[Sca-cooks] Plantain, herbals,

[otsisto]

Yes, I know the difference between musa and plantago. I grew up learning
about herbs. Such as there are some varieties of plantago that are not
broadleaf and there are two types of stalk.
Yes, by the description it would seem that plantago is inferred but there is
a 2% chance that it could be musa.

This is from a Panama site.

"Common Name:      Plantain/Platano
Family:          Musacea
Scientific Name:      Musa paradisiaca
Medicinal Use:      Juice extracted from the plant stalk may be used as a
laxative and diuretic. May be used as a respiratory decongestion and in the
treatment of kidney infections."

Please note that about mid page of the medicinal handbook it says;
"Also make a powder of 10 ounces each of burnt hartshorn and egg shells, and
drink 2 drahms of the powder each treatment with the juice of plantain or
....."

Though this is probably plantago, the "juice" part throws a wee bit to the
musa.

From:
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Musa/index.h
tml
http://tinyurl.com/m2oj4k

"Before agriculture began in Southeast Asia, wild Musa was probably already
being eaten. In fact, gatherers use the male flower buds and the inner
sheath of the pseudostem for boiled foods. Researchers suspect that this
plant may have been one of the first crop plants in Asia, to supplement a
fish diet (protein). Unfortunately, early accounts of banana are absent. The
oldest records of edible bananas come from India (600 B.C.), described in
the Epics of the Pali Buddhist canon, and the 'Horn Plantain' was in
existence in India at least since 350 B.C. The first Chinese record is 200
A.D. Experts suspect also that Musa was introduced to the East African
uplands around 500 B.C. by Indonesian travelers, who probably also brought
techniques of canoe building and musical instruments to such places as
Uganda and Madagascar. Later, Arabs introduced other forms of banana to the
lowlands of East Africa. Bananas were arrived in the Mediterranean region in
650 A.D. via the Mohammedan conquest.
Bananas and plantains have had a tremendous impact on tropical cultures over
the last 1000 years. The Polynesians carried these eastward. At least one
researcher has tried to trace the routes of Polynesian colonization by
studying the banana forms in the Pacific Basin. The westward spread of Musa
in central Africa is credited by some workers with the population expansion
of the Bantu-speaking peoples and, thus, history of that part of the
continent. Bananas from West Africa were planted by the Portuguese on the
Canary Islands (by early 1500s), and from there to Santo Domingo in the West
Indies (1516)."

So to the poster that said plantain wasn't in SCA period, please explain how
it isn't?

De

-----Original Message-----
On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 2:49 PM, otsisto<otsisto at socket.net> wrote:
> Medicinal but mentions plantain
> http://tinyurl.com/mzyh4t

That's probably plantain as in Plantago major or other species in that
genus. It's a different plant, wholly unrelated. You've almost
certainly got some growing in your garden if you live, well, just
about anywhere I've ever been that wasn't in the tropics. It's a
common weed that stays very low to the ground and has broad flat
leaves, and it has spikes that grow up from it that are the flowers
when they are in bloom (they aren't very attractive; they sort of look
like a colored fuzz on the spikes) and thereafter are coated with
seeds. It's got a variety of medicinal uses, and is still the
customary remedy for certain sorts of minor injury including bee
stings in some places.

Plantago and musa aren't the same thing; Plantago is definitely period.

 - Jaume, mka Craig