MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 113 
Although somewhat deficient in protein and fats, the 
banana has a large carbohydrate content and possesses a 
relatively high food value, serving in some parts of tropical 
America as one of the principal food stuffs of the native 
population. 
The banana is sometimes considered a difficult fruit to 
digest. It appears, however, that this usually finds its ex- 
planation in the fact that the fruit is eaten before it is 
thoroughly ripe. It is not uncommonly supposed that 
bananas which have become discolored and the pulp dark 
and soft, are beginning to decay. As a matter of fact such 
fruits have only just become thoroughly ripe and in this 
condition are far more digestible than in the firm yellow 
state. The green banana after being cut from the plant 
contains about one-fourth or one-fifth its weight in starch. 
During the process of ripening a very large percentage of 
this starch is converted into soluble sugar by certain enzymes, 
or ferments, present in the fruit. Furthermore, certain 
skeletal or fibrous constituents are converted into a soft more 
or less soluble substance which gives to the thoroughly 
ripe banana fruit a mucilaginous consistency. This pro- 
cess of ripening continues until the pulp becomes uniformly 
soft and usually somewhat dark colored. It has further 
been found that so long as the skin is intact decay-producing 
organisms do not appear in the pulp and that therefore 
no “rotting” in the ordinary sense of the term has taken 
place. In case the skin is broken and the pulp discolored, 
decay may indeed have set in and under these conditions 
the fruit is of course unfit for food. 
An increasingly large quantity of bananas is yearly 
ground into flour. For this purpose full-grown unripe fruits 
are used, i. e., fruits in which the os ani process has not 
yet converted the starch into sugar. Banana flour is said to 
be very digestible and together with wheat flour is used to 
a limited extent for bread and cakes. Banana “figs,” pre- 
pared by cutting ripe bananas lengthwise into four quarters 
and then drying them, are said to be very palatable and a 
considerable number of fruits are utilized in this way. 
For various reasons about eight million bunches of 
bananas annually fail to meet the commendably high export 
standards. Some of the more common reasons for rejection 
are that the bunches are too small—less than six “hands, 
or that the fruits are not “full” enough or too ripe. Many 
attempts have been made to utilize these discards, and to a 
limited extent this has been realized in the manufacture of 
banana flour and banana figs. In addition, some of this 
