Banana

Each and every part of banana the plant is used for specific purposes. Apart from its use as a dessert fruit and for culinary purposes, the banana plant has multifaceted uses:
 

• leaf is commonly used as a hygienic dining plate
• the male flower is a favourite vegetable
• the inner core of the pseudostem is a popular vegetable with many therapeutic uses
• the sap is used as an indelible ink in industry and
• the underground rhizome is exploited as animal feed in a composite mixture with other feedstuffs

The use of the spent banana plant (after harvesting the bunch) for fiber extraction has slowly gained recognition worldwide because of the uses of banana fiber in:

• the paper and pulp industry
   
• as a natural water purifier
   
• for bioremediation and recycling
   
• for printing money
   
• in the textile industry as a base material for attractively patterned cloth
   
• in small-scale art and handicraft industries and
   
• in the production of a wide range of goods
  including rope cordage, yarns, abrasive backing paper, tea bags and shoes

Because banana fiber is biodegradable, carrier bags made from it are an ideal alternative to polythene bags, which are fast becoming an environmental pollutant.