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| Latin: |
Musa acuminata |
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| Origin: |
Bananas aren't grown on trees. They are of the Musaceae family, the fruit of Musa acuminata Colla., Musa chinensis [B,G,P], or Musa cavendishii [B,G,P], a very yellow and plump member of the herb family, related to the orchid and lily. With stalks 1 to 3 m high, depending on variety, they are the largest plant on earth without a woody stem.
Bananas are thought to have originated in Malaysia and then spread throughout Asia, India and Africa. India's Islamic culture names it as the famed fruit of knowledge and in that version of the story it is said Adam and Eve covered themselves with banana, not fig, leaves. North America got its first taste of the tropical fruit in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.
The word banana is African, though, a word carried to the New World by Portuguese slave traders. In Alexander the Great's time, bananas were called "pala" in Athens.
Although about 30 different varieties of bananas exist, the most familiar are three types: the blunt-ended Cavendish; the Gros Michel, known by its tapered ends; and the starchy plantain, which is used only for cooking as a vegetable. There are also dwarf or "baby" bananas and red bananas, among the other varieties. Bananas are available year-round.
The warmth-loving plants are grown only in subtropical and tropical regions. Today, the world's greatest producers of bananas include Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Brazil, Ecuador, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Also called Edible Banana and Dwarf Banana. |
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| Properties: |
| Sweet in flavor, cold in nature, it is related to the channels of the spleen, stomach and large intestine. |
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| Functions: |
Clears heat, lubricates intestines, moistens lungs, nourishes yin, stops coughing.
Banana also has some detoxifying and antipyretic effect (relieves or reduces fever). Hence, it is indicated in febrile diseases (fever) when constipation, thirst and restlessness occur. It is also helpful in tackling bleeding due to hemorrhoids. |
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| Applications: |
1. For protracted coughing with constipation:
Use 2 peeled bananas and boil with some rock sugar. Consume 1-2 times a day for several successive days.
2. For hemorrhoids (a mass of dilated veins in swollen tissue at the margin of the anus or nearby within the rectum) with blood stool:
Cook 2 unpeeled bananas. After 10 minutes, consume the cooled down fruit with peel. Half-ripe ones are preferable.
3. For hypertension with constipation:
Difficulty in defecation may be troublesome to hypertensive patients, especially the elderly. It may even cause serious accidents such as stroke. Normal bowel movements are vital to their health. Use 500 g peeled banana and mix with 15 g black sesame to form a mixture. Divide into 2 equal halves. Administer twice daily.
4. For asthma and short breath:
The recipe is basically similar to that of No. 2 for hemorrhoids. But this time the unpeeled bananas should be very soft or a little bit over-mature. |
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| Dosage and Administration: |
To be eaten raw with no skin. Stewed banana with skin for oral administration is a cure for bleeding resulting from hemorrhoid.
Bananas are very sweet and can be mashed and added to baked goods as a natural sweetener. Frozen bananas can be pureed to make smoothies or a healthful substitute for ice cream. They can be eaten out of hand or sliced and added to fruit salads. For an impressive dessert, flambe sliced bananas and serve over ice cream, or make a nutritious sandwich by combining sliced bananas and peanut butter on whole-grain bread.
In many Latin American and Asian countries, banana leaves are used in place of plates. The leaves work well as wrappers in place of aluminum foil for holding and steaming foods. In Malaysia, the banana flower is cooked and eaten; in Africa, a beer is brewed from bananas.
Plantains have a mild, somewhat squash-like flavor and should be prepared as a vegetable, perhaps seasoned with mustard seeds and cumin. Plantains must be peeled in order to cook and eat them. To peel a plantain, cut off and discard both ends; make a vertical slit in the skin and remove all of the peel before cooking.
Because bananas emit a gas that promotes ripening, placing an unripe banana in a paper bag or breathable container with other produce will encourage the produce to ripen more quickly.
Avoid bruised fruit and bananas showing splits in the skin. Choose firm, green to slightly yellow bunches, and store them at room temperature. It is claimed that bananas taste sweeter ripened off the plant. Eat or prepare bananas when they ripen to a uniform yellow with tiny brown flecks. The skin of bananas turns black when they are refrigerated, though it does not affect the quality of the fruit inside. Very ripe fruit can be peeled, frozen in freezer bags, and used for baking. Plantains should be unbruised, very firm, and completely green. Use before they are ripe. Note that plantains are at their ripest when their skin is black. |
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| Cautions on Use: |
| It is no good eating banana excessively. Those who suffer from loose stools due to insufficiency of the spleen-yang should avoid eating banana. |
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| Reference Materials: |
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| Toxic or Side Effects: |
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| Modern Researches: |
| Banana is rich in potassium, vitamins A, B, C and E, 0.5 percent starch, 1.3 percent protein, 0.6 percent fat, 11 percent sugar, and a little 5-hydroxytryptamine, noradrenaline and dihydroxyphenyl ethylamine. |
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