dried and ground into flour. The fruit of the plantain (cooking banana) is larger, coarser and less sweet than the kinds that are eaten raw.
On ripening of the fruit, the starch turns into sugar.
Although the banana family is of more interest for its nutrient than its medical properties, it has some value in traditional medicine.

Parts Used: Fruit, unripe and ripe, Juice.

Edible Uses:
Plantains often reach a considerable size. The hardly-ripe fruit is eaten (whole or cut into slices) roasted, baked, boiled, fried, as an ingredient of soups and stews, and in general as potatoes are used, possessing, like the potato, only a slight or negative flavour and no sweetness. They are also dried and ground into flour as meal, Banana meal forming an important food-stuff, to which the following constituents have been assigned: Water 10.62, albuminoids 3.55, fat 1.15, carbohydrates 81.67 (more than 2/3 starch), fibre 1.15, phosphates 0.26, other salts, 1.60. The sugar is chiefly cane-sugar.

In East Africa and elsewhere an intoxicating drink is prepared from the fruit. The rootstock which bears the leaves is, just before the flowering period, soft and full of starch, and is sometimes used as food in Abyssinia, and the young shoots of several species are cooked and eaten.

Click to see : Cooking plantain :

Medicinal Uses:
The Banana family is of more interest for its nutrient than for its medicinal properties. Banana root has some employment as an anthelmintic and has been reported useful in reducing bronchocele.

The use of Plantain juice as an antidote for snake-bite in the East has been reported in recent years by the Lancet, an alleged cure at Colombo (reported in the Lancet, April 1, 1916), and again, in the same year, at Serampore:
‘A servant of the Principal of the Government Weaving College was bitten by a venomous snake in the foot. The Principal applied a ligature eight inches above the bitten part and then cut it with a lancet and applied permanganate of potash, making the wound bleed freely. He then extracted some juice from a plantain tree and gave the patient about a cupful to drink. After drinking the plantain juice the man seemed to recover a little, and the wound was washed. He was made to walk up and down, and in the morning, when the ligature was removed, the man was declared cured.’ – Lancet, June 10, 1916.

The BASTARD PLANTAIN (Heliconia Biha) belongs to a genus containing thirty species, natives of tropical America. Although it belongs to the same order as the Banana, and has very large leaves, 6 to 8 feet long and 18 inches wide, it has quite different fruit, namely, small succulent berries, each containing three hard, rugged seeds, and is not employed economically.

The red protecting leaves of the bud are used against heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia).
Other applications are against: diarrhea, dysentery, migraine, hypertension, asthma and jaundice.

Other Uses:
The leaves cut into strips are plaited to form mats and bags; they are also largely used for packing and the finer ones for cigarette papers. The mature leaves of several species yield a valuable fibre, the best of which is ‘Manila hemp.’ The leaves are cut into pieces and used as plates in Asiatic countries.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%C3%97_paradisiaca
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/plafru51.html
http://www.tropilab.com/banana.html

 

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Musa acuminata

[amazon_link asins=’B01HDZ3SE4,B014EWBU4E’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’25cf765d-1511-11e7-8596-778d4746403a’]

[amazon_link asins=’B005DZGXCG’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ef7eee98-1511-11e7-9051-eb7663e92eea’]

Botanical Name :Musa acuminata
Family: Musaceae
Genus: Musa
Species: M. acuminata
Kingdom: Plantae
clade: Angiosperms
clade: Monocots
clade: Commelinids
Order: Zingiberales

Common Name :Wild banana

Habitat :Musa acuminata is  native to Southeast Asia.(E. Asia – Southern China, India, Malaysia and the Phillipines.) It grows in Shaded and moist ravines, marshlands, semi-marshlands and slopes from near sea level to 1200 metres.

Description:
Musa acuminata are perennial herbs (not trees) growing to 3m. The trunk (known as the pseudostem) is made of tightly packed layers of leaf sheaths emerging from completely or partially buried corms.

You may click to see the picture

 

You may click to see more pictures:

The inflorescence of Musa acuminata grows horizontally or obliquely from the trunk. The individual flowers are white to yellowish-white in color and are negatively geotropic (that is, growing upwards and away from the ground). Both male and female flowers are present in a single inflorescence. Female flowers located near the base (and develop into fruit), and the male flowers located at the tipmost top-shaped bud in between leathery bract
The rather slender fruits are berries, the size of each depends on the number of seeds they contain. Each fruit can have 15 to 62 seeds. Each fruit bunch can have an average of 161.76 ± 60.62 fingers with each finger around 2.4 cm (0.94 in) by 9 cm (3.5 in) in size.

The seeds of Musa acuminata are around 5 to 6 mm (0.20 to 0.24 in) in diameter. They are subglobose or angular in shape and very hard. The tiny embryo is located at the end of the micropyle. Each seed of Musa acuminata typically produce around four times its size in edible starchy pulp (the parenchyma, the portion of the bananas we eat), around 0.23 cm3 (0.014 cu in). The ratio increases dramatically for the ‘seedless’ modern edible cultivars. The much reduced in size and sterile seeds are now surrounded by 23 times its size in edible pulp. The seeds themselves are reduced to tiny black specks along the central axis of the fruit

It is hardy to zone 9 and is frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Cultivation:
Requires a sunny sheltered position in a well-drained fertile soil with a pH between 6 and 7.5. This species is able to tolerate light frosts, but it requires a very sheltered position. Another report says that it requires a minimum winter temperature of 10°c and no lower than 18°c when the fruit is ripening. Wild plants are diploid (2n = 22) and bear fruits containing numerous seeds making them inedible. Cultivated plants are triploid (2n = 33) and bear seedless, edible fruits; such plants have been called M. acuminata ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ (M. cavendishii Lambert ex Paxton; M. chinensis Sweet; M. nana Loureiro).

Propagation:
Seed – sow the large seed in individual pots in the spring in a warm greenhouse at about 20°c[200]. Grow the seedlings on in a rich soil, giving occasional liquid feeds. Keep the plants in the greenhouse for at least three years before trying them outdoors. Division of suckers in late spring. Dig up the suckers with care, trying to cause the least disturbance to the main plant. Pot them up and grow them on in a lightly shaded position in a greenhouse until they are well established.

Edible Uses:
Edible Parts: Fruit.

Fruit – raw or dried for later use. Sweet. The fruit is up to 12cm long and 2.5cm wide.

Medicinal Uses :
Banana Lectin BanLec linked to anti-cancer and anti-HIV properties.

Bananas have been present in our diets since long time ago, they are rich in potassium, a mineral that plays a very important role in mass bone formation and regulation of blood pressure, magnesium, selenium, phosphorous, iron, vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc (very important to regulate sleep cycles and enhance male reproductive functions)…etc.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider

Resources:
http://digedibles.com/database/plants.php?Musa+acuminata
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week022.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_acuminata
http://www.herbcyclopedia.com/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=tag&tag=Musa%20acuminata%20Colla&app_id=5&Itemid=193

Enhanced by Zemanta
css.php