Ripe bananas turn ... blue? Apparently so, when viewed under ultraviolet light (pictured in bottom panel).
Bernhard Kräutler of the University of Innsbruck in Austria and his co-workers have discovered hitherto unnoticed blue-fluorescent compounds in the peel of ripe bananas, which they attribute to the chemical degradation products of chlorophyll. These compounds, which have previously only been seen, fleetingly, in ageing leaves, are most abundant when the peels look the most yellow in daylight. They might have an important antioxidant role, delaying the decay of the ripe fruit.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Plant chemistry: Banana blues. Nature 455, 1010–1011 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4551010f
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4551010f
