January, 1909.] 



21 



Edible Products. 



were given to its manufacture, no doubt 

 it could be produced locally at a more 

 reasonable cost. It is believed that 

 Rs. 360 per ton represents the average 

 cost of production in Saharanpur, in 

 Bengal, and Auuradhapura in Ceylon ; 

 and for foreign markets the cost of pack- 

 ing, freight and shipping charges have to 

 be added to this figure, say another Rs- 20 

 per ton. The total cost should not ex- 

 ceed Rs. 380 per ton or just under 3 as. 

 per lb., while the retail price in Calcutta 

 works out at Rs. 2,240 per ton, leaving a 

 margin of profit of Rs. 1 , 860 per ton or 

 nearly £00 per cent. The wholesale 

 price in Calcutta is not ascertainable, 

 but even if it is as low as Rs. 600 it would 

 leave a handsome margin of profit. In 

 small markets, of course, an insignificant 

 increase of supplies has a very adverse 

 effect on prices, and it has been pointed 

 out to us that banana flour has been 

 placed on the London market at £20 or 

 Rs. 300 per ton (which is less than the 

 cost of production in India), and even 

 then it was doubted whether this price 

 could be maintained in the face of a 

 laige consignment. This is discouraging 

 for manufacturers in India, for they 

 must look for profit in the beginning to 

 their export trade, at any rate until an 

 indigenous demand has been created. 

 Plantain flour, of course, eannnot hope 

 to compete with farinaceous materials 

 selling in London at £6— £12 per ton, 

 but that is no reason why it should not 

 come to be recognised and appreciated 

 as a dietetic luxury ; and if so, its price 

 should be regulated not by that of 

 wheat and rice flour and potato meal of 

 a low nutrient value, but by that of 

 superior products which command a 

 more restricted but yet an ample market. 

 Upon this factor the establishment of 

 the plantain meal industry in India on a 

 scale commercially profitable would 

 seem to depend. 



French Experiments. 

 It has been found from a series of 

 experiments in French Guinea that an 

 efficient and cheap way of manufac- 

 turing plantain meal is simply to peal 

 the bananas and dry them in the sun. 

 The meal thus obtained is of excellent 

 commercial quality. It is obvious, 

 however, that this procedure can only 

 be followed in tropical countries, so that 

 an apparatus which permits of desicca- 

 tion at any time is often necessary when 

 business is to be conducted on a large 

 scale. The principle on which these 

 desiccators are constructed is very 

 simple. All that is required is to circu- 

 late hot air over the fruit to be dried. 

 The apparatus consists of a furnace, in 

 which any kind of fuel may be used, and 

 a box arrangement in which are super- 



imposed a number of trays of metallic 

 net work through which the hot air 

 from the furnace, freed from the gases 

 of combusition, passes and dries the 

 fruit. The trays containing the fresh 

 plantains are placed in at the top of the 

 apparatus and taken out at the bottom. 

 The prices of such desiccators vary 

 roughly from Rs. 300 to Rs. 750. Illus- 

 trations of two such machines may be 

 seen at this office. 



Further experiments carried out in 

 French Guinea go to show that a hun- 

 dred kilo (kilo, 2,204 lbs.) of bauanas in 

 bunches as plucked yield 65 kilos of 

 peeled bananas, and these 62 kilos, 

 treated in the machines mentioned, give 

 about 19"5 kilos of plantain meal. Much, 

 however, depends upon the method of 

 desiccation. When the process is pro- 

 longed in order to obtain a golden colour 

 for commercial purposes the yield may 

 be as low as 14-32 kilos ; and dried too 

 fast not only is the weight seriously 

 reduced, but the fruit becomes carmel- 

 ised and depreciated in value. It will 

 be seen that the yield of plantain flour 

 under ordinary conditions, is roughly 

 20 per cent., which agrees with Mr. 

 Hooper's estimate published in our 

 issue of July 16, p. 62, that the average 

 weight of fruit required to produce 

 1 cwt. of flour is 5 cwt. It has also 

 been ascertained in the course of 

 the French experiments that although 

 unripe and partially ripe bananas may 

 be converted more quickly into meal, 

 ripe bananas which contain more sugar 

 give the best results. 



In a previous article on the subject 

 we stated that the manufacture of plan- 

 tain meal was being taken in hand by 

 a firm on the Malabar Coast ; and we 

 may now add that the climate of French 

 Guinea, where these plantain meal 

 experiments were carried out, is not 

 unlike that prevailing in Malabar, As 

 in Malabar the year in Lower and 

 Middle Guinea is divided into two well- 

 defined seasons — six months of rain 

 and six months of dry weather. The 

 rain commences in the middle of May 

 and end in November. During the rainy 

 period the drying of the fruit is 

 restricted by atmospheric humidity, and 

 it is here that the artificial dryers we 

 have referred to come into use. The 

 average annual rainfall is about 100 

 inches.— Indian Trade Journal. 



PLANTAIN MEAL. 



Some interesting experiments have 

 recently been conducted in French 

 Guinea in the manufacture of plantain 

 meal of which profitable notice might 

 be taken in this country. It has been 



