i5 



cent, of starch, which disappears as the fruit ripens. It contains 6.56 

 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 expo- 

 sure 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 percent of phosphoric anhydride, and 45.23 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 plantain" as the 

 meal is used for making pap for new born infants. 



In the Diet. Econ. Prod, of India, Vol. Y., p. 300, the same point 

 is more fully stated: — 



" It is interesting to notice that the large crop of food produced 

 by baiianas and plantains may be preserved for an indefinite period 

 either by drying the fruit or by preparing meal from it. P)i;th of these 

 processes, which have long been known and carried out in the West 

 Indies and South America, are also carried on in India, though to u 

 much smaller extent. Linschoten notices the practice as common in 

 the sixteenth century, writing, — ' these grow much in C-ananor, in the 

 coast of Malabar, and are by the Portingales called figges of Cananor. 

 and by reason of the greater quantities thereof are dried, the shells be- 

 ing taken off, and so being dried are carried over all India to be sold."" 

 When the nearly ripe fruit is cut into slices and dried in the sun a cer- 

 tain part of the sugar contained in the fruit crystallizes on the surface 

 and acts as a preservative. The slices thus prepared, it made from the 

 finer varieties, make an excellent desert preserve, and if from the 

 coarser may be used for cooking in the ordinarv way. They keep well 

 if carefully packed when dry, and ought to form a valuable antiscorbutic 

 for long voyages. The fruit may also be similarly preserved whole by 

 stripping off the skin and drying it in the sun. Plantain meal is pre- 

 pared by stripping off the husk, slicing the core, drying it in the sun, 

 and when thoroughly dry reducing it to a powder, and finally sifting. 

 It is calculated that the i'resh core will yield 40 per cent, of this meal, 

 and that an acre of average quality will yield over a ton." 



A good account of plantain meal and its value for food purposes 

 was published by Professor Johnston in the Transactions of the High- 

 land Society, No. 20. This was reproduced in the Barbados Agricul- 

 tural Report, August 8th. 1848. 



• The inquiry was started by the receipt of a sample of plantain meal 

 sent to Scotland from Surinam or Dutch Guiana. It is remarkable that 

 after an interval of about 50 years the starting of a factory for 

 the manufacture of plantain meal in the same Colony should once 

 more bring the subject into notice. 



Professor Johnston says : " Plantain Meal is of a slightly brownish 

 colour, and has an agreeable odour, which becomes more perceptible 



