Where bananas are grown and where they come from
Food — di Laura La Monaca
Banana consumption in Europe dates back to the time of Alexander the Great. The Musa Paradisiaca is one of the three main varieties.
Where bananas are grown and where they come from
Banana consumption in Europe dates back to the time of Alexander the Great. The Musa Paradisiaca is one of the three main varieties.
Musa Paradisiaca, the finest banana variety
The Musa Paradisiaca is a banana variety that grows in Central America and is extremely abundant in its original territories – spanning South-East Asia and the Malay Peninsula. It contains starch, vitamin C, sugars and potassium, and is richer in fibre than its counterparts Musa Sapientum and Musa Cavendishii. It is also low in fat.
Musa Paradisiaca is the accepted name for the hybrid between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most cultivated bananas and plantains are triploid cultivars of either this hybrid or of M. acuminata alone. Linnaeus originally used the name M. paradisiaca only for plantains or cooking bananas, but modern usage includes hybrid cultivars used both for cooking and as dessert bananas. Linnaeus's name for dessert bananas, Musa sapientum, is therefore a synonym of Musa paradisiaca.
The history of Musa Paradisiaca
In 300 BC, the banana was tasted by Alexander the Great, who then brought it to the attention of European peoples. The popular literary tradition of the time even bequeathed a Hindu riddle whose subject is a sweet and succulent fruit, the colour of the sun. From India, the banana travelled around the world. It spread to the West Indies, Africa and the Canary Islands. Then came South America: from there, Tomás de Berlanga, a Spanish priest, exported it to the Caribbean in 1516. Some sixteenth-century navigation documents reveal that the banana was considered useful for staving off hunger and thirst on long voyages.
From those explorations, driven by a desire to conquer new lands, the banana is today cultivated throughout the world. In Hawaii (where it was brought by the ancient canoes of Polynesia) it is now grown in protected environmental areas. And in the West it enjoys a thriving market: even those watching their weight can enjoy one as a complete breakfast, safe in the knowledge that it is well suited to diets too.
Tips for choosing and storing bananas
The condition of a banana can be gauged from its colour. A deep yellow suggests the fruit is in good shape. Its richness in sugars makes this musa a useful and delicious ingredient for cakes and tarts. If you buy a fruit that is still unripe, it can be ripened quickly in a paper bag: ripening will occur within a few hours if the banana is placed next to an apple or a tomato.