Free Custom «All About Fruits» Essay Paper

A fruit is a fleshy seed that is often an associated component of certain plant and most are edible and sweet when they are in ripe states. Fruits play a critical role in providing vitamins and minerals hence considered a readily available source. Various fruits have a variety of tastes and other are sweet while others are sour in tastes. For instance fruits including mangoes, apples, guavas and watermelons taste sweet whereas fruits like raw mangoes, oranges and lemons are sour in taste. The varying tastes of various types of fruits basically depend on the compounds it contains. Fruits contain materials like proteins, cellulose, vitamins certain acids, sugar or fructose and starch and these compounds exist in varying proportions in different types of fruits. Fruits like oranges are both sweet and sour at same time and this is because the compounds listed above exist in almost equal proportions of both acids and fructose (Beidler, 1971).

Raw fruits tend to have more acids and when it ripens the acids decrease as fructose levels increase thus becoming sweet in taste. Fruits have sweet taste because they have a lot of fructose in them where as others are sour simply because they have larger portions of acids in them as opposed to fructose. These explain why raw mangoes are sore while ripe ones are sweet in taste. Also raw bananas contain a lot of starch whereas ripe ones have most of its starch converted to fructose. Therefore the varying taste of different types of fruits is explained by the chemical changes that occur during the ripening process of such fruits (Hulme, 1970).

 

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Ripening of fruits entails the process of conversion of acids into fructose and starch which makes them to taste sweet. This is related to the elevated levels of fructose in the fruit making it produce sweet scents which serve to increasing the appeal of the fruit to animal consumers which are its dispersal agents. Generally, during the formation stage of fruits, they are quite hard in nature but as those fruits dispersed by animals start to ripen the hardness of their skins as well as the inner flesh softens and also becomes juicy limiting the energy required by animal consumers to eat them hence facilitating the dispersal process.

Therefore the process of fruit ripening is closely related to the levels of success that the fruit will attain when it comes to its dispersal. The ripening process involve enzymes that causes such fruits to have some bright color or even scent that serve to increase their chances of being noticed and consumed by animal consumers. Finally the ripening process at its final stage ensures that the fruit dehydrates and dry to reduce the weight of the seed to facilitate easy dispersal and this is common among those fruits dispersed by wind or those which are self dispersal hence easy scattering thus efficient dispersal process.

Human beings play a significant role in