Fascinating Banana Facts

Here are some interesting and fun banana facts from around the world.

• The banana peel contains the finest natural lubricant known to man. You can use the inside of a banana peel to polish patent leather shoes.


• The earliest dessert recipe ever written was a banana recipe - a mushy mixture of bananas, almonds, and honey.


• Most bananas are grown in hot, humid tropical countries, but some bananas are grown in Iceland in soil heated by hot warm geysers.


• In the Christian Bible, the forbidden fruit in the earthly paradise was the apple, but in Hinduism, it was the banana.


• There are in excess of 500 banana varieties in the world. They come in all shapes and sizes, from small finger fruits to purple plantains.


• Bananas don't grow on trees. They're actually a giant herb.


• The phrase going bananas was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary because of the banana's connection with monkeys.


• Bananas are harvested green because they keep ripening even after they are picked.


• The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which means Fruit of the Wise Men.


• Bananas are the world's best-selling fruit, outranking the apple and orange.


• India is the largest producer and consumer with estimated production of 16 million tonnes of bananas annually. India's domestic production alone exceeds the entire world trade.


• A man in India once ate 81 bananas in a half an hour.


• One of the first records of bananas dates back to Alexander The Great's conquest of India where he first discovered bananas in 327 B.C.


• Reindeers like eating bananas.


• Bananas are one of the few foods to contain the 6 major vitamin groups.


• If you peel a banana from the bottom up you won't get the string things.


• Those stringy things are called phloem (pronounced FLOM).


• The sap of the fe’i banana is reddish in color and was once used by missionaries to make copies of the Bible by dipping bamboo pens in the red sap.


• In the former Belgian Congo European soldiers during colonial times used the sap from the banana plant to heal wounds made by arrows of the natives.


• The word banana comes from an Arab word “banan” meaning finger.


• An individual banana is called a finger. A bunch of bananas is called a hand.


• Angel Castro, Father of Fidel Castro, was a banana plantation owner. When young, Fidel tended the bananas on his father’s 10,000 acre estate.


• Bananas are a very rich source of vitamin B6, which your brain needs to function properly and make you wise.


• Some banana trees continue producing up to one hundred years, although most banana plantations renew their stock every ten to twenty-five years.


• The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped around each other like celery stalks.


• In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans knew the banana as the "Indian Fig".


• If your kids have a tough time falling asleep, give them a banana. Like a cup of warm milk, a banana is a sleep enhancer.


• Bananas were often given to immigrants at Ellis Island who had never seen the tropical fruit before and ate it peel and all.


• The average American eats 12kg of bananas every year, and the average Australian eats almost 15kg of bananas every year.


• The white tube at the very heart of the trunk of a banana "tree" can be cooked into a treat similar to bamboo shoots.


• Brisbane holds the world record for the longest banana split ever made - a giant 7.3 km long!.


• In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.


• In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain, most involving people slipping on skins.


• As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste.


• In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in the place of plastic bags and cling wraps), providing a unique flavor and aroma to nasi lemak and the Indian banana leaf rice.

Come back often by registering for more wonderful banana facts.


Banana Recipes
Banana Breads
Banana Muffins
Banana Cookies
Banana Puddings, Pies & Scones
Banana Pancakes
Banana Cakes - Western & Asian
Banana Salads, Jellos & Terrines
Banana Fritters & Chips
Banana Enzymes
Fun Banana Recipes for Kids


Banana Facts & Information
Banana History
Banana Nutrition

Besides these fascinating banana facts, learn about about the wonders of eating bananas.