Rice X Mangooo - (Jul/03/2006 )

hi everybody.....

hope u like the title.....

anyway, we used to put green mango in containers containing rice (of course not cooked )
, mother said it helps mango to get ripen,,,,

Q. what makes mango yellow?? sis said it could be ethylene produced by rice...what do u think!?

what about other fruits including tomato, banana?

Ethylene gas does do the job--you can quickly ripen any fruit by putting it in a paper bag with an apple (makes a lot of ethylene), preferably some place warm like the top of your fridge. I'm not sure if the rice has ethylene though . . .

Fruit ripening in general is controlled by ethylene gas. Some fruits need a continuous supply of ethylene gas to ripen (e.g. apples), while others only need a single exposure over a certain concentration to ripen (e.g bananas).

I suspect the rice thing works because it is a closed container, so there will be a build up of ethylene, hence causing the fruit to ripen, but I don't think rice (seed) produces ethylene, it is released slowly from any fruit though.

The yellow colour is a result of a chemical reaction in the skin of the fruit indicating a production of carotenoids. I think these are from the breakdown of chlorophylls, but I am not sure on that one.