The Ripening of Fruit with Ethene

Have you ever tried to eat an unripe apple Such an apple may appear green, have hard flesh, and have almost no taste. In fact, the flesh may taste sour. However, when you eat a ripe apple, everything is different. Such an apple generally appears red, although ripe apples may be colors other than red. The flesh is softer and tastes sweet. What happened during the ripening process to cause this change Hydrocarbons provide the answer. 

Hydrocarbons are the simplest organic compounds, containing only carbon and hydrogen. There are three families of hydrocarbons. The alkanes have only single bonds and are said to be saturated. Alkanes are very stable and generally unreactive. Alkenes and alkynes have multiple bonds between two adjacent carbon atoms and are said to be unsaturated. This unsaturation makes alkenes and alkynes more reactive than alkanes. 

Several alkenes occur naturally in living organisms. Some of these alkenes act as hormones and control biological functions. Plants produce ethene as a hormone to stimulate flower and seed production and to ripen fruits. Ethene stimulates enzymes in the plants to convert starch and acids of unripe fruit into sugars. The enzymes also soften fruit by breaking down pectin in cell walls. 

Ethene is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. Although it can be very dangerous in high concentrations, you will be using natural ethene produced in relatively low concentrations in this activity. You will test the effect of ethene on the ripening of fruit. 

What factors affect the rate Compare and contrast unripe bananas (9) 

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