Talk:Banana

del.icio.us del.icio.us
Digg Digg
Furl Furl
Reddit Reddit
Rojo Rojo
Add to OnlyWire
↓ Skip to table of contents ↓

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Banana article.
Article policies
Archives: 1, 2
Former good article Banana was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
This article has been reviewed by the Version 1.0 Editorial Team.
Version 0.5
 This article has been selected for Version 0.5 and subsequent release versions of Wikipedia.
WikiProject CD Selection
Banana is included in the Wikipedia for Schools, see Banana at Schools Wikipedia. Please maintain high quality standards; if you are an established editor your last version in the article history may be used so please don't leave the article with unresolved issues, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the DVDs.
 This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:
WikiProject Food and drink      (Rated B-Class)
Food portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Food and drink, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of food and drink articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
High This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.
This article has been rated but has no comments. If appropriate, please review the article and leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and how best to improve it.
WikiProject Echo      (Telugu)
WikiProject Echo has identified Banana as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the Telugu language Wikipedia.
Archives
Archive 1 Archive 2
About archives • Edit this box

Contents

Just some questions

I'm sure many of you are aware that the botany section of this article is pathetic. I don't know how but maybe we could get someone who knows about this from a portal or something to touch it up? And I don't know if it is possible but i think it would look much better if it had a nice neat template on bananas? I'm not too familiar with templates from wikipedia but maybe the one from cucumbers would work? And for all you people who keep complaining about semiprotects, if you are peeing.

unsigned comment added by Stinkypie (talk • contribs) 06:22, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Why is this article blocked?

I know, bananas are a funny subject, but come on! This block even prevents serious edits. Other, similar pages (such as Cucumber, Carrot, Candle or Bournemouth) are not restricted in such fashion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.64.72.230 (talk) 12:06, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

For some reason I find your comment unintentionally amusing. :) Was your examples of unblocked articles truly random? I was expecting something like cucumber, carrott, candle, celery... Most longish objects with only one not edible. Does Bournemouth have any significance to the other things? :D 204.191.239.189 (talk) 06:36, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

I do agree with the first comment. Could someone please tell us why it's protected? I suggest you become a user! I could help you get started. :) --LCoolo (talk) 02:27, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Storage and Transport

There is a rather odd few paragraphs in the storage and transport section extolling the virtues of wrapping bananas in polythene bags to preserve their freshness. It describes itself as "this report" and its sole aim seems to be to promote a study that the author obviously believes to be getting insufficient attention. It asks farmers to experiment for themselves in a very unencylopaedic way.BobCatBobDog (talk) 21:54, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

More info, but it is locked

This article openly requests more info on certain topics, but then it is locked up. Is that self-contradictory or not? I say, "yes".72.146.52.71 (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

This article goes into a good deal (especially early on) about the use of the banana in Asia, the Americas, and Europe, w/o even mentioning Africa. Is this a right thing to do? Especially since the banana is a tropical fruit that growns in the open all around the tropical region of the world. It's insulting to Africans not to at least mention them, and logically incorrect, too.72.146.52.71 (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

This article makes little or no mention of bananas grown in greenhouses. It is illogical to state that bananas are grown in "N" number of countries w/o even mentioning greenhouse bananas - as if they absolutely, positively have to be grown outdoors. Another example of this notion is where it says that in the United States, bananas are grown in Hawaii and Florida - implying nowhere else at all. Well, bananas are grown in greenhouses all over. And growing bananas in Canada isn't mentioned at all.72.146.52.71 (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Also, I have personally seen bananas grown in tempetate climates elsewhere. Banana plants can be grown outdoors in warm weather, and then dug up and kept in warm places like basements and barns in the wintertime. Next, when warm weather comes again, they respond well to be re-planted.72.146.52.71 (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Banana chips

"Banana chips are a snack (and a healthy alternative to potato chips)"

Is there any reason to think that deep fried bananas are healthy? In my experience they're far greasier than a good quality potato chip, does anyone have a source for this? Chrissy Bee (talk) 23:04, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

I presume this is referring to dried banana chips, not deep-fried. -- 23:58, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
Based on the other edits here, I doubt we'll find a source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Banana&diff=194414838&oldid=194393532. --rw (talk) 02:18, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
I've deleted that statement because of a) Chrissy's point and b) the user who inserted that comment (Spartand117) has a long history of vandalism. --rw (talk) 03:04, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
That's a dumb deletion. The article now makes no mention of dried bananas as snacks at all.
This is the dumbest deletion i have seen in ages. You are deleting something because it is greasy? Can't you just keep the section in and just change it? And on the article on the chips says that you can have fried and/or dried ones. Anyway i don't think it's a good idea to delete stuff just because a vandal made the edit. --Stinkypie (talk) 15:02, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Koeppel NYTimes article 18jun08

