History of the Banana
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The banana is an exotic fruit that belongs to the Musa genus family. It is said that Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus’ personal physician Antonius Musa is the person who promoted the agriculture of banana plants between 63 and 14 B.C.
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During the early 15th century, Europe was introduced to this fruit by Portuguese sailors, who sailed in from West Africa. In print, the very first mention of banana in English, which has been derived from the Guinea word banema, which was found in the 17th century.
Even in ancient times, bananas were in cultivation and were used by mankind; this was even before men started growing rice!
Even though Africa saw bananas growing under ideal conditions and in large numbers, it is actually believed to have been born in Oceania and East Asia. Sailors traveling to the Canary Islands and the West Indies carried bananas with them and introduced locals at those places to this delicious fruit. The banana traveled to North America along with Friar Tomas de Berlanga, the Spanish missionary. However, do not mistake those historical bananas for the sweet yellow ones we are familiar with today. Those bananas were what we call plantains today, and were used in cooking.
The yellow banana that is sweet and eaten all over the world today is said to be a mutant variety of the banana used for cooking. It was first discovered by Jean Francois Poujot, who was from Jamaica, in 1836, quite by accident. One of the trees he was growing bore yellow bananas than the expected red and green ones. He tasted one and immediately decided to cultivate more of the sweet variety.
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