Date: February, 7th, 2020.

Title: Planning and Designing #2- Fruit ripening

Problem Statement: There is customary practice of placing unripe fruit with a banana to accelerate its
ripening within west Indian households. Plan and design an experiment to determine the effects of
placing an unripe fruit with a banana and determine if the presence of the banana affects the rate of the
ripening of the fruit.

Introduction:

The plant growth regulator ethylene (ethene) plays a vital role in the rate of fruit ripening. Unlike most
hormones present within organisms, ethylene is a gas, this allows the molecule to diffuse easily in air. It
is also small and lipid soluble which means it can diffuse easily between cells. The heightened presence
of ethylene within a fruit causes the starch stored within the fleshy part to be converted to sugar. It is
known that bananas produce moderate amounts of this fruit ripening gas.

Hypothesis:

A mango will ripen faster in the presence of a banana than a mango that is ripening by itself.

Aim:

To plan and design an experiment that will determine the effects of placing an unripe fruit with a banana
and that will determine if the presence of the banana affects the rate of the ripening the fruit.

Materials/Apparatus:

40 Unripe mangos, 4 Brown paper bags, 2 bananas, potassium iodide (KI), Iodine (I), shallow trays

Variables

Controlled Variables: The time taken for ripening, the location of the brown paper bags, the number of
bananas present in each bag, the number of mangoes present in each bag

Independent Variable: The presence of the banana within the brown paper bag

Dependent Variables: The presence of sugars within the flesh of the fruit, the colour of the skin of the
fruit

Procedure:

1. Label the bags 1 - 4. Bags labelled 1 and 2 will be the control group whereas bags labelled 3 and
4 would be the test group.
2. Place ten unripe mango into each of the bags.
3. Place a banana into each of the bags within the test group. Seal all the bags.
4. Place the bags in a cupboard, away from light. Leave them there for three days. The mangoes
will be observed once after three days.
5. Prepare iodine stain by dissolving 10g of KI and 2.5 g of I in 1.1 litres of water. Ensure to store in
a brown or blue container. The container could be glass or plastic.
6. After three days, observe and record the appearance of the mango and the colour of the skin.
 7. Fill the shallow tray up to 0.5 centimetres.

8. Cut the mango 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 .
9. Remove the fruit and rinse the face with wate. Record the data for the mangoes, then repeat
the procedure for the other mangoes.
10. Tabulate the results obtained.

Expected Results:

TABLE SHOWING THE OBSERVATIONS NOTICED IN THE CONTROL GROUP

Bag Number Mango present in the Observations

bag Skin colour Addition of Iodine stain
1 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
 TABLE SHOWING THE OBSERVATIONS NOTICED IN THE TEST GROUP

Bag Number Mango present in the Observations

bag Skin colour Addition of Iodine stain
3 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
4 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF RIPE AND UNRIPE MANGOES PRESENT IN EACH BAG

Bag Number Number of ripe mangoes Number of unripe mangoes

1
2
3
4

The comparison of ripe and unripe mangoes present in each paper bag
12

10
Number of mangoes

0
Bag 1 Bag 2 Bag 3 Bag 4

Ripe Mangoes Unripe Mangoes

Treatment of Results:

The ethylene gas produced by fruits is small and is able to diffuse through air. It is also lipid soluble
meaning it can travel between cells. The presence of this hormone causes the changes in the fruit which
results in the fruit becoming ripe. During this process the skin colour of the fruit changes and the starch
stored within the fruit is converted to sugar.

Bananas produce moderate amounts of ethylene gas. Since this gas is able to travel within the air, it
diffuses from the banana into the unripe mango. Also, since this gas is lipid soluble, the gas is able to
travel between mango cells, allowing the process of ripening to occur much faster than if the mango
ripened without the presence of the banana. The use of the iodine stain helps to identify the presence
of starch within the fruit. If starch is identified by the stain then it can be concluded that the fruit isn’t
completely ripe, since ripe fruits only have sugars that have been converted from starch.

Precautions and Limitations/Assumptions

Assumption: It is assumed that the brown paper bag will keep the ethylene gas released from the
banana inside the bag and not allow it to leak into the atmosphere.

Limitations: The unripe mangoes picked may have already started the ripening process while other
mangoes may not have.

References:

Helmenstine, Anne Marie (2019 October 11) Fruit Ripening and Ethylene Experiment
Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/fruit-ripening-and-ethylene-experiment-604270