I know that often oxidation processes are mentioned when referring to the color change from yellow to brown in bananas (specifically: those that you get everywhere in supermarkets, with no seeds).
However, I am really interested if there is a specific oxidative pathway that is generally followed in this process, and whether it has been examined.
Answer
The reason for this is the oxidation of phenol residues in the banana (for example in the yellow color) which get oxidized by the enzyme Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) to melanins. The scheme (the image is from this website on food browning) looks like this (you can of course also use more complicated substrates):
For further information, see these references:
Polyphenol oxidases are widely found in fruits and cause most of the oxidative browning. See these articles:
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