Plant tissues communicate by means of hormones.

Hormones are chemicals that are produced in one location that have an effect on cells in a
different location. Most plant hormones are transported through the plant vascular system, but some, like ethylene, are released into the
gaseous phase, or air.

Ethylene is produced and released by rapidly-growing plant tissues. It is released by the growing tips of roots, flowers, damaged tissue, and
ripening fruit. The hormone has multiple effects on plants. One is fruit ripening. When fruit ripens, the starch in the fleshy part of the fruit is
converted to sugar. The sweeter fruit is more attractive to animals, so they will eat it and disperse the seeds. Ethylene initiates the reaction in
which the starch is converted into sugar.

Iodine solution binds to starch, but not to sugar, forming a dark-colored complex. You can estimate how ripe a fruit is by whether or not it is
darkened after painting it with an iodine solution. Unripe fruit is starchy, so it will be dark. The riper the fruit is, the more starch will have been
converted to sugar. Less iodine complex will be formed, so the stained fruit will be lighter.

Pour the iodine stain into the bottom of the shallow tray, so that it fills the tray about half a centimeter deep.

Cut the pear or apple in half (cross section) and set the fruit into the tray, with the cut surface in the stain.

Allow the fruit to absorb the stain for one minute.

Remove the fruit and rinse the face with water (under a faucet is fine). Record the data for the fruit, then repeat the procedure for the other
apples/pears.

Add more stain to the tray, as needed. You can use a (non-metal) funnel to pour unused stain back into its container if you wish, since it will
remain 'good' for this experiment for several days

Compare the levels of staining for unripe versus ripe fruit. The unripe fruit should be heavily stained, while fully ripe or rotting fruit should be
unstained. How many levels of staining can you distinguish between the ripe and unripe fruit?

You may wish to make a scoring chart, showing staining levels for unripe, ripe, and several intermediate levels. At a minimum, score your fruit
as unripe (0), somewhat ripe (1), and fully ripe (2). This way, you are assigning a quantitative value to the data so that you can average the value
for ripeness of the control and test groups and can present the results in a bar graph.

If you are not sure your pears or apples are unripe, test one using the staining procedure outlined below before continuing.

Label the bags, numbers 1-8. Bags 1-4 will be the control group. Bags 5-8 will be the test group.

Place one unripe pear or apple in each of the control bags. Seal each bag.

Place one unripe pear or apple and one banana in each of the test bags. Seal each bag.

Place the bags together. Record your observations of the initial appearance of the fruit.

Observe and record the changes to the appearance of the fruit each day.

After 2-3 days, test the pears or apples for starch by staining them with the iodine stain.

The Lugol’s iodine solution test indicates the presence of starch. The iodine solution, which is an aqueous solution of 1.8% iodine and 3.0%
potassium iodide, binds with starch, producing a dark color. Therefore, the more stain the fruit shows, the more starch it contains and the less
ripe it is. Conversely, the less stain the fruit shows, the more ripe the fruit is. The fruit categories of highly stained, stained, or unstained might
correlate to unripe, ripe, and overripe.

But why did the fruit ripen? Some fruits, like apples, pears, and bananas, produce a hormone gas called ethylene with ripening. Damaging the
fruit (bruising) also releases the hormone. Ethylene changes their flavor, as the starch inside is converted to sugar, as well as their texture and
color. By closing up a banana with a pear in a sealed baggie, we applied additional external ethylene, triggering the natural ripening process.

For commercial growers, it’s important to harvest fruit before it’s ripe. Since ripe fruit is often softer, transporting it to a grocery store in a truck
could easily damage the fruit. In fact, when bananas are shipped across the ocean, the temperature and ethylene gas levels inside the shipping
containers are carefully controlled so that they arrive at their destination with an ideal color and ripeness.