Talk:Banana/Archive 1

message: The nutritional composition of the banana adds up to 101.1%.  I think some of the figures might be wrong!
:Rounding errors? :P vLaDsINgEr 19:35, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If you are talking about the nutrient table, it's not meant to be added - it's %RDI per nutrient, not total.  28% B6 means 100g of banana gives you 28% of your B6 needs for the day.  WLU 01:43, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  101.1% Nutrition 

message: The article as it currently stands states that bananas have a "85 percent water content" (Properties), or are alternatively "74% water" (Nutritional value and dietary effects).  Unless we're talking about two different species of bananas, or they suffer from extreme seasonal variation, one of these values is incorrect.  I would be inclined to lean towards the value from the nutritional section, except as previously noted its values add to 101.1%.   --PJF (talk) 11:22, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Water content of bananas? 

message: I found a good article with a photo of "seed-packed fruit of Musa balbisiana, one of the ancestors of the edible bananas."  Here's the link.
http://www.apsnet.org/education/feature/banana/Top.html
Here's the link to to photo.
http://www.apsnet.org/education/feature/banana/Images/Figure4sm.jpg
I was interested to see such a picture, however, I don't know whether it would violate copyright to put this photo in the article so I'm not trying. - Jimp  23May05
:Unfortunately they are copyright - it has "© Copyright 2001 by The American Phytopathological Society" at the foot of the page - MPF 3 July 2005 21:35 (UTC)
I've eaten plenty of little bananas with big hard seeds, which form three longitudinal rows. They're sold in markets in Indonesia. Kslays 03:53, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Banana Seeds 

message: I find the start of this article a little confusing/misleading .  It says "A banana is a tree-like plant", but then the majority of the article is about the banana fruit, and not the plant.  
Also, though I am no expert, I believe that all members of the Musaceae family are considered to be Banana Plants - So Ensete and Musella, as well as Musa.
:I edited the first paragraph to mention the fruit. --KJ 05:27, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  I find the start of the article confusing/misleading 

message: This article doesn't seem to say anything about the use of the banana leaf, and other parts of the tree? They highly used for those purposes as well, such as in...well, wrapping foods and being used to store food in them for a start. -- Natalinasmpf 20:49, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It does now. StuRat 02:16, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  leaves? 

message: In line 1, the a/an dispute appears to have arisen from a misunderstanding: In British English, the "h" of herb is pronounced, so a herb, in the USA it's silent, so an herb. jimfbleak
Good point, I forgot about that. I have no objections to returning it to an a as is it seems the article is primarily British. --Klaser 18:39, 12 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: '''a''' or '''an'''

message: What does this mean? -- We may see the extinction of the banana as both a lifesaver for hungry and impoverished Africans and as the most popular product on the world's supermarket shelves -- if it's extinct, how can it be popular?  It will be popular because it becomes extinct?  How can its extinction be a lifesaver for hungry and impoverished Africans?  None of this makes sense.  -- Zoe
Look at the sentence in the article again, it says "currently" where you have "as", which changes the meaning. Maybe someone changed it since you saw it. Here is another place to read about the possible disappearence of bananas, if you are curious. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2664373.stm
--Qaz
:Yeah, it changed since I wrote the above, because I copied and pasted the sentence.  -- Zoe
re Zoe's comment: ROFL -Sv hehe
I read about the predicted extinction about a year ago in New Scientist, and I still don't get it.  Firstly, why does someone think such disease is finally going to strike at this time?  Secondly, why on earth (or indeed any planet) would it wipe out the African, Asian and Latin American crops all together? -- Smjg 11:04, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: If it kills enough, there will be inadequate genetic diversity to propagate indefinitely. Even a disease that kills only half of the crops could eventually cause the extinction of the entire breed. Kent Wang 22:27, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: If something starts killing them in one area, couldn't someone clear the field, take measures to clear the area of the disease, and then replant them from elsewhere? -- Smjg 11:10, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

text: It's about the potential extinction of one very popular cultivar, not the banana as a whole. But the paragraph is largely duplicating other text higher up the page (I've been meaning to deal with it but keep forgetting!) - MPF 20:13, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Extinction?! 

message: It has been a long-held belief among people that I know that bananas always have five sides. I can't seem to find any information about this anywhere online - is this a characteristic of the current mass-consumption bananas, or is it just another urban legend?
:I think that might be right, they do have "flats", if not "sides".  I'm not sure if they always have 5, but it wouldn't suprise me, especially if the flower from which the fruit grows had 5 petals. StuRat 02:06, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Just another urban legend. Bananas, like all monocots, have tripartite flower and fruit parts; a quick look at a few bananas does show a vaguely 3-ridged shape, and the black flower scar at the end is triangular. The flesh of a banana is circular in cross-section, but readily splits lengthwise into three sections. - MPF 22:00, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Five sides? 

message: Is it worth discussing the growing/harvesting methods?  http://www.papyrusaustralia.com.au/banana_details.html has a bunch of information.  While we're at it, is it worth mentioning paper production using bananas?  That's the only company I've seen that appears to be doing it, though. FireWorks 19:34, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Banana Growing/Harvesting 

message: In this section you could mention that bananas are popular with athletes for restoring potassium lost from sweating excessively.
I remember reading in an old etiquette book that bananas should be peeled from the flower scar end, as to not resemble apes that do it from the stem end.
:Lol, what for? To prove that your stupider then apes? The reasons why presemuably why 'apes' peel them from the stem end (if they do) is presemuably because it's easier. To do anything else, will just show your stupider then apes Nil Einne 10:47, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Attitudes Toward Bananas 

message: This detail was added to the History section. Could anyone with (banana knowledge?) verify the text? --Bookandcoffee 19:05, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Unfortunately, this edit was a copyright violation, so I reverted it. See  - Mushroom 19:35, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Why are bananas bent

message: Someone has inserted a litany of abusive text into paragraph 2 and 3, needs removed ASAP. -Anon
:It has been reverted -SCEhardt 02:24, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Vandalism

message: I am working on combining “Banana pests and diseases” with “Extinction”, but it might take a few days to clarify a couple of things, after which time the whole thing should be less wordy. Thanks.
Brimba 06:41, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Banana pests and diseases/ Extinction

message: I am going to cut the following text from Banana:
However unlike other fruits, bananas have only recently been used to prepare juice and squashes. Despite an 85% water content, it has historically been difficult to extract juice from the fruit because when compressed, a banana simply turns to pulp. In 2004, scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India, patented a technique for extracting juice by treating banana pulp in a reaction vessel for four to six hours [1].
The 85% water is clearly wrong, and appears to be a typo from the story; “ Despite an 85 per cent water content” and “ The technique extracts about 85 per cent of the fruit's juice while the solid leftover” both appear in the text, and apparently the 85 was used twice, when it should say something like “75% water “ instead. Also the other citations talk about a two day process involving adding an enzyme to break down the pulp. Overall the article cited here varies in a number of ways from other sources. 
The obvious answer would be to rewrite the text to better cover the process; however, so far no one has shown any real world interest in the process, and so it still stands as just a successful lab experiment, and hence not worth noting in an encyclopedia. Brimba 16:20, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The fact that it is difficult to extract juice from a banana still merits mentioning. -Tim Rhymeless  (Er...let's shimmy) 17:09, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, now that you mention it that should remain. Brimba 19:12, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

text: Hey, is there some plagiarism on this banana page?  Look at http://www.uga.edu/fruit/banana.htm . 
"Latin Americans sometimes comment that the plants are "walking" over time." Exact copy. T g7 20:50, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I read a Dr Karl Kruszelnicki I think, and it said that scientist accidentally created a banana species which can be juiced after exposing it to radiation. Not 100% sure on it though, but I remember thinking that I'd never want to drink juice from a banana which has been altered through radiation. --Fir0002 www 10:03, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Banana juice

message: The article states that serotonin is unsuitable for smoking (due to high melting point); the issue is not trying to smoke serotonin, it's to smoke the tryptophan to let the brain create serotonin.  Can someone find out if tryptophan can be successfully smoked (e.g. find the melting point of the chemical)?
If it's not worth finding out, then perhaps remove the paragraph because there is no reason to state the melting point of serotonin in this article at all!  144.13.213.211 01:15, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The melting point of tryptophan is 289 °C; this is too high for it to be suitable for smoking. SCHZMO ✍ 15:55, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pop Culture: Smoking 

