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Flynn, Connor; Schaller, Maddox

The de-greening process in Cavendish bananas is a result of chlorophyll degradation, which is influenced by temperature and enzyme activity. Through measuring the chlorophyll content in bananas throughout maturation, we aimed to model the degradation of chlorophyll at two common temperatures for consumers—refrigerator (4 ℃) and room temperature (22.9 ℃)––comparing the rate of chlorophyll degradation at these temperatures. We fit our data using several models, determining the goodness of fit via chi-squared tests. By computing a t-score we compared the parameters—we found that the rate of chlorophyll degradation at room temperature was greater than that at fridge temperature. By modifying the kinetic formula for chlorophyll degradation to account for enzyme activity, we found the most suitable fit. This model takes the form: [𝑐ℎ𝑙](𝑡) = [𝑐ℎ𝑙]0𝑒−𝑘𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙[𝑡 −𝑒−𝑐𝑡 𝑐+1𝑐] + 𝑑. (1)

Text

University of British Columbia. Science One Research Projects; University of British Columbia. SCIE 001

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0445278

Science, Faculty of

Undergraduate

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