Dec. IS, 1914 Changes in Composition of Ripening Bananas 



195 



in the quantiries of these ingredients present were insignificant. In the 

 peel the transformation of starch into soluble carbohydrates was more 

 rapid during the change from green to yellow than subsequently. In 

 the pulp also the transformation of starch was the most rapid during the 

 change in color of the bananas from green to yellow. By the end of this 

 period about two-thirds of the starch had passed into soluble carbohy- 

 drates. During the subsequent ripening in each case a large proportion 

 of the remaining starch in the pulp became converted into sugars. Some 

 variation appears in the amounts of sucrose and invert sugar formed on 

 ripening in the pulp of the bananas from the several bunches, but unfor- 

 tunately a defect in the method existed (see p. 189), and more or less 

 inversion of sucrose may have occurred during analysis. The figures for 

 sucrose are probably slightly high and those for reducing sugars corre- 

 spondingly low. Striking features of each set of analyses are the water 

 changes. The peels lost water at uniform rates; the pulps all gained 

 water — most rapidly after turning yellow. 



Table III. — Composition of bananas during ripening on Ike stem in the humidity 



chamber 



COMPOSITION EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF PERCENTAGES OF PEEI. .^ND PULP OF THE B.\NANAS BEFORE AND 



AFTER RIPENING 



