Indian Journal of Agricultural Biochemistry
Year : 2005, Volume : 18, Issue : 2
First page : ( 51) Last page : ( 60)
Print ISSN : 0970-6399.

Biochemistry of fruit ripening

Payasi Anurag, Sanwal G G

Department of Biochemistry, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226007, India

Abstract

Ripening is the final stage of development of a fruit, which involves series of physiological and biochemical events leading to changes in colour, flavour, aroma and texture that make them both, attractive and tasty. It imparts numerous quality and nutritional characteristics to fruits, a significant component of the human diet. Texture changes during ripening help in determining the shelf life of a fruit and softening during ripening is associated with biochemical changes in cell wall. An understanding of these changes would help in formulating procedures to control fruit ripening. Present review has been made to coalesce recent findings on biochemical aspects of fruit ripening in general and banana in particular.

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Keywords

Fruit ripening, climacteric fruits, cell wall hydrolases, pectate lyase, plant polysaccharides, banana.

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