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soluble carbohydrate and its composition calculated in 100 parts of 

 dry substance does not vary considerably in the green and in the 

 ripe state. The water content, however, diminished greatly during 

 ripening so that the shrinkage of the skin is chiefly due to loss 

 of water. 



The analysis of the pulp shows large differences during the after- 

 ripening because of the starch being rather suddenly transformed on 

 a large scale into sucrose. 



That the sugar present in the ripe fruit was really sucrose was 

 proved by evaporating to a small volume the clarified alcoholic extract 

 from fully ripe bananas and allowing it to crystallise. After some time 

 it deposited crystals which were recognised to be sucrose by numerous 

 chemical and physical tests. In the ripe fruits this sucrose becomes 

 partly inverted or consumed by the aspiration either as such or 

 as products of its inversion. The latter possibility is the more pro- 

 bable one., as, first of all, much carbonic acid is formed during the 

 after-ripening and secondly because the fructose is in every case 

 present in a smaller proportion than the glucose. It is evident, 

 therefore that these two constituents are not consumed together as 

 sucrose, but separately after the splitting up of that body and then 

 the fructose more readily so than the glucose. 



During the saccharification process a little dextrin is formed too. 



b. Mango (Mangifera). 



The mango fruit, as a rule, is picked when still unripe; in this 

 state the fruits are internally white, hard, acid and flavourless, but 

 within a few days they undergo an after-ripening process which 

 renders them tender, full-flavoured, and yellow or orange-coloured. 



This period is, as in the former case, soon followed by over-ripeness 

 and decay. 



A few mango fruits, of a variety which bears very sweet and 

 well-flavoured fruits when ripe, were picked green, placed on a cool 

 spot at a temperature of 28° C. and weighed every day with this result 



NO. 



'29th Sept. 



1st October 2d October 



4th October 



