20, 2 Salvador: Food Value of Philippine Bananas 365 
METHODS OF ANALYSIS 2 
In analyzing these fruits eight determinations were made; 
namely, water, ether extract, protein, sucrose, reducing sugars, 
crude fiber, ash, and total acidity. The average weight of the 
fruit and the percentages of the edible and waste portions were 
taken. Ripe fruits in sound condition were used in the analy- 
ses. The edible and waste portions were carefully separated 
and the former ground in a mortar until uniform representative 
Samples could be obtained. 
Sulphuric acid was adopted as the term for the expression of 
acidity because of its convenience in allowing comparison. Be- 
sides, I found that the acidity of the banana is due to the mix- 
ture of butyric and citric acids. Furthermore, a part of the 
acidity may be due to the presence of acid salts, so that an 
attempt to express the total acidity in terms of a single organic 
acid characteristic of the fruit would obviously meet with diffi- 
culties. Sulphuric acid has already been adopted by a num- 
ber of laboratories for similar work, and it is accepted here as 
offering the most satisfactory basis for the expression of aci- 
dity in this fruit. 
FUEL VALUE 
In order to express the capacity of the banana for yielding 
heat or energy to the body the term fuel value is here used. 
By the fuel value of a food is meant the amount of heat, 
expressed in calories, equivalent to the energy which we assume 
the body could obtain from a given weight of that food material 
if all of its nutrients were thoroughly digested, a calorie being 
the amount of heat required to raise a kilogram of water 1° C. 
This definition applies to what is known as the large calorie, 
which is one thousand times as large as the small calorie. The 
fuel value then of this fruit is calculated by means of the fac- 
tors of Rubner, in accordance with which the amount of energy 
in 1 gram of each of the three principal classes of nutrients are: 
For carbohydrates, 4.1; for protein, 4.1; and for fats, 9.3. 
Table 1 shows the results of analyses of twelve varieties of 
Philippine bananas. 
CONCLUSION 
The components that make up the edible portion of the Phil- 
ippine banana include water, fat, protein, carbohydrates, or- 
ganic acids, and mineral matter. Of these water is hardly to 
* The methods of analysis used are in accordance with Bull. U. S. Bur. 
Chem. 107 rev. ed. (1908). 
