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The study was aimed to compare the effect of three drying techniques viz., spray, freeze and hot air oven (HAO) drying on yield, nutritional parameters, minerals and physicochemical and morphological characterization of wild banana pulp (Musa balbisiana Colla).

Contents of carbohydrate was estimated by Anthrone reagent, protein by Kjeldahl, fat by Soxhlet, dietary fiber and ash by Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), minerals by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry, gross calorific value by Bomb calorimeter, moisture by moisture analyzer, water activity by water activity meter, morphological characterization by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), statistical level of significance at p < 0.05 by ANOVA, predictive modeling by simple and multiple linear regression.

Freeze and HAO drying were standardized with matured (stage 2) and spray drying with ripe bananas (stage 6). Freeze drying showed highest yield (76.69 ± 0.15%), minerals viz., K (1175.67 ± 1.41), Fe (2.27 ± 0.09), Mg (120.33 ± 0.47), Mn (4.40 ± 0.28) mg/100 g, protein (7.53 ± 0.14%), lesser moisture (7.95 ± 0.01%), water activity (0.17 ± 0.02a_w), hygroscopicity (6.37 ± 1.09%), well dispersed particles by SEM. HAO drying exhibited highest dietary fiber (18.95 ± 0.24%), gross calorific value 357.17 kcal/100 gm, higher solubility (47.22 ± 0.86%). Spray drying showed highest carbohydrate (85.29 ± 0.01%), lowest yield (28.26 ± 0.32%), required 30.5% adjuncts.

Effect of three drying techniques and use of adjuncts were not uniform for ripe and matured bananas.

Commercial utilization of seeded wild banana.

Value addition of wild banana in Assam, India

Freeze drying of mature wild banana pulp (M. balbisiana) was found as best technique utilizing lesser energy.

Some people assert that the tendency of modern Governments is to be too grandmotherly. They urge that people must not depend on the Government preventing them from coming to harm, and that they should be self‐reliant. This is very true, but nowadays one individual cannot be a specialist in everything. The ordinary person has to take a great many things on trust. For instance, a passenger by train is not able to inspect the engine and look at all the wheels, examine the whole length of railway, and in other ways assure himself that he and his are fairly safe from the results of the carelessness of others. On the contrary, he has to trust to the “powers that be” that they have adjusted the laws concerning responsibility in case of accident to any train that, on the average, the proper amount of care has been exercised. It is the same with weights and measures; a purchaser cannot always carry about with him a pair of scales and a set of weights to ensure his not being cheated; he has to trust to the Government and its inspector. And the Food and Drugs Acts constitute an attempt to protect people who are not in a position to protect themselves from being cheated. It has been suggested that the same principle should be extended to ensuring the proper cooking of food. The digestibility of most foods depends very largely upon the cooking, and yet how many of those who keep restaurants or roadside inns are really capable of cooking food properly? A busy man at the lunch hour and a cyclist at an inn are usually in a hurry. They have to eat the food supplied or go for some hours without any, and there ought to be some means invented to ensure the food being fit to eat. There would, of course, have to be some legal definition of “well‐done” or “under‐done” meat, and what a cup of “fresh” tea ought to be. The exact hardness of potatoes allowable by law would give rise to appeal cases, and some glaring case of an egg boiled too hard might send a landlord to prison for a month. Boarding‐houses might even be brought within the administrations of the Proper Cooking of Food Acts.

Malnutrition during childhood precedes growth failure and affects the child’s well-being later in life. This study aims to investigate the potency of iron-fortified klutuk banana (Musa balbisiana Colla) flour on growth parameters and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) expression in malnourished rat model.

Rats were allocated into normal control (NC), untreated malnutrition (MC), malnutrition + iron-fortified klutuk banana flour (IBF) and malnutrition + Indonesian Government-issued biscuit (GB). Malnutrition was induced by an isoenergetic low-protein diet for five weeks. The IBF and GB groups were supplemented with IBF 1.2 g/200 gBW and GB 1.2 g/200 gBW, respectively, via gavage daily for three weeks. The body weight and length, the levels of plasma and liver FGF21 and red blood cell indices were analyzed.

