140 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



Banana Flour. 



By C. Drieberg. 



Introduction.— The idea of a local industry in banana flour has occupied 

 my attention since 1898 when I submitted two reports on the subject which were 

 issued as Government Circulars (227 of December 9th, and 150 of August 5th). 

 My attention was first drawn to this matter by Mr. Chas. Stouter, the Head Clerk 

 of the Anuradhapura Kachcheri, at present of the Audit Office, who submitted 

 a sample through the Government Agent. (I may mention in passing that Mr. Stouter 

 was in 1900 awarded a gold medal for his exhibit at the Paris Exposition.) 



Name.— In view of certain important considerations, it is necessary to 

 distinguish between Bananas and Plantains. The popular distinction is based on 

 the fact that the banana is eaten raw and the plantain cooked. In this way 

 the banana might be termed a "fruit" in the popular sense of the term, and the 

 plantain a vegetable. But as Dr. Watt remarks, the two terms are very loosely 

 used— some apply the name banana to the round plump, thin-skinned variety, 

 while others employ it in referring only to the small-fruited kinds. Watt 

 recommends that the. name banana should be discarded and only the word 

 plantain used. In Ceylon this is the case, but it would be difficult to 

 entirely eliminate the term banana, which should however always refer to the 

 " table-plantain." 



In the manufacture of flour it is the banana and not the plantain that 

 should be used, and for the following x'eason : — (1) Because the former is more 

 extensively cultivated. (2) Because its yield is larger. (3) Because the quantity of 

 raw material required for producing a given quantity of flour is much less. 



Uses.— Banana flour is at a decided disadvantage when competing with 

 cereal flours which are much more cheaply produced. Its chief importance is as 

 a diet for invalids and infants, for which there is no question as to its value. 

 H. M. Stanley has spoken in high terms of its efficacy in gastritis, and the 

 testimony of physicians in India and the West Indies is forthcoming to prove 

 its value as a food for those suffering from dyspepsia, dysentry, and similar 

 ailments. In a report made in a sample sent to the Paris Exposition special 

 reference was made to its suitability in cases of diabetes. 



Manufacture. — According to Herr Leuscher, who apparently has had con- 

 siderable experience in this matter, 10 bunches of 30 — 40 lbs. each will make 1 cwt. 

 flour— calculating that 20 % goes away as peel or skin and 55 % out of the balance as 

 water. This calculation, however, does not make any allowance for wastage, and is 

 greatly in excess of yields in Indian and Ceylon experiments. 



According to Herr Leuscher 2| cwt. fruit will yield 1 cwt. flour. According to 

 Indian experiments conducted by the Director of Saharanpur Botanic Gardens who 

 used Ryder's American evaporator 8| cwt. of fruit are required to produce 1 cwt. 

 flour, i.e., only about 12 %. 



In Mr. Stouter's experiments the yield was almost indentical with the last; 

 but 12 % seems a very poor yield, and I am inclined from my own experience to 

 put down the average weight of fruit required to produce 1 cwt. flour at 5 cwt., the 

 percentage of flour to fruit working out 20 %. One way of accounting for 



