Plantain is a hybrid species of plant in the Musaceae family. Like the dessert banana, it is a subgroup of the species Musa × paradisiaca, which originated from the cross between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana.
The plantain is simply called plantain in Africa. This false fruit still takes various names depending on the geographic location: pig banana in certain regions, flour banana or yellow banana in the West Indies, poingo banana in New Caledonia, or cooking banana.
This banana is richer in starch than those usually consumed as a dessert. It is commonly consumed in much of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and some countries in South America.
Plantains have the characteristic of being more rigid than bananas.
Vocabulary
The fruit was once referred to in Africa and in the island of Tenerife as the plane tree to denote the banana tree, and the fruit continues to be called platano in Spanish; thus, in the relation that he makes of his visit to the island of Tenerife, Jean-Baptiste Gaby, in 1689, explains that bananas “are the fruits of the plane tree. They are therefore entering their maturity; it is a fruit of the size and length of our small cucumbers, it has a very sweetish & slightly wild taste, when we are not accustomed to it. The Spaniards see there, they say, in the middle the image of a crucifix, when they are cut at an angle; the most gullible of our Frenchmen thought of seeing it there: but whatever care we took in examining it, we could never see it there. "
UseCompared to dessert bananas, plantains are generally larger and longer, their flesh is a little pink and is a little lower in sugar but much richer in starch, which makes it firmer, giving it good resistance to cooking. Although just as tasty raw as the first, their flesh is firmer and it is rather customary to eat them after cooking because they remain whole and serve as starchy food to accompany meat, chicken and fish dishes.
In sub-Saharan Africa, plantains are most often eaten when ripe, boiled, grilled or fried. Cooked before full maturity, it is at this stage firmer and less sweet with a texture fairly close to floury tubers. It must be blanched (passage to boiling salted water) before it can be peeled and then fried or used in stews such as potatoes. They can be served whole or mashed, fried in oil (they are then called allocos), cut lengthwise or into thin slices like crisps, strung on skewers, in small cylinders alternated with small cubes of meat, etc.
Genetic
Most plantains are from the AAB group. Some others from the ABB group. A smaller but also economically important distribution group is that of AAA group East African bananas. Genetically distinct, it is designated as AAA-EA. Botanically, the plantain is not a different species from the dessert banana but only a cultigroup.
Production
Despite its adaptation to various ecosystems and its high production potential, the production of plantain remains a marginal crop [ref. necessary] especially because of the unavailability of good quality plant material and the frequent use of bad suckers. It should also be noted that the production of plantains can last from 12 to 15 months from the multiplication of suckers at harvest. However, several intensive production techniques have been developed, including in vitro culture and the plant stem stem (PIF) which allows to produce many healthy releases in 3 months.