After three weeks of supplementation, the IBF group showed higher body weight (245 ± 13.6 g vs 201.8 ± 16.3 g; p = 0.0004) and length (20.9 ± 0.5 cm vs 19.8 ± 0.5 cm; p = 0.021) compared with the untreated group. The plasma FGF21 level decreased in the IBF group (p = 0.034). The IBF group altered mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin, suggesting the IBF might attenuate malnutrition-induced anemia. Overall, the IBF prevented growth failure in malnourished condition. This might be mediated by the suppression of FGF21 expression, along with the prevention of malnutrition and anemia.

This study provides preliminary information about the potential use of rarely consumed banana, klutuk banana, as a supplement to treat malnutrition. This study might help the developing countries to eliminate the widespread malnutrition in economically challenged communities.

This paper is a systemic review on enset plant’s role in Ethiopian people’s life as the source of food. This paper aims to summarize the traditional processing and preparation methods of enset-based foods and their nutritional composition.

Available scientific articles were collected and reviewed for enset plant evaluation, description, enset plant’s role in Ethiopian people’s food security, post harvesting and traditional processing of enset plants, microbiology of the fermented enset foods, different foods reported from enset, nutritional profile of the three food from enset base (kocho, bulla and amicho) and other non-food applications of enset plant.

Enset plant has a predominant role in people living in the southern part of Ethiopia. This plant is drought-tolerant and provides many non-food applications. Harvesting of the enset plant, preparing for fermentation and food preparations follow the traditional route by using the indigenous knowledge and practices. Limited studies have been reported on the microbiology of the enset fermentation, but various types of microbes have been reported. In case of nutritional composition, foods from enset are reported to contain high carbohydrate and minerals content, such as calcium, potassium and zinc, but limited protein content; they are also the best source of the essential amino acids such as lysine and leucine. Limited data are available on vitamins, anti-oxidant and fatty acids profiles of enset-based foods. The existing data indicate variations, and the reasons for variability are discussed in this paper.

Scientific reviews on enset food nutrition profile and related issues are scarce; this paper will compile information about enset plant-based foods for researchers for their future research.

Japan is the world's largest and most valuable market for shrimp. Per capita annual consumption is over 2kg annually, far greater than the United States (1kg) and the European Community (0.5kg).

This chapter addresses urban food provisioning through a case study of banana plantain production, distribution, and consumption centering around two Cameroonian villages – Koumou and Oban. Recent and rapid urban population growth in Cameroon has brought attention to the issue of urban food supply, which has always been assured by a traditional organization of numerous small operators and which has proven to be more effective overall than initiatives adopted by public authorities. This chapter identifies the actors involved in urban food provisioning systems in Cameroon and highlights the often underlooked role played by cultural and social factors within the economy of food.

The fig has strong claim to be one of the first, if not the first of fruits cultivated by man. We are told of the important role fig‐leaves played in the Garden of Eden, and the fig is prominent in the social history of many lands. Although nowadays this strange fruit does not enjoy the widest popularity in the most highly‐developed countries of the West — not on the scale of bananas and oranges, for instance — in the Mediterranean countries, in Asia Minor and western Asia, its importance has never been in doubt through all the changing centuries.

The agricultural resources of China vary with its different geographic regions. China is divided into six geographic regions and the climate, flora and fauna of each are described, together with the ecological relationship between them. Suggestions are given of how best to exploit, utilise and protect these resources.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse how floods and droughts affect communities' livelihood in the middle Zambezi river basin and coping mechanisms which households apply to counter the impact of floods and droughts.

The method adopted was semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and semi-structured questionnaires.

Thematic analysis shows that the major issues affecting communities' livelihood in the middle Zambezi river basin are related to frequent floods and droughts. Floods are due to heavy seasonal rainfall which occurs at the peak of the rainfall season. As for droughts, the frequency of dry-spells of 20 days on average has been observed during the crop season. The impacts of floods and droughts in the district, notably in some wards such as Kanyemba, are the reduction of crop production, food shortages, reduction of agriculture derived income and erosion of social network. Households have responded to these impacts through a number of coping mechanisms including disposal of assets, labour migration, stream bank and floodplain cultivation, piecework, remittance, wild production and fishing. However, such coping mechanisms are short term and some of them are in conflict with the country's environmental laws.

This paper reports a study on the first such finding related to socioeconomic impact of floods and droughts on households located in the middle Zambezi valley which is 500 km from Harare with a specific focus on traditional coping strategies in the face of disasters.