77 



natives did not appear to have discovered what invaluable, nourishing, 

 and easily digestible food they possessed in the plantain and banana. 

 All banana lands — Cuba, Brazil, West Indies — seem to me to have 

 been specially remiss on this point. If only the virtues of the flour 

 were publicly known it is not to be doubted but it would be largely 

 consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate digestion, 

 dyspeptics, and those suffering from temporary derangements of the 

 stomach, the flour, properly prepared, would be of universal demand. 

 During my two attacks of gastritis, a light gruel of this, mixed with 

 milk, was the only matter that could be digested." 



Dr. Parke, surgeon to the expedition, also speaks {Personal Ex- 

 periences in Equatorial Africa, p. 322) of the use of banana or plantain 

 flour : — 



'* We found a little porridge of scalded banana flour, which had been 

 just freshly made ; and a few leathern belts, which is the only native 

 article of apparel. The discovery of this sample of porridge here struck 

 me as very peculiar ; the first place where we had seen bananas dried 

 and pounded into flour was at Ugarrowwa's camp ; even the Zanzibaris, 

 and the other natives whom we have met on our line of progress, had 

 not known this method of preparing bananas for food till they saw it 

 used by us. So it is evident that the few natives with whom we had 

 become intimate on our way had returned to their villages and told 

 their neighbours what they had seen us do. 



" Ever since we learned this method of preparing our bananas we 

 have been able to diminish our risk of starvation very considerably. 

 We can make enough flour in one day for several days' rations ; and the 

 weight is so much less than that of the corresponding quantity of the 

 green bananas, that men can carry a considerable number of days' 

 rations with them, in addition to their other loads, whereas they could 

 not manage more than a couple of days' supply of the green bananas. 

 The banana flour is most nutritious and very sustaining." 



It is generally recommended that to make the best banana meal the 

 fruit should be in an unripe condition. 



The changes that take place in the banana fruit during the successive 

 stages of its growth and ripening are described by Dr. Warden in the 

 Diet. Econ. Prod, of India, Vol. V., p. 301 : — 



" The composition of the banana at different stages of maturity has 

 been investigated by L. Ricciardi. The green fruit contains over 

 12 per cent, of starch, which disappears as the fruit ripens. It contains 

 0*53 of tannin and the ripe only *34 per cent., so that as the fruit 

 ripens this principle disappears, and this is also the case with the other 

 organic acids which are present. The sugar in the fruit which ripens 

 on the tree is almost entirely cane sugar, but in the fruit cut and 

 ripened by exposure to air the invert-sugar reaches about 80 per cent, 

 of the total, while the cane sugar is reduced to about 20 per cent., 

 calculated upon the sugar present. Proteid substances (albuminoids) are 

 present in the green fruit to 3*04 per cent., and in the ripe to 4'92 per 

 cent. The green fruit yields 1'04, and the ripe '95 per cent, of ash, 

 which contains 23*18 per cent, of phosphoric anhydride, and 4.V23 per 

 cent, of potash." 



The use of plantain-meal as an article of food is doubtless of great 

 antiquity. It is frequently mentioned by old authors. Rumph 

 records that in the Malay archipelago "man begins life with plantains " 

 as the meal is used for making pap for new born infants. 



