BANANA FRUITBanana, Which belongs to the genus Musa of the family Musaceae, is a commercially important fruit crop in the world trade. Bananas are harvesting at their full maturity stage for home use, but for export, they must be shipped un-ripened. The banana is a large herb with a psudostem built up from leaf and its true stem (rhizome) is hidden underground.
The banana fruit is a berry containing many ovules, but no seeds, and the fruit develops by means of parthenocarpy (without fertilization). In most cultivars, the fruits stick out in all directions, making there transport difficult. A fruit cluster is called a "hand" and a single fruit is called a "finger". Cultivars differ in characteristic such as shape, size, colour of peal, and flavor, A good bunch consists of 8 hands of 15 fingers of an average weight of 150 g each. Thus the fruit in total weighs about 20 kg.
The banana is a climacteric fruit and exhibits a respiratory peak during ripening. The breakdown of starch into sugars is the most significant chemical change taking place during banana ripening. Maturity stages clearly identifiable based on peel colour and corresponding starch and sugar contents.
