chemically, what is happening as fruits ripen and get sweeter?
In: Chemistry
TLDR: Essentially the plant hormone ethylene is released and begins to break down the cell walls of the fruit. This creates simple short chain sugars (yummy) and softens the fruit….hence its ripe.
Plant cells walls are made up of long (chain) sugar molecules called polysaccharides. Poly means many and in organic chemistry it means that the molecules are all linked up. The ethylene gas is a plant hormone that reacts with the polysaccharides to brake down the cell walls. In the process this creates smaller sugar molecules we think of as “sugar”, such as glucose, fructose, etc. also, the break down of the cell walls softens the fruit. Essentially, ethylene is a two carbon double bonded molecule that easily reacts with other molecules and the polysaccharides are ripe (couldn’t help the pun) for reacting. The ethylene and polysaccharides react to create more energy stable molecules of simple sugars….that we then eat and break down further for energy.
It is amazing to me that plants have evolved in this way…but evolutionarily it than makes sense that petty plants and yummy fruits then get spread around the world by various animals, further propagating the plant species.
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