The edible banana is believed to have originated in the hot, tropical regions of South-East Asia (Assam, Burma-Indo China region). The primary center of origin of table banana (M. acuminata) is the Malaysia region whereas the cooking banana (M. balbisiana) originated in southern India. Its cultivation is distributed throughout the warmer countries and is confined to regions between 30°N and 30°S of the equator.
Banana is one of the oldest fruits known to mankind. Its antiquity can be traced back to the Garden of Paradise where Eve was said to have used its leaves to cover her modesty. It may be one of the reasons why the banana is called ‘Apple of Paradise’ and botanically named Musa paradisiaca. Frequent mention is made of the banana in the great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Introduction of banana to Africa and the West is comparatively recent. It was introduced to East Africa before the time of Christ and spread thence to the West Coast of Africa across the tropical centre of the continent. They reached the Mediterranean about 650. A.D. and was taken to the pacific by Polynesian travellers about 1000 A.D. It is believed that the banana has been taken by Arabs from India to Palestinian Egypt. The first introduction to the New World was in 1516 A.D. from the Canary Islands by the Portuguese. The Central American Islands subsequently developed the greatest banana trade in the middle of the 19th Century.
Banana is widely grown in many countries under tropical and sub-tropical conditions like India, Mexico, Philippines, Uganda, Tanzania Thailand, Zaire, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Burundi, Colombia, Brazil, China Venezuela, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Israel, Congo, South Africa, Bangladesh, Fiji, Hawaii, Indonesia, Taiwan, Queensland, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Panama, Jamaica, Indonesia, Cost Erica, Malaysia, Guatemala, West Indies and Australia.

Major banana producing countries in the world are India, Uganda, China, Philippines, Ecuador, Brazil, Indonesia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia. The production of banana in the world is 145 million tonnes. India has first position in the world in banana production having 20 per cent share. China, Philippines, Ecuador, Brazil and Indonesia are other leading banana producing countries sharing 7.36, 6.3, 5.5, 5.0 and 4.2 per cent in total production. Banana rank second in area under fruits in India.
Total area under Banana in India is 7.97 lakh hectares and production is 284.6 lakh tonnes. Banana is the largest fruit accounting for 37.2 per cent of the total fruit production from 11.9 per cent of the area. Tamil Nadu leads other states in area under banana cultivation occupying 23.7 per cent of the total area under this crop. The highest productivity of banana is recorded 62.3 mt/ha in Gujarat as compared to average productivity of 35.7 mt/ha in India.
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam are the major banana growing states. There is a regional preference for the cultivar and production system depending upon agro climatic conditions. In the Southern states, banana is also grown exclusively for the leaves used as dining plate or wrapper for edibles. By and large, Dwarf Cavendish is the major cultivar of commercial banana.

Banana is a good source of vitamin A and a fair source of vitamin C, and B2 (Riboflavin). Banana fruits are rich source of minerals like magnesium, sodium, potassium and phosphorus and fair source of calcium and iron. Banana contains water 70%, carbohydrates 27%, crude fiber 0.5%, fat 0.3%, protein 1.2%, potassium 460 mg, magnesium 36 mg, phosphorus 27 mg, calcium 7 mg and ascorbic acid 10 mg/100 g of fruit and energy 104 calories per 100 g fruit.

There are several hundreds of cultivars of banana spread throughout the world. In India, the number is estimated to be over 300. According to the recent system of classification recognised the world over, edible bananas or those that originated in the section Eumusa have as their progenitors two wild species viz. Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Simmonds and Shepherd have used a scoring technique to indicate the relative contribution of the two wild species to the constitution of any given cultivar. They identified 15 diagnostic characters to distinguish between M. acuminata and M.balbisiana.
For each character in which the variety agreed with wild M.acuminata, the score of one was given and for each character in which a variety agreed with wild balbisiana the score 5 was given and intermediate expressions of the characters were assigned scores of 2, 3 or 4 according to their intensity.
According to the scoring technique, the scores range from 15 (15 x 1) for M. acuminata to 75 (15 x 5) for M. balbisiana. A cultivar would have a larger score if it were derived from M. balbisiana and similar if it were derived from M. acuminata. An analysis showed that cultivars belonged to six groups of which two were diploid, three triploid and one tetraploid.
The best known bananas of commerce all over the world belong to the pure acuminata AAA Group, but the balbisiana genome is associated with greater drought hardiness and resistance to disease. It is not surprising, therefore, that hybrids of AB, AAB and ABB constitution are better adapted to monsoon areas with marked dry seasons, these banana show wide variability and are grown chiefly for local consumption in India and Uganda.
The AA and AAA bananas are cultivated mainly in areas where rainfall is equally distributed throughout the year or where water for irrigation is readily available. The greater uniformity of the AAA types makes them particularly suitable for large-scale production for export as in Central America, the Caribbean Islands and northern South America.
The basic chromosome number of Eumusa section is 11. Edible bananas belonging to this genus have 22, 33 or 44 chromosomes as they are diploid, triploid or tetraploid respectively. Most of the cultivated types are triploids. Diploids are less and tetraploids are rare. Diploids in general have somewhat stiffer leaves and petioles than triploids and triploids are stiffer than tetraploids. Triploids and tetraploids are bigger and more robust than diploids. Leaf thickness and cell size both increase with increasing ploidy. Most of the triploid clones have sterile pollen whereas diploid pollen varies from sterile to highly fertile.
Several Latin names have been used till recently in the botanical nomenclature of the banana. Three of the earliest employed were Musa paradisiaca, Musa cavendishii and Musa sapientum. These have been superseded by a genome nomenclature for cultivars in recognition of their derivation from two wild species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The cultivated banana is botanically Musa