Green banana, inexpensive solution to diarrhoea

DESPITE advances in therapy and prevention, deaths due to diarrhea remain high especially among children in the third world countries. Although antibiotics and rehydration fluids
are the mainstay of treatment, the effects of antibiotics may be compromised by the
development of bacterial resistance to
drugs, as well as its cost and availability.
Researchers looking for effective, safe, and
simple interventions (other than antibiotics)
for the management of diarrhea have
shown that unripe, green banana, a
common fruit when added to regular diet of
children would enhance their recovery from
persistent diarrhea as well as support better
absorption of other nutrients that the body
requires in the child’s diet.
Diarrhoea is defined as the lane of multiple
watery, loose, or unformed stools.
Diarrhoea is not a disease, but rather, a
medical condition that could be indicative of
disease, syndrome, allergy or infection.
Diarrhoea is only a symptom and therefore,
treatment depends entirely on its lead to.
Most cases of diarrhoea are self-limiting,
though chronic diarrhoea may be a sign of
other health problems and should be
brought to the attention of your doctor.
A new community-based trial in rural
Bangladesh, which involved 2,968
Bangladeshi rural children between the ages
of six and 36 months, found that adding
cooked green banana to the diets hastened
recovery of children from diarrhoea at
home.
The researchers involved in the 2010 study
which was published in the Tropical
Medicine and International Health Journal
found also that the cumulative probability
of cure was significantly faster in children
receiving green banana alongside the
standard care for diarrhea.
Green banana is grown and eaten in most
developing countries in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America; it is cheap, readily available,
and is used as antidiarrheal by the folk
healers in many communities.
The banana is like no other fruit. Both the
skin and inner part of the banana can be
eaten raw or cooked. Recent evidence
pointed to the fact that eating green
bananas has many health benefits. Green
bananas have a type of dietary fiber that
helps the body feel satisfied while it burns
fat. Diabetics eat green bananas as a source
of low calorie carbohydrate. It is difficult for
diabetics to get sufficient carbohydrates
without gaining weight. Green banana has
been reported to improve dyspepsia and
peptic ulcer in man.
A previous study that corroborated the
efficacy of green bananas in the treatment
of persistent diarrhea also reported that
eating cooked green bananas reduced stool
volume, improved stool quality, and
shortened the duration of illness in children
with persistent diarrhea by almost four
folds.
It was a double-blind, controlled study of 62
boys aged between five and 12 months,
those who ate between 180 and 200 g of
cooked green bananas (1/2-2 bananas) per
day for 7 days. This was carried out under
the hospital setting.
There is increasing scientific interest on the
effect of green bananas on diarrhea. One
study showed that consumption of mature
green bananas dramatically decreased
levels of mucus and blood in stools, thus
making effective in alleviating symptoms of
shigellosis, a childhood disease caused by
the bacteria shigella, which infects the
intestinal tract and causes vomiting and
diarrhea.
Shigella bacteria can contaminate food and
water supplies, especially in areas where
the sanitation is not adequate. However,
most of the time the bacteria are spread
when a person comes into contact with
another person’s stool.
Seventy-three children aged between six
and 60 months with severe bloody
dysentery caused by Shigella infection were
either given a rice-based diet, with cooked
green banana to a pasty pulp (250 g/L) or
without green banana for five days; all
given ciprofloxacin (an antibiotic). Stool
volume, frequency, excretion of blood/
mucus, and relevant clinical and laboratory
indices were determined.
Clinical cure was defined on day five as the
absence of frank blood or mucus in the
stool, the passage of no more than three
non-watery stools, and resolution of fever.
On day five after the commencement of the
treatment, they found that 59 per cent of
the children in green banana group had no
mucus compared with 36 per cent in
controls; blood in stool was completely
cleared from 96 per cent of children in the
green banana group compared with 60 per
cent without green banana.
Also, green banana treatment significantly
reduced numbers of stools/day compared
with controls. Green banana -specific
reductions of mean volumes of watery
stool passed out by the children ranged
from 25 to 40 per cent during the 5-day
observations. Clinical success rates were 85
per cent in green banana group compared
with 67 per cent in controls.
Based on their findings, the researchers
declared in 2009 publication of The
Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal that
“Green banana diet improves clinical
severity in childhood shigellosis and could
be a simple and useful adjunct for dietary
management of this illness.”
While the results of this study allow green
banana to be classified as a prebiotic that
could be offered as an inexpensive and
simple intervention to diarrhea, experts
attributed the observed antidiarrheal
effects of green banana to its content of
resistant starch.
The resistant starch is fermented to fatty
acids by digestive microorganisms inside
the intestine. These fatty acids aside from
providing nutrients for the growth of these
micro organisms, also promotes healing of
the intestinal lining as well as prevent the
growth of Shigella.
Nonetheless, further studies they submitted
was required to determine if green banana
is an effective supplementary treatment of
other infectious diarrheal diseases, both in
developing and industrialised countries.