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Staple Foods II - Fruits |
Plantains and cooking bananas are very similar to unripe dessert bananas in outward appearance, although often larger. The major differences are that their flesh is starchy rather than sweet, that they are used unripe, and they require cooking. Plantains, cooking bananas and dessert bananas are produced by a group of plants in the genus Musa (family Musaceae). Banana plants are not, as often thought, trees but are giant herbaceous plants, consisting of an underground stem (rhizome) from which shoots arise. Each shoot is made up of a false stem of tightly rolled leaf bases with a crown of broad oval leaf blades. The inflorescence grows up through the centre of this 'stem' and bends downwards under the weight of the fruit. The fruits of most cultivated bananas do not contain seeds because they develop without pollination (a process known as parthenocarpy).
The ancestors of the dessert banana probably originated in South-East Asia and were taken to the Indian sub-continent where they hybridised with a wild species, giving rise to plantains and cooking bananas. These plants are generally hardier and more tolerant of drought than dessert bananas.
Although dessert bananas are one of the most important fruits in world trade, plantains and cooking bananas are generally grown for consumption in the producing country. In parts of equatorial Africa, plantains are the major staple crop; some people eat 4 kg of the fruits per day. Plantains are also grown in southern India and tropical America. Cooking bananas, which are very similar to plantains, are grown as a staple food in some of the Polynesian Islands, in the West Indies and in certain parts of Africa.
The pulp of the banana contains starch which is converted to sugar as the fruit ripens. When ripe the fruit contains 30 per cent carbohydrate, but little fat or protein. It is a good source of vitamins A, B1, B2 and C. The fruits are prepared for eating in many different ways. Sometimes they are steamed whole in their skins, or they are peeled and sliced before deep-frying. Plantain chips made in this way are a popular snack. In West Africa, they are also used to make the starchy puree known as fufu. In Uganda and Tanzania, large quantities of beer are brewed from bananas.
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Unlikely as it may seem, breadfruit played a part in one of the most famous moments in British maritime history - the Mutiny on the Bounty. In 1788, Captain Bligh was sent out to Tahiti on the HMS Bounty to collect breadfruit cuttings for transfer to the West Indies as food for the slaves. The trip's organiser was Sir Joseph Banks, at that time the unofficial director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and two Kew gardeners were among the crew. When the Bounty set sail for the West Indies, the crew, who had become used to an easy life on the Polynesian island, mutinied and abandoned Captain Bligh and a few loyal seamen in a small boat. Three months later, the survivors, including Bligh, landed on Timor, on the other side of the Pacific. On a later voyage, Bligh successfully transferred breadfruit plants to Jamaica. The breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis) is in the Moraceae, the same family as figs and mulberries. The tree, which reaches 20 m in height, has large lobed dark-green leaves. It has separate male and female inflorescences on the same tree. The female inflorescence consists of flowers crowded around a fleshy base, and develops into the 'fruit' without pollination (as in the banana). The fruits, which weigh up to 1.8 kg, have thick warty rinds around a pale yellow flesh, made up of the receptacle and the abortive flowers. They rarely contain seeds. Varieties with seeds are known as breadnuts. |
| Breadfruit |
Breadfruit is a staple crop on its native Polynesian Islands and is popular in the Caribbean, southern India and Sri Lanka. It contains 20 per cent carbo-hydrate with small amounts of protein, minerals and vitamin A. Under-ripe fruits are eaten as a vegetable, and are peeled and cut into chunks before steaming or roasting. In Polynesia, fruits are roasted whole in an underground oven or on heated rocks. Sometimes the pulp is fermented in pits to produce a food which can be preserved for several years. Breadnuts are generally roasted like chestnuts.