Gros Michel banana

banana cultivar

Gros Michel (French pronunciation: ​[ɡʁo miʃɛl]), is a type of banana, that was the most popular type grown until the 1950s.[3]

Gros Michel
SpeciesMusa acuminata
Cultivar groupAAA Group
CultivarGros Michel
Originnative from Southeast Asia,[1] selectively cultivated in Martinique, Jamaica[2]

Decline

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Gros Michels decline was mostly due to its vulnerability to the Panama Disease, which caused harm to multiple banana cultivars, including Gros Michel. The disease caused almost $400,000,000 in damages.[4]

The Gros Michel bananas' flavoring is commonly used in artificial banana foods. This causes artifical banana foods to less resemble common bananas, due to Gros Michels having a higher amount of a chemical called isoamyl acetate.[5]

References

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  1. Marin, Douglas H.; Sutton, Turner B.; Barker, Kenneth R. (1998). "Dissemination of Bananas in Latin America and the Caribbean and Its Relationship to the Occurrence of Radophouls similis". Plant Disease. 82 (9). Scientific Societies: 964–974. doi:10.1094/pdis.1998.82.9.964. ISSN 0191-2917. PMID 30856847.
  2. Robert J. Lancashire (25 August 2006). "Jamaican bananas and plantains". The Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
  3. Koeppel, Dan (2008-06-18). "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas" (Editorial). New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  4. "Panama Disease: An Old Nemesis Rears Its Ugly Head Part 1: The Beginnings of the Banana Export Trades". apsnet.org. Archived from the original on 2018-08-21. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  5. "ScienceFriday: Why Don't Banana Candies Taste Like Real Bananas?".