No abstract

Griffiths ( 13) has presented evidence in(licating that the browning reactions of banana fruit result from the enzymic oxi(lation of (lopamiiine (3.4 (lih--droxyphenylethylaminei) hy pIolyphenoloxi(lase. Al-thoughi (

Bananas (Musa spp.) are a major food crop of the humid tropics, and although edible cultivars are diverse and numerous, most of our knowledge of the physiology and biochemistry of these fruits relates to a few dessert cultivars of the AAA type, mainly of the Cavendish subgroup, which dominate the export trade between tropical and temperate zones. The preclimacteric period of banana fruits after harvest determines their transportability, and its duration is very sensitive to changes in fruit maturity, storage temperature, ethylene concentration, and other factors; progress in measurement and resolution of each of these effects is described. Changes in composition of the ripening fruits, especially in the development of flavor volatiles, are reviewed. Progress in understanding the integration of the biochemical changes controlling ripening in banana fruits is discussed. Recent work on storage, ripening, and factors relating to sensory assessment of fruit quality is discussed for cultivars of Musa types not used in major export trades.

We have observed and characterized normal and secondary grain growth in thin films of germanium on silicon dioxide. Films were deposited on thermally oxidized silicon wafers, encapsulated with 1000-Å-thick sputtered SiO2 films and annealed in evacuated ampoules at 900 and 915 °C. After 5 min, the films had developed a columnar grain structure as a result of normal grain growth. The grain size distributions were lognormal with mean grain diameters of about 2.5 times the film thickness. The standard deviation of the normal grain size distribution did not change significantly with annealing time and temperature. Secondary grain growth, which can lead to grains that are much larger than the film thickness, occurred in films that were annealed for longer periods of time. The normal grain size distribution remained stationary, i.e., the peak height and width did not increase with annealing time. Secondary grains were few in number compared to normal grains, and were manifest as a small tail on the normal grain size distribution. The rate of secondary grain growth was constant and largest in the thinnest films.

Polysaccharides with structures resembling components of dietary fiber were fermented by a number of species of anaerobic bacteria from the human colon. Some strains also fermented glycoprotein mucins. The strains that fermented the widest range of polysaccharide substrates were in the two genera Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium. Polysaccharide degrading enzymes from several Bacteroides species have been studied, and in most cases the enzyme activities were cell bound rather than extracellular. In all cases, the polysaccharide degrading enzymes were inducible rather than constitutive. Thus the metabolic activity of the flora could be altered considerably by the amount and type of fiber in the diet, even though the composition of the flora itself remained unchanged. The products of enzyme action included monosaccharides and oligosaccharides of varying chain lengths.