psi20 Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 So these bananas have been brought home and are green. How do they turn yellow? Don't they need sugar or something to turn yellow? But where does the sugar come from if the bananas are already picked off the tree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 I don't know about the colour. But they have sugars in them from the start. Green bananas are mostly starch, which is a long polymer of glucose molecules. As they ripen thiis is hydrolyses (broken up) to individual glucose molecules, some of which isomerise to fructose. The glucose and and fructose condense (join together) to form sucrose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psi20 Posted May 5, 2004 Author Share Posted May 5, 2004 So does the water that is necessary for hydrolysis comes from the tree that the bananas came from? Then the bananas store it for a while or something? Or does the water come from the water vapor in the air? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted May 5, 2004 Share Posted May 5, 2004 It would come from the cytosol of the fruit, and whilst it's on the tree this would be topped up by the tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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