Glowing Fruit?

Boffins have now discovered that the nation’s favourite fruit, the banana glows bright blue under UV/blacklight! Austrian researchers at the University of Innsbruck discovered the fun fact whilst looking for yellow-tinged materials in banana skin; interestingly, they found that the intensity of the blue peaked when the banana was ripe and ready to eat.

It seems that the blue glow is caused by the unique way in which a banana breaks down chlorophyll. As with all plants, chlorophyll is critical to the growth of the banana and is responsible for the green colour in unripe bananas. This breaks down once the fruit is ripe leaving behind the yellow cartenoids in the skin to become dominant which gives the fruit its distinctive yellow colour. It’s during this process that compounds are released that are responsible for the blue glow.

Nature has a reason for everything and the team came up with a number of suggestions for the blue glow, Berhard Kräutler the project leader thinks it could be that in direct sunlight, the blue fluorescence possibly contributes to the bright yellow of bananas making them easier for animals that feed upon them to find. An alternative theory was that it could be a kind of sun protection for the banana protecting it from UV rays allowing the fruit to stay fresher for longer.

Whatever the reason, it makes the standard banana seem that little bit more impressive. Want to check your fruit at home for UV reactive glow? Use a handy UV torch.