*4.9.1 Musa paradisiaca L.*

*M. paradisiaca* is an herbaceous plant that grows up to about 9 m with a robust treelike false-stem. The unripe fruits and juice of *M. paradisiaca* is used in folk medicine to treat and manage diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, intestinal lesions, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, sprue, uremia, nephritis, gout, hypertension, cardiac disease, otalgia and hemoptysis [94, 95]. The flowers are also employed in treating dysentery, diabetes and menorrhagia [94]. The root is also used traditionally as an anthelmintic [95], for treating blood disorders and venereal diseases [94]. It is also used as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-dote for snakebites [96].

The green fruits of *M. paradisiaca* has been reported to possess anti-hypertensive [97] as well as hypoglycemic effect due to effects on insulin production and glucose utilization [98]. *M. paradisiaca* inhibits cholesterol crystallization in vitro [99]. *M. paradisiaca* has also been shown to induce atherosclerosis [100]. There have been reports of the potential of *M. paradisiaca* flower to enhance milk production of nursing rats [101, 102]. Serotonin, nor-epinephrine, tryptophan, indole compounds, tannin, starch, iron, crystallisable and non-crystallisable sugars, vitamins, albuminoids, fats, mineral salts have been found in the fruit pulp of *M. paradisiaca*  [94] with several other compounds that have been isolated and identified from various parts of the plant [103].
