BANANAS FOR FRESH FRUIT

Evening Star, Issue 19848, 23 April 1928, Page 4

BANANAS FOR FRESH FRUIT

POSSESSES ALL FOODS TO MAINTAIN LIFE It is rather surprising to remember in these days when the perennial banana is perhaps the commonest of all fruits to bo seen on sale in this country, that a little over thirty years ago it was almost unknown in Europe Isays a writer in (he London ‘Daily Telegraph"). At first a few bananas were brought to England by sailors ns curiosities, in tho same way that they brought monkeys and parrots, as souvenirs of their travels to outlandish parts.

Not until IDO I. was the importation of the fruit (o England from the West Indies undertaken as a commercial proposition. Since that time, however, the popularity of the banana has advanced in a way never equalled by an exotic fruit. For years huge quantities have been reaching England from the Canary Islands, the West Indies, and Central America generally, and recently the product of Brazil has been added to the better-known varieties. So groat- is the demand that a fleet of steamers convey to England every month over 1,000,00!) bunches. Notwithstanding the high position the West Indies and L-ntral America now occupy in the trade, however, it has been argued that the plant is not natural to that region.

In the past considerable discussion has taken phe- ns to whether it existed in the .V w World before Columbus. The suggestion has been put forward that the original plant was carried to that land by ocean currents; in the other hand, its growth there i( mid to he traced to a single planf taken to the mainland from MartiniqiK about eighty years ago. _ ha\g untended that the original of th< innana plant was in India or Southern Asia. There is certainly a species of ilie same genius to be found in China. Whatever the origin of the banana, however, its fame, has spread to the our quarters of the globe. _ And rightly so, if the claims of the scientist ire accepted. -It. is a well-known fact that the banana in an “all-food” fruit, because “it possesses—as n< other fruit possesses—the power t< maintain life of itself.” A scientist experimenting to ascertain its value in vitamins, of’ which there are three classes, demonstrated that the banana, alone among fruits, contains them all. lie also found that, in addition to being nearly a quarter natural sugar, it contained cellulose, potassium phosphate, potassium carbonate—all for one penny I But it should be pointed out that in order to obtain the full benefit of the banana it should be eaten ripe, without a trace of green on the skin, and should yield to slight pressure by finger and thumb.