The starch breakdown and synthesis of sugars are important biochemical transformations during banana fruit ripening and seem to happen in an homogeneous way in the fruit. To confirm this fact, samples of banana cv. nanicão (Musa spp.) harvested with 110 days after anthesis were collected during ripening and amounts of starch, hexoses and sucrose, and the activity of the enzymes sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) and sucrose synthase (SS) were estimated. It could be observed that there is a bigger concentration of starch in the peripheric portion of green banana (18%) than in the central part (13%). However, the speed of starch degradation during maturation is the same, which results in different concentrations of residual starch in the ripe banana. In addition, the sucrose appearing and accumula-tion happened at the same time in both regions and coincided with the maximum values of SPS activity. Using the "Tissue Print" technic, it was possible to observe that SPS and SS are uniformily distributted in the hole pulp of both green and ripe tissues, and that there is an apparent correlation between the developed color and the activity variation.
banana; ripening; carbohydrates; enzymes
