This gracefully arced banana was left in a paper bag in a drawer in an office and later unearthed. Its meticulous donor had previously been quoted as saying that because she always threw food away before it could decay, she would never have anything to donate to The Dehydrated Food Museum. Except for this one time, apparently.

The surface of this specimen has a smooth, dark, leathery patina. Contrast it with the banana logs which are light-weight, pale in color, and matte in texture. These differences are due to the fact that this specimen includes its peel, while the banana logs do not. Banana peels contain phenolic compounds, which oxidize and produce melanin (a dark pigment). As a banana ripens, it produces more and more ethylene, a gaseous plant hormone which speeds up the process of ripening.  NEXT >

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