Plantains have been cultivated in China for thousands of years. In the Han Dynasty Ban Gu compiled the "Book of Han • Sima Xiangru Biography", it is mentioned: "To the east are HuiPu, Henglan Zhiruo, Qiongqi Changpu, Jiang Li Wu, Zhu Zhu Ba. "The Baja here is the plantain. The Han Dynasty geography book "Three Auxiliary Yellow Maps" mentions that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty planted strange grasses and trees in The Fuli Palace, including "Twelve Books of Sweet Plantains".
(Image from Oriental IC)
Basho is also called gansho, and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty mentions the sweet plantain, "also known as basho, 夭tho, Ba Tho." The smell is sweet, cold and non-toxic. Shen Yue of the Southern and Northern Dynasties wrote a poem "Yonggan Banana Poem": "Draw the leaves and be solid, fold the letter and surround it." Flowing sweet coconut fruit, weak crown silk coat. ”
During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu Guo Danyang Taishou Wanzhen compiled the "Chronicle of Foreign Objects in Nanzhou" recorded three kinds of plantains - "the sweetest one is the sheep horn banana; one of them is like a chicken egg; one is like a lotus." ”
In the "Southern Grass and Wood Shape" compiled by Ji Han of the Jin Dynasty, three kinds of plantains are also mentioned - "as big as a thumb and sharp with a kind of sheep's horn, the famous horn banana, the sweetest taste; a seed as large as a chicken egg, with a kind of cow's milk, a famous cow's milk banana, and a slightly reduced horn; a kind of large as a lotus, six or seven inches long, square in shape, less sweet, and the lowest." But the book reads: "Peeling the skin of the seed is yellow and white, the taste is sweet and crisp like putuo, and it also cures hunger." "I don't know if it's a plantain variant, but today's plantains and grapes taste very different."
In the Song Dynasty Zhou Qufei's "Lingwai Dai Answer", the practice of dried plantains is recorded - "peeling and taking meat, soft and rotten like green persimmons, extremely sweet and cold." Four seasons real. With plum juice stains, violent dry according to the plaque, so yun basho dried is also. ”
(Image from Oriental IC)
Ma Huan of the Ming Dynasty wrote the "Yingya Victory", which recorded his personal experience when he accompanied Zheng He three times to the West, and mentioned that the fruits of Manchuria (present-day Malacca, Malaysia), Champa (present-day southern Vietnam), Java (present-day Java, Indonesia), and Sumatra (present-day North Sumatra, Indonesia) were "plantains", especially in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) "do not produce rice, but eat potatoes, paramites, plantain seeds, or shrimp fishing in the sea." "The local population has adopted plantains as a staple food.
In the Qing Dynasty Li Tiaoyuan's "Notes on South Vietnam", a variety of plantains are recorded: "The son is beautiful with fragrant tooth bananas, a dragon milk." Milk, milk also. The milk of the beautiful dragon is rare. The cold breath of the food is refreshing, and it has quite an evil and sweet eye. "The milk banana, the drum mallet banana, the plantain, are all large and light." "The drumstick banana has a core as large as a sycamore, and three edges." "The Bergamot banana, whose son is six or seven inches long, small but thin and sweet, is a well-known person for all sweet bananas."
The sap in the stem of the plantain is called plantain juice or plantain oil. In the "New Compilation of Examination Fang" compiled by Bao Xiangxuan in the Qing Dynasty, it is recorded that the method of taking plantain oil is recorded: "Insert a bamboo tube into a banana tree to take it." "Plantain oily cold sweet taste, has the effect of clearing heat, quenching thirst, detoxification.