Plantain and Banana
Staple for >50 million
People
About 50% of world
Production is used as
a vegetable.
Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana
Family Musaceae
Origin: Malaysia, India & Thailand
“Cooking bananas” are
more starchy than
the dessert bananas
Ripe banana fruit 80%
sugar and <5% starch
Plantains 66% sugar
and 17% starch
Plantain and Banana
Good source of readily digestible carbohydrates
Pro-vitamin A
Vitamin C (20 mg per 100 g fresh wt).
B vitamins
High source of Potassium
1% protein and 0.3% fat
Cooking removes astringency
Toasted, boiled, baked or fried, used in soups, gruel, and
Processed into chips, flakes and flour.
In parts of Africa, used for wine and beer production.
Male flower bud and inner pseudostem can be used as vegetables.
Plantain and Banana
Corm and inner stalk used as food but the fruit became edible due to human
Selection. Used in Asia about 500 B.C.
Cultivated bananas resulted from crosses between M.acuminata (AA) and
M. Balbisiana (BB) each 2n=22.
Triploids arose by natural polyploidization.
AAA bananas dessert clones “Gros Michel” and “Cavendish” are
Commercially most popular. Plantains are AAB or ABB.
Adapted to humid tropical climates.
Plantain and Banana
Perennial herbaceaous monocot
Starchy parthenocarpic fruit
Underground stem = CORM
Gives rise to many adventitious
Roots and suckers
Leaf Parallel venation.
Inflorescence is produced after about 30 leaves.
Leaves initiated in spiral
Succession resulting in a
Pseudostem. The leaf develops
Inside the psuedostem as a coiled
cylinder.
Plantain and Banana
Inflorescence contains male and female flowers. Flowers are formed
as clusters.
Plantain and Banana
Hand= cluster of female flowers
Finger = individual flowers
Bunch= Entire inflorescence
Plantain and Banana
10 or more hands per bunch
5 to 10 fingers per hand
Female flowers – elongated
Ovary with 3 fused carpels
Fruit= unfertilized berry
Insects, birds and bats are
Attracted to the nectar and
Are pollinators
Male flowers at distal nodes.
Male apical bud. The male
Flower bud is used as a cooked
Vegetable.
AAB plantains are curved
ABBs short and straight
Fruit color green, yellow or red
Propagation: Vegetative
Plant suckers identified as “sword”, “maiden” “peepers”
and “water suckers”arising from buds on the corm.
Disinfected for nematode control by a 20-min hot water (55C)
treatment.
Unwanted suckers are pruned.
Other vegetative propagation methods:
Corms or corm portions (“bits”)
Shoot tip meristem culture
Plantain and Banana
Yield: 5 to 50 tonnes per hectare
Plantains do not require ethylene for ripening.
Dessert bananas are are treated with ethylene (100 ppm) for
12-24 h to stimulate early and uniform ripening.
Plantains can be stored at the refrigerator (13C) but sensitive
to chilling below that temp.
Avoid moisture loss.
Plantain and Banana
Bunches are transported
On a pulley.
Plantain and Banana
“Dehanding”
Dividing the
Bunch into hands
Plantain and Banana
Washing to remove the latex from cut ends
Plantain and Banana
Culling: Discarding damaged or defective fruits
Plantain and Banana
Sorting of the hands
Plantain and Banana
Application of a fungicide on to the cut ends
Plantain and Banana
Ready for the sticker label
Plantain and Banana
Packaging into padded boxes
Plantain and Banana
Packaging and Shipping