message: Are "bananas" and "plantains" synonymous with the genus Musa? Or do these terms only refer to the cultivated/edible Musa species and hybrids. SCHZMO ✍ 00:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Banana" vs. ''Musa'' 

message: Potatoes also seem to claim forth position. Which is correct?
edit:
sorry, they say "fourth largest crop in terms of fresh produce" which I guess it completely different.
:Does the "Banana as 4th" depend on the inclusion of plantains? If so, then the introduction should be slightly re-worded. Also, it would be better if that claim was referenced.--Malcohol 17:02, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Banana's the forth most consumed? 

message: It is stated under the 'Popular culture' section of this article that ingesting bananas cannot increase levels of serotonin in the blood. However, R. Xiao et al (1998)  "On the accurate measurement of serotonin in whole blood" Scand. J. Clin. Lab. Invest. 58: 505-510 find that "single and repeated ingestion of bananas, which are rich in 5-HT(serotonin), elevated 5-HT in whole blood, indicating dietary influences on platelet 5-HT". I suggest that the article is updated accordingly. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by  129.11.76.229  (talk • contribs) 10:35, 1 June 2006.
:Thank you for your suggestion regarding :banana! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed.  Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the  link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to…) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills.  New contributors are always welcome. Walter Siegmund (talk) 14:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Serotonin and bananas 

message: Why do bananas get sweeter the longer they have been ripened? --Abdull 18:25, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: All fruits get sweeter as the carbohydrates break down to simple sugars - ripening and rotting are different stages of the same degenerative process. jimfbleak 05:26, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sweeter and sweeter 

message: The song "Mr. Tallyman" implies that bananas are picked at night ... 'Daylight come and I want to go home' (http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Banana_Boat_Song.htm). Is it true? A trivial matter, to be sure, and probably common knowledge in the growing regions, but I have not been able to find a definitive answer to this question. JiHymas@himivest.com 15:21, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picking Bananas 

message: (partial in german, translate later)
per 100g 
 brennwert 387kJ/92,37 kcal
 protein 0,85g
 carbonhydrate 23,73g
 fat 0,85g
 ballaststoffe 2,54g
 natrium 1mg
 cholesterin 0mg
 water 74%
 _minerals_ (in mg) 
 Calcium 5,93
 Fe 0
 Zink 0
 mangan 0
 Kalium 395,76
 magnesium 28,81
 phosphor 20,34
 _vitaines (in mg)_
 A 7,63
:Vit. A is probably in micrograms Han-Kwang 13:39, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The data seems to agree well with the data in the nutritional value box I put into the article. I chose to not include every trace element, but only the ones for which this fruit is a major source. For that I use the RDA percentages. If eating 10000 kJ of a product (or 300 g if it is a low-calorie product) doesn't provide you with much more than 100% of the RDA, I don't include it, unless the article text makes specific claims. Extensive data can be found at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ . Feel free to add more data, though. See Template:Nutritionalvalue for a list of nutrients that are recognized. Han-Kwang 13:39, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nutrition info from a Dole banana 

message: The article states that "The banana is mentioned for the first time in written history in Buddhist texts in 600 BC." The Buddha is thought to have lived in the sixth or fifth centuries BC, so the date is obviously wrong. Eduardo Cuellar 09:55, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Error in page 

message: My father tells me that in Jamaica they leave the bananas till they go brown before eating them. I must say, they taste much sweeter and have a good texture if you leave them. Is there any truth to this claim? -- Boothman /tɔːk/ 17:40, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ripeness query 

