Blue Luminescence of Ripening Bananas

Yes, we have blue bananas! Ripening bananas exhibit intense blue luminescence under UV light. Their luminescence arises from fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites which accumulate in the banana peels during ripening; their natural further conversion into nonfluorescent catabolites is specifically inhi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie (International ed.) 2008-01, Vol.47 (46), p.8954-8957
Main Authors: Moser, Simone, Müller, Thomas, Ebert, Marc-Olivier, Jockusch, Steffen, Turro, Nicholas J, Kräutler, Bernhard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
chlorophyll
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Color
Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry
fruit
Luminescence
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Molecular Structure
Musa - chemistry
Musa - growth & development
pigments
porphyrinoids
tetrapyrrole
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Summary:Yes, we have blue bananas! Ripening bananas exhibit intense blue luminescence under UV light. Their luminescence arises from fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites which accumulate in the banana peels during ripening; their natural further conversion into nonfluorescent catabolites is specifically inhibited by a previously unrecognized chemical modification.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/anie.200803189