Experiment 5.0
The Ripening of a Banana
Getting to the fundamentals of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) reactance (capacitance)
Introduction
Living foods have a finite life once they are harvested. A banana is a good example of this. It will quickly turn from green to brown and end up as mush after a few weeks. Reactance changes significantly during this aging process because the cells are maturing (ripening), then begin to die.
Methods
Needle electrodes were inserted into either end of the banana and connected to the Quantum Desktop. Data was recorded every five minutes until the experiment was terminated after 17 days had elapsed. At this point, the banana was very obviously no longer good.
