Abstract
THE inflorescence of the banana bears female flowers at the base and male flowers apically. At each node is a cluster of flowers subtended by a brightly coloured bract, and it is upon the anthocyanins of these bracts that most of the results summarized below are based. The pigments were extracted in 1 per cent hydrochloric acid and examined in the test-tube and by paper chromatography. A picrate which was isolated from one species yielded glucose only on hydrolysis. Definition of the glycosidal types awaits determination of the sugar residues in other purified samples. After hydrolysis, the antho-cyanidins were determined by means of chromatography in the Forestal solvent1 and in butanol–2N hydrochloric acid2 used separately, or jointly for a two-way separation.
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SIMMONDS, N. Anthocyanins in Bananas. Nature 173, 402–403 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/173402a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/173402a0
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