Question

a) botanical ingredients found in banana and why is it used, what is the ingredient function/purpose.

(b) botanical fact about banana

(c) how is banana made and what are the secondary metabolites

(d) ethnobotanical knowledge about banana

(e) how is the raw material transferred?

(f) nutritional value of banana

Answer 1

Ans.a)

Ans.b) Botanical fact about banana -

1.Banana is a berry - During the flowering stage, an inflorescence appears on the end of the stem. It is usually a long, tapered, tightly wrapped, deep purple bud.As the petal-like bracts on the bud begin to open one by one, they reveal double rows of nectar-rich blossoms.Because the fruit is produced from a single ovary on the flower, a banana is actually classified as a berry.

2. Banana is a herb - A banana is considered an herb in botanical terms because it never forms a woody stem the way a tree does. But it forms a succulent stalk, or pseudostem.

3. Banana anatomy was coined by slave traders -

A hanging cluster of hands on a banana plant is called a bunch, with each bunch holding 7 to 14 hands of bananas. Individual bananas on a hand are called fingers.All these names given by Arab slave traders who traded bananas and not by farmers.

Ans.f)

Ans.d) Ethnobotany of Banana-

The Indo-Malesian region is considered the homeland of bananas, both wild species and cultivars.Ethnobotany depends upon interdisciplinary research. Ethnobotanical researches on bananas have been conducted in different regions with many different perspectives and purposes. These include, for example, linguistic and archaeobotanical perspectives on banana domestication in the Asia-Pacific region, south Asia and east Asia
Banana and traditional rites in east Japanese culture -
Banana plants have significant roles in traditional Javanese rituals and customs. The plant has deep symbolic meaning, its characteristics associated metaphorically with the process of life and thereby providing lessons on ethics (Solikin 2010). All parts of the banana plant are useful: so we should always be useful and helpful to others, aware of our flaws and mindful of our existence in this life. The banana is a monocarpic plant, flowering only once in its lifetime, setting seeds (if capable) and then dying. Thus, we should never give up on our final goal. A fruiting banana plant is a symbol of high fertility, good harvest and hopes of prosperity.
Because of its deep philosophical association with life, the banana plant is one among the obligatory components of offerings and decorations in the ritual ceremonial
activities marking every life stage, from pregnancy, birth, circumcision, marriage until the funeral. Banana plants are present in thanksgiving ceremonies, such as those for the harvest season, village clearance ,house
warming, or even a career promotion; in worship or
religious events, such as the Tenggerese Kasada festival and the Javanese thanksgiving or slametan, the most significant rite which marks every important moment in Javanese society.