Yes, We Will Have No Bananas; By DAN KOEPPEL, June 18, 2008; NY Times. Dan Koeppel is the author of “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html -69.87.203.196 (talk) 12:57, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Okay. Thanks.24.47.216.175 (talk) 02:21, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

dramatic rise in price of bananas predicted as a result of fuel cost

Could somebody maybe find a source that verifies this? I think it was maybe in NYT, but I don't have an online subscription.24.47.216.175 (talk) 02:25, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

historical info without citations

I've just removed this section from the history section:

The banana is mentioned for the first time in written history in Buddhist texts in 600 BCE. [citation needed] Alexander the Great discovered the taste of the banana in the valleys of India in 327 BCE. [citation needed] The existence of an organized banana plantation could be found in China in 200 CE. [citation needed]

This because nobody seems to have been able to find a citation for these statements in a period since at least last september. I've looked a few times myself but couldn't find good sources. If people want to give it another try, please do. If these could be validated these would be very interesting historical bits of information after all. Martijn Faassen (talk) 23:11, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Slipping on banana peels

This story might or might not be totally fictitious: Supposedly a man went over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survived to tell about it. He went on a world tour to give lectures and tell his tale. While in New Zealand, he was walking down a sidewalk. He slipped on a banana peel, fell down, broke his leg, and died of an infection afterwards. Of course, this story dates back to when people really did make world tours to tell their tales (no TV, etc., existed), and antibiotics hadn't been invented, and people really did die from infections from broken limbs. 72.146.52.71 (talk) 00:51, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

It's actually reported to have been an orange peel? 58.107.95.127 (talk) 04:11, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Nah it was a used dinger —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.184.2.1 (talk) 06:37, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Not a good source of potassium

It is a common misconception that bananas are a good source of potassium. A thin 2000 calorie/day person would have to eat 2.5 pounds of unpeeled bananas before they got the RDA (about 7 bananas). They would have to eat ONLY bananas to get 160% of the RDA. Many more common foods are a better source: beans, carrots, prunes, soybeans, fish, definitely potatoes, yogurt, squash, clams, and beets rank better. Yet most people can only identify bananas as being a good source of potassium, which is clearly false if you compare it to what is typically taken to mean a "good source". Wiki is being used to promote a common misconception. 24.214.120.227 (talk) 14:52, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh really? Just reading straight from the info boxes. 100g of banana contains 358mg of potassium. 100g of potatoes is 421mg; and that's for unpeeled ones. The difference is significant but only by less than 20%. In addition the article on wiki states that although it is urban legend that potatoes do not have all their nutrients in the peel it states that 50% of the nutrients are in the flesh. Thus you can arguably say that without the peel, bananas are much better than potatoes. Do you have peel in your fries? You said definetly potatoes, I'm not bothered to check all of them but if you say that potatoes are a good source i think you might be wrong in the others. The only thing that you might have a point at is that people are more likely to eat large amounts of potatoes than bananas. Oh and i don't think the wiki would let such a major urban legend escape the attention of thousands of users. Please don't underestimate the wiki and before you post stuff on the talk page please check your content first.Stinkypie (talk) 14:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Stinky for finding an error in my comments. But if all my comments are to be discarded without further reflection, then by your reasoning, all comments with a single error should be discarded in their entirety. Your reasoning also states that we should never edit wiki articles because thousands of people have already checked them. Please provide a thoughtful argument that indicates bananas are a good source of potassium rather than initiating an ad hominem attack based on a single factual error. You say you are not bothered to check all of my data, so please do so. 24.214.120.227 (talk) 13:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If you go to potassium they've already done the leg work for the both of you. "The USDA lists tomato paste, orange juice, beet greens, white beans, bananas, and many other good dietary sources of potassium, ranked according to potassium content per measure shown" with reference to [1] To 24.214.120.227, good source of potassium doesn't mean that it will provide all dietary requirement in one small serving as far as I know - think balanced diet 62.31.149.64 (talk) 17:51, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

7 bananas is not "one small serving". One orange provides I believe 300% rda vitamin c verses one banana providing 8% of potassium. Clearly bananas are not a good source of potassium. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.81.137.154 (talk) 23:27, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Errm well sorry about that. I'm still pretty new here. Now that i think of it it might be classified as a personal attack sorry about that. I don't think an orange has as much as 300%, on the template thing for oranges it says 75% for 100g, i'm pretty sure that an orange is a lot more than 100g. I think an important fact that you are forgetting is that for your average person, 1 large banana would be enough for one serving. But when you consider the fact that in some countries eat bananas as a staple food, you can say that a lot of their potassium would come from bananas. It does have quite some potassium in it and as such i think it should be considered a good source of potassium. Stinkypie (talk) 06:14, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

A peeled medium banana has 105 calories and 422 mg potassium. RDI for potassium is 4700 mg for a 2000 calorie/day diet. So 1 banana has 9% potassium and 5% calories for a 2,000 calorie/day diet. So bananas are a better source of potassium than they are for calories. But they are not a "good source" of potassium because they do not provide a wide enough variety of other nutrients. To explain by example: let's say you eat 11 bananas to get 100% RDI of potassium and 55% of the 2000 calories/day. So now everything else you eat has to be jam-packed with nutrients if all your other RDI's are going to be acquired in the 900 calories remaining for the day. Compare this to oranges: 1 medium peeled orange without seeds has 116% of your vitamin C and 3% of the 2000 calories. You would have to eat 13 bananas to get as much potassium as 1 orange has of vitamin C. But the situation is even worse than that: "good source" means on a nutrient/calorie basis. By this measure, an orange has 22 times more vitamin C than a banana has of potassium (116%/3% divided by 9%/5%). Bananas are such a bad source of potassium, that bananas themselves have almost twice as much the RDI of vitamin C as they do potassium. On a per-calorie basis, oranges are as good as bananas for potassium.Ywaz (talk) 16:06, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Banana history section

The people that presumably brought the banana to Africa were Austronesians. Polynesians are a subdivision of Austronesians but their voyaging was in a different direction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.110.235.244 (talk) 04:23, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Radioactivity

The natural radioactivity in Bananas is well-documented and worth including in the article. Please see http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm, also Ref: Handbook of Radiation Measurement and Protection, Brodsky, A. CRC Press 1978 and Environmental Radioactivity from Natural, Industrial and Military Sources, Eisenbud, M and Gesell T. Academic Press, Inc. 1997. PolarYukon (talk) 03:39, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

The Name Banana

The name Banana came from the Professor Alistair B. Broom. The century is hard to locate but he came up with the name when he was researching in Papua New Guinea.

Doubtful. OhNo Talk 17:20, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Blue fluorescence of ripening bananas, a recent discovery

Just a fun and amazing recent finding. A photograph of this phenomenon would be appreciated. Cheers Shinkolobwe (talk) 23:00, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

A publication in Angewandte Chemie by Moser et al. (2008) [1] mentions a recent and surprising finding. Ripe bananas exhibit a blue fluorescence when exposed to ultra-violet (UV) light (Dark light). This property has been overlooked for a long time. Green bananas do not show any sign of fluorescence. The cause is attributed by the authors to the degradation of chlorophyll giving rise to the accumulation of a fluorescent product in the skin of the fruit. The chlorophyll breakdown product is stabilized by a propionate ester group. Banana-tree leaves also fluoresce in the same way. A possible consequence in nature is that animals capable to see in the UV spectrum would also be able to detect quicker the ripened fruits. [2]

References

  1. ^ Moser, Simone; Thomas Müller, Marc-Olivier Ebert, Steffen Jockusch, Nicholas J. Turro, Bernhard Kräutler (2008). "Blue luminescence of ripening bananas". Angewandte Chemie International Edition 47 (46): 8954-8957. doi:10.1002/anie.200803189, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.200803189. Retrieved on 29 October 2008. 
  2. ^ Blue Bananas: Ripening bananas glow an intense blue under black light

Shinkolobwe (talk) 23:00, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Walking Bananas

I think the fact the bananas appear to walk as they grow is an interesting fact. The routes underground grow laterally which cause the plant to move laterally on the ground. —Preceding unsigned comment added by jonholland99 (talk • contribs) 18:22, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Editorial correction proposed

God only knows why this article is locked, but I imagine you have your reasons. In any event, the following sentence needs editorial improvement/repair: "A possible consequence in nature is that animals capable to see in the UV spectrum would also be able to detect quicker the ripened fruits." One possibility would be: "A possible consequence in nature is that animals capable of seeing in the UV spectrum would also be able to more quickly detect the ripened fruits."

212.202.28.10 (talk) 21:34, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Banana"

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.