Visoka škola „Koledž za informatiku i menadžment JANJOŠ"

Prijedor

Prof. : Mr. Čedomir Knežević

-SEMINARSKI RAD-

ELEMENTARY ENGLISH

Student : Rade Pavlović

Index br. : 183/o9
 Prijedor ,Januar 2010

BANANA

The true origin of Bananas, world's most popular fruit, is found in the Malaysia. Recent
archaeological evidence in Papua New Guinea suggests that banana history goes back to
at least 5000 BCE. Alexander the Great relished his first taste of the banana, an usual
fruit he saw growing on tall trees. He is even credited with bringing the banana from
India to the Western world. According to Chinese historian Yang Fu, China was tending
plantations of bananas in 200 BCE. These bananas grew only in the southern region of
China and were considered exotic, rare fruits that never became popular with the Chinese
masses until the 20th century.

Eventually, this tropical fruit reached Madagascar, an island off the southeastern coast
of Africa. By 1402 Portuguese sailors discovered tropical fruit in their travels to the
African continent and populated the Canary lslands with their first banana plantations. It
wasn't long before the banana became popular throughout the Caribbean as well as
Central America. Arabian slave traders are credited with giving the banana its popular
name. The bananas that were growing in Africa as well as Southeast Asia were not the
eight-to-twelve-inch giants that have become familiar in the U.S. supermarkets today.
They were small, about as long as a man's finger. Ergo the name banan, Arabic for finger.

It was almost three hundred and fifty years later that Americans tasted the first bananas
to arrive in their country. Wrapped in tin foil, bananas were sold for 10 cents each at a
celebration held in Pennsylvania in 1876 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence. Instructions on how to eat a banana appeared in the
Domestic Cyclopaedia of Practical Information. Many species of wild bananas still exist
in New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

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 The banana plant is not a tree. It is actually the world's largest herb. Bananas can reach
a height of 2–8 m, with leaves of up to 3.5 m in length.

Each banana plant can produce a bunch of green bananas, which when ripened often turn
yellow or sometimes red. Bananas come in a many sizes and colors when ripe, including
yellow, purple, and red. Bunch of bananas can weigh from 30–50 kg. Each banana is
about 125 g, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter content. Bananas
are classified either as dessert bananas (meaning they are yellow and fully ripe when
eaten) or as green cooking bananas. Almost all export bananas are the dessert type.
Bananas can be eaten raw or as cooked first. Cooking bananas are very similar to cooking
potatoes. One green cooking banana has about the same calorie content as one potato.
Export bananas are picked green, and then usually ripened in ripening rooms when they
arrive in their country of destination. To gain maximum life, bunches are harvested
before the fruit is fully mature.

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These are special rooms made air-tight and filled with ethylene gas. This technology
allows storage and transport for 3–4 weeks at 13 degrees Celsius . After ripening some
bananas can be held for a few days at home. The leaves of the banana plant are large,
flexible, and waterproof. They are used many ways, including as umbrellas and to wrap
food for cooking or storage. Banana leaves are also used to serve food in India and other
Asian countries. Unlike other fruits, it is difficult to extract juice from bananas because
when compressed a banana simply turns to pulp. Banana chips are a snack produced from
dehydrated or fried banana slices, which have a dark brown color and an intense banana
taste.

In 2003, India was biggest banana producer in the world. The four leading banana
exporting countries were Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Colombia. The
banana is so popular in Uganda that the locals eat about 250 kg each per year. Ecuador
alone provided more than 30% of global banana exports.

World wide the banana is the third most popular fruit after apples and oranges. Bananas
are among the most widely consumed foods in the world.

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 Banana, raw

Nutritional value per 100 g :

• Energy 371 kJ (89 kcal)

• Carbohydrates 22.84 g
• Sugars 12.23
• Fat 0.33 g
• Protein 1.09 g
• Vitamin A equiv. 3 μg (0%)
• Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.031 mg (2%)
• Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.073 mg (5%)
• Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.665 mg (4%)
• Vitamin B6 0.367 mg (28%)
• Vitamin C 8.7 mg (15%)
• Calcium 5 mg (1%)
• Iron 0.26 mg (2%)
• Magnesium 27 mg
• (7% Phosphorus 22 mg (3%)
• Potassium 358 mg (8%)
• Zinc 0.15 mg (1%)

Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient database