BANANA CTI.TURE IN HAWAII 
9 
learns the importance of his crop as a food, and the demands the 
plant makes upon the soil medium he is to provide; the consumer 
learns the food value of the fruit, and the dietitian its proper place 
in the dietary. 
Analyses of a number of locally grown bananas, made with a slight 
modification of the method recommended by the Association of 
Official Agricultural Chemists (#0, p. 77) and published by the 
station in 1914 (10, p. GG). indicate little difference in composition 
between them and bananas grown elsewhere. Bananas have a high 
and variable sugar content, the highest being in the Hawaiian cook- 
ing, or so-called native, bananas (pi. 4, A). The green fruit of any 
variety of bananas, such as that used for dehydration in the manu- 
facture of flour, has a starch content of about 12 per cent, most of 
which disappears during ripening, along with the tannic or organic 
acids. Doherty (9, p. 187) reports G per cent of starch remaining in 
some ripe fruit, and other observers have found less. A test for tannin 
on cross sections of both the green and ripe fruit showed tannin to be 
arranged in a narrow line around the outer margin of the fruit and 
along the three divisions of the core radiating from the center. 
Eicciardi (17, p. 554) explains that tannin, together with organic 
acids, like much of the starch, disappears during the process of ripen- 
ing. Thoroughly ripened fresh fruit is for this reason more easily 
digested than unripe fruit. The proteins, consisting of albumen and 
gluten, are small in amount, constituting little over 1 per cent of the 
edible portion of the ripe fruit. Acidity averages about 0.329 per 
cent, but runs unusually high (over 0.4 per cent) in the Apple and 
Brazilian varieties. A similar variation is noted in the different 
varieties in fat content, in which the cooking banana is unusually 
high. Table 1 gives the results of analyses of different kinds of 
bananas. 
Table 1. — Composition of different kinds of banana fruits 
Kind 
Chinese 
Apple 
Brazilian 
Baking (Hawaiian) 
Fehi 
Carbohydrates 
Edible 
Waste 
Water 
Protein 
Acids 
Fat as 
H 2 SO< 
Sugar 
Crude 
fiber 
1 i 
Per cent Per cent Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
70. 00 30. 00 
78.72 
1.788 
0. 180 0. 245 
16.66 
0.253 
74.49 
25.51 
68.48 
1.238 
.223 .417 
24.15 
.351 
68.25 
31. 75 
72.22 
1. 775 
. 201 . 406 
19.68 
.305 
75.72 
24.28 
67.78 
1.350 
. 518 . 397 
26.20 
.333 
64.29 
35.71 
72. 13 
1.069 
.046 
.230 
» 14. 49 
.594 
Ash 
Per cent 
0.955 
.964 
.924 
.750 
Determined by copper reduction method. 
The banana leads all other raw fruits in food value and surpasses 
most of the vegetables in energy value and tissue-building elements. 
According to S. C. Prescott. of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, it provides more actual food for the same cost than any other 
fresh fruit or vegetable, fish, meat, milk, or eggs (16, p. 53). Table 2 
compares the nutritive value of the banana with that of some other 
commonly used Hawaiian fruits. 
11862°— 20 2 