message: Somebody keeps posting the totally inaccurate claim that the word banana is derived from the Arabic banan, meaning finger.  In fact, the word is of West African origin.  There's no scholarly debate about this whatsoever.  Any source you check (for instance, this one ) will explain that to you.
:I can't weigh in one way or the other, but I wouldn't consider an online dictionary to be a very authoritative scholarly reference. In fact I tried doing some websearches and found that there are indeed some published scholarly claims that the word banana is derived from the Arabic "banan" (for example here). Etymological myth? Arabocentrism? I have no idea but note also that the two etymologies are not necessarily mutually exclusive; Africa and Arabia are in close proximity and both African and Arabic words for "banana" could be derived from the same ancient root (and since cultivated bananas probably originated in Asia rather than Africa, it's possible that the etymology is neither African nor Arabic). At the very least, the text of the article should reflect any scholarly uncertainty or disagreement that exists. MrDarwin 15:11, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My Chambers dictionary says West Africa through Portuguses or Spanish, Arabic looks like a red herring based on a word similarity. jimfbleak 16:32, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

text: I've removed the latest claim of an Arabic origin of the word. This may very well be true, but I have not been able to confirm it in the literature, and have found several references (none as reliable as I would like, or I would cite them) that the word has an African origin. Both sides should probably be represented, but citations for the claims are necessary for both claims. MrDarwin 18:44, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Derivation of the word banana 

message: Is this a banana flower? If so, please put it in the article and add any info you can give to the photo page. Thanks. DirkvdM 18:05, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That is Strelitzia reginae, otherwise known as "Bird of Paradise." Intelligence3 23:17, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flower 

message: there is evidence to prove that Homo sapiens share 50% of our DNA as a banana, i read it on a biology poster for uni, i cannot add this to the article with no proof and it is an interesting fact but i dont even know weither it should be added. so... cj105 20, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
::I think it was probably a joke. You can probably take many different plants and animals and match 50%. Check this page for example http://www.thingsyoudontneedtoknow.com/dnabananas.htmlMapetite526 19:06, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: 50% human

message: Hey guys, it is true that you can use a banana peel to very effectivly shine your shoes (as demonstrated by this GIF I made). If we have a section on Smoking Banana Peels then, we can merge it all into a section called "Parctical Uses for Banana peels"  because shining your shoes with a peel works very well and is an important aspect. 
The article in shoe polish just links back to here!
Dfrg.msc  1 . 2 . 3 01:51, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thats coz the bloody flash whent off. Dfrg.msc  1 . 2 . Editor Review
Yeah, this video is cute and all... but it doesn't seem authentic because the entire picture is clearer and shinier in the "after" shot. This should be taken down. -Laikalynx 18:36, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shine your shoes 

message: "Bananas are a valuable source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, ..."
Bananas have 9mg of Vitmain C per 100g .  Oranges have 50mg.  So how can it be claimed that Bananas are "a valuable source of ... Vitamin C" given their inferiority to oranges?  Also, note how small 9mg is compared to the recommended daily dietary intake of Vitamin C.
:Actually it's 15% which is small by no means. In any case, I thof ink you might be missing the point. Remember that banana's are a staple food crop and a very important one to many people. We can presume that it's far more likely someone from many developing countries will be able to eat 200g banana then even 25g of oranges... I would say it's rather likely that for many people the banana is a valuable source of vitamin C Nil Einne 11:13, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vitamin content 

message: Members of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. Currently this article does not include in-line citations. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. --- The Bethling(Talk) 23:25, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA Re-Review and In-line citations 

message: Can anyone point to studies that show with any certainty whether bananas cause, or cure, constipation? Or diarrhea? I'm tired of getting conflicting reports from all over the Net (and arguing with my wife about it). It's time Wikipedia gave us the answer! --Dennitzio 20:40, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Constipation cause or cure?

message: Good article Review this article will soon be reviewed for delisting from Good Article status.  Please look at the Good Article Criteria and try and improve the article to meet those - the criteria I'm particularly concerned about is 2a and 2b.  - Malkinann 07:58, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Good Article Review

message: Should plantain be added to "see also?"
:I see no real reason why not. Go ahead and be bold by editing it in. :)  E. Sn0 =31337= Talk 22:25, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plantain 

message: The Good Article review on this article has ended, and in a four to zero vote, this article has been delisted, for various problems with the referencing. Dispute archived here: Wikipedia:Good articles/Disputes/Archive 11. Homestarmy 17:40, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Good Article Review

message: I reverted unsourced last edit because plantain is not a misnomer. The meaning is clear in English. I suspect that the editor meant that it meant something different in an unspecified other language, but this is unclear. Jimfbleak.talk.16:17, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: banana-like fruit