BananaMan here.

I'm a specialist in banana science and you should totally believe me.

Let's face it. If you peel a green, unripe banana, it's not very slimy. But as the glorious banana ripens, it gets all squishy inside.

You may have noticed this and said to yourself, "I must know what fabulous science happens inside this banana!"

I'm going to give it to you straight: There's a WHOLE LOT of science happening in there. Probably more than you realize. All those bananas you've eaten in your life, all those tasty wonders, and you haven't scratched the surface of the science that one peel contains.

No worries, friend. Once you've finished reading this blog, you'll be one up on the monkeys. You won't consume bananas simply knowing that they taste good. You'll know what's up.

Let's begin this adventure with the concept of ripening. You should already understand this if you're anywhere past first grade, so I'm going to keep it short. Ripening is the process in which fruits develop from flowers into tasty things that people eat. Buuuuuuuuuuut, if you let a fruit ripen too much, it goes bad. The term that people use for an overly ripened fruit is, get this, overripe.

Since we're on the topic, let's talk about climacterics. Say whaaaaaaaaat. This has nothing to do with climactic movie endings. Isn't that bananas?




Yeah, it is, actually. Bananas are climacteric. In normal people words, that means they have a lot of ripening science that happens and keep ripening after you remove them from their tree. Unfortunately, fruits that do not continue ripening after being picked (such as oranges and cherries) are not classified as anticlimacteric. Somehow they ended up being termed non-climacteric. So that's neat.

"This is complicated, BananaMan!"

You're right, it is. But that's how science is, so deal with it.

So there's this chemical called ethylene. Climacteric fruits use it in their ripening process, and non-climacteric ones don't. When bananas grow big and strong, they get a nice amount of ethylene so they can ripen.

I realize the technical stuff is fascinating, but can we move on to something simple now?


Of course not.




Once the ethylene is produced, the immaculate banana undergoes a process that changes starches into sugar, which as you may be able to tell, makes the banana sweet. In addition to this, it cuts back on the pectin because less pectin means softer banana meat.

So that's a really light course on ripening and we're almost to our destination. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle until it has come to a complete stop.













So let's conclude by answering the question, "WHY ARE BANANAS SLIMY AND GOOEY?"


Well, as the magnificent banana ripens, it gets softer and more sugary. And if it gets too ripe, it gets really squishy as we have already discussed. Slimy and gooey bananas, therefore, are the result of the starch to sugar conversion and the pectin removal. So the slimy stuff is basically overripe, sugary, squishy banana.


That's kind of how it works, I think.



















Yeah, I'm pretty sure.