Bananas and Plantains

Banana and Plantain

Banana is the common name for an edible fruit produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants of the genus Musa. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be yellow, purple or red when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species - Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientumis no longer used.

Musa species are native to tropical South and Southeast Asia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in at least 107 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and as ornamental plants.

In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains or "cooking bananas". The distinction is somewhat arbitrary and the terms "plantain" and "banana" are sometimes used interchangeably.

The term "banana" is also used as the common name for the plants which produce the fruit. This can extend to other members of the genus Musa like the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), pink banana (Musa velutina) and the fe'i bananas (e.g. karat). It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete,like the snow banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana (Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are classified under the banana family, Musaceae.

Note: The banana plant is not a tree. It is actually the world's largest herb!

Origin of Bananas

The true origin of Bananas is found in the region of Malaysia. By way of curious visitors, bananas traveled from there to India where they are mentioned in the Buddhist Pali writings dating back to the 6th century BCE. In his campaign in India in 327 BCE, Alexander the Great relished his first taste of the banana, an usual fruit he saw growing on tall trees. He is even credited with bringing the banana from India to the Western world. According to Chinese historian Yang Fu, China was tending plantations of bananas in 200 CE. These bananas grew only in the southern region of China and were considered exotic, rare fruits that never became popular with the Chinese masses until the 20th century.

Eventually, this tropical fruit reached Madagascar, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa. Beginning in 650 CE Islamic warriors traveled into Africa and were actively engaged in the slave trade. Along with the thriving business in slave trading, the Arabs were successful in trading ivory along with abundant crops of bananas. Through their numerous travels westward via the slave trade, bananas eventually reached Guinea, a small area along the West Coast of Africa. By 1402 Portuguese sailors discovered the luscious tropical fruit in their travels to the African continent and populated the Canary lslands with their first banana plantations. Continuing the banana's travels westward, the rootstocks were packed onto a ship under the charge of Tomas de Berlanga, a Portuguese Franciscan monk who brought them to the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo from the Canary Islands in the year 1516. It wasn't long before the banana became popular throughout the Caribbean as well as Central America. Arabian slave traders are credited with giving the banana its popular name. The bananas that were growing in Africa as well as Southeast Asia were not the eight-to-twelve-inch giants that have become familiar in the U.S. supermarkets today. They were small, about as long as a man's finger. Ergo the name banan, Arabic for finger. The Spaniards, who saw a similarity to the plane tree that grows in Spain, gave the plantain its Spanish name, platano.

What is a Plantain?

Plantains are a member of the banana family. They are a starchy, low in sugar variety that is cooked before serving as it is unsuitable raw. It is used in many savory dishes somewhat like a potato would be used and is very popular in South India (Kerala), Western Africa and the Caribbean countries. It is usually fried or baked.

Plantains are native to India and are grown most widely in tropical climates. Some varieties of Kerala plantains are around 18 inches long! Plantains are sometimes referred to as the pasta and potatoes of the Caribbean. Sold in the fresh produce section of the supermarket, they usually resemble green bananas but ripe plantains may be black in color. This vegetable-banana can be eaten and tastes different at every stage of development. The interior color of the fruit will remain creamy, yellowish or lightly pink. When the peel is green to yellow, the flavor of the flesh is bland and its texture is starchy. As the peel changes to brown or black, it has a sweeter flavor and more of a banana aroma, but still keeps a firm shape when cooked.

Kerala Etthaka (Plantain) Chips

Etthaka Chips fried in coconut oil and sprinkled with salt, called upperi or kaiya varuthathu are a popular snack in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. They are an important item in Sadya, a vegetarian feast prepared during festive occasions. The chips are typically labeled "plantain chips" when they are made of green plantains that taste starchy, like potato chips.

Where did the Malaysian banana / plantain chips originate from?

Malaysian banana chips along with cassava (tapioca) yam and breadfruit chips have become a thriving small business among the local Malays in places like Kelang, Port Kelang and Banting areas in Selangor, Malaysia.

Originally, the Etthaka (plantain) plants were introduced to the area by Indian planting supervisors from Kerala who worked in the British-owned rubber and oil palm estates. The Local Malay and Javanese got the saplings from the Indians and planted them in their gardens. The Indian planting supervisors (conductors) and managers were mostly Syrian Christian Malayalees from central Kerala (old Travancore). Their wives taught their local Malay and Tamil maids to cook these chips the way it was done in Kerala. The notion that these chips are an original Malaysian invention is untrue.

Kerala Etthaka plants are known to have even been taken to Sumatra and Java by from the Kelang region and planted there.

How were bananas introduced to Australia?

The earliest recorded appearance of bananas in Australia was in the early to mid 1800s when Chinese migrants brought plants with them from their home provinces to begin life in Australia in Carnarvon, Western Australia.

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