The world's most consumed fruit and an important staple for many developing companies, bananas are increasingly threated by Blood disease, so named because cut banana stems look like they are bleeding. Blood disease causes ...
Agriculture
Dec 17, 2021
0
355
A new banana fungus is rapidly spreading across the globe. It hit Africa a decade ago, and the advance of the disease poses a threat to Africa's food security, a genetic study conducted by Wageningen University & Research ...
Ecology
Sep 23, 2022
0
53
Bananas are thought to have been first domesticated by people 7,000 years ago on the island of New Guinea. But the domestication history of bananas is complicated, while their classification is hotly debated, as boundaries ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 7, 2022
0
1058
It's common wisdom that one rotten apple in a barrel spoils all the other apples, and that an apple ripens a green banana if they are put together in a paper bag. Ways to ripen, or spoil, fruit have been known for thousands ...
Biotechnology
Jun 11, 2013
0
0
Human skin and banana peels have something in common: they produce the same enzyme when attacked. By studying fruit, researchers have come up with an accurate method for diagnosing the stages of this form of skin cancer.
Analytical Chemistry
Feb 8, 2016
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105
Biodegradable 'plastic' bags made out of banana plants sounds a bit...bananas, but a couple of UNSW researchers have found a way to do it, and it could solve two industrial waste problems in one.
Materials Science
Nov 29, 2019
2
497
A potent new inhibitor of HIV, derived from bananas, may open the door to new treatments to prevent sexual transmission of HIV, according to a University of Michigan Medical School study published this week.
Biochemistry
Mar 15, 2010
4
1
Climate change has raised the risk of a fungal disease that ravages banana crops, new research shows.
Ecology
May 6, 2019
0
1303
(Phys.org) -- The term ethylene (ethene) generally brings to mind polyethylene plastics, not fruit. However, ethylene is more than just a feedstock for chemical industry, it is also the smallest plant hormone, and it controls ...
Analytical Chemistry
May 19, 2012
6
2
The banana has its earliest origins in Papua New Guinea, where it was domesticated by indigenous communities at least 7,000 years ago. This ancestor, Musa acuminata, subspecies Banksii, looks very different from the ubiquitous ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2020
0
31
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red.
Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana or hybrids Musa acuminata × balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific names Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca are no longer used.
Banana is also used to describe Enset and Fe'i bananas, neither of which belong to the aforementioned species. Enset bananas belong to the genus Ensete while the taxonomy of Fe'i-type cultivars is uncertain.
In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains or "cooking bananas". The distinction is purely arbitrary and the terms 'plantain' and 'banana' are sometimes interchangeable depending on their usage.
They are native to tropical South and Southeast Asia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. Today, they are cultivated throughout the tropics. They are grown in at least 107 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and as ornamental plants.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
