NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL RIPENING OF SILVER BANANA (Musa sp.)

Abstract

The silver banana (musa sp.) is the most consumed fruit in the world, in addition to this consumption taking place in its naturais form, there are many alternative ways of using this fruit, applying it in the preparation of cakes, drinks, among others. However, most of this fruit is consumed in natura, so the concern with the procedures in which the fruits are submitted is extremely important when we observe the final quality of the fruit. To evaluate the final quality of bananas submitted to different treatments, fruits from the same bunch were separated and exposed to different conditions, one group was exposed to the action of calcium carbide, another was stored with a ripe fruit and the third group of fruits was used as control to compare the results. At the end of the experiment, it was possible to observe that the fruits treated with carbide presented a faster ripening and consequently had the carotenoids degraded faster, giving an unpleasant appearance to the fruit. Comparing with the control group, the fruits treated with a ripe banana showed faster ripening and slower degradation of carotenoids compared to fruits treated with carotenoids. It was also possible to observe the increasing increase in the respiratory rate of the fruits following their ripening, an indication of greater production of endogenous ethylene.