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18: Plants producing exudates

Musa acuminata Colla

Musaceae

Musa malaccensis Ridl., Musa truncata Ridl., Musa zebrina Van Houtte ex Planch.

Indonesia: pisang batu (Indonesian), gedang klutuk (Javanese), cau batu (Sundanese).

The origin is not very well known but it is thought that the primary gene centre is Peninsular Malaysia and possibly also the immediately adjacent areas. At present it is distributed from India to Malesia.

The underside of the leaf blade bears a thick white wax layer, which can be collected by scraping. It is then liquidized by heating and cleaned by filtering, after which it solidifies into a hard white wax with a high melting point (about 80°C). One of the uses of this hard wax is in the batik industry. The wild Musa acuminata has played an important role in the development of the edible banana cultivars; it contributed the AA genome. The rhizomatous roots are sometimes eaten in times of food shortage and the leaves are used for wrapping of food and packing, just like those of other bananas. The inflorescence is sometimes eaten like a vegetable. Mature fruits, full of seeds, are not edible, but in Java young fruits (astringent to the taste) are used as a flavouring for the sauce of fruit salad ('rujak').

Tufted, rhizomatous, 4—30-stemmed, erect herb, 4—9 m tall. Pseudostem (consisting of numerous completely convolute leaves) slender, 3—7 m tall. Leaves oblong from an acute or obtuse base, acutely passing into the petiole, 2—2.7 m x 40—75 cm, green or purplish-green, usually pruinose on the lower surface. Inflorescence racemiform, on a pubescent peduncle arising from the rhizome through the pseudostem; bracts dark purple; female hands 4—10, 12—26-flowered; male hands 12—23-flowered, compound tepal about 4 cm x 1.2 cm, creamy-white, free tepal about half as long, filaments about 1 cm, anthers 1.5 cm long. Fruit a berry, up to about 13 cm long, usually curved, 5-sided in cross-section, glabrous to covered with soft hairs, yellow with red blotches, pulp yellow-white. Seed angular but flat on one face, 6—7 mm x 3 mm, dark brown. Musa acuminata occurs in light forest, forest borders and ravines in not too dry regions. It is very variable and, for example in Java, 3 formas have been distinguished although intermediates also exist. Particularly forma cerifera Backer has a very densely white pruinose leaf underside and the berry is covered with soft hairs. The wax yield per plant is about 200 g and 100 leaves yield about 0.5 kg pure wax. The wax layer is said to be thicker on plants growing in mountainous areas.

[5]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964–1968. Flora of Java. 3 Volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1. 647 pp., Vol. 2. 641 pp., Vol. 3. 761 pp.
[11]Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd Edition. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A–H) pp. 1–1240, Vol. 2 (I–Z) pp. 1241–2444.
[17]Dassanayake, M.D. & Fosberg, F.R. (Editors), 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Amerind Publishing Company, New Delhi, India.
[23]Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlands-Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd Edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch-Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd Edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands / Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 pp.).
[38]Smartt, J. & Simmonds, N.W., 1995. Evolution of crop plants. 2nd Edition. Longman Scientific and Technical, London, United Kingdom. 531 pp.

E. Boer & P.C.M. Jansen

Boer, E. & Jansen, P.C.M., 2000. Musa acuminata Colla. In: Boer, E. and Ella, A.B. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 18: Plants producing exudates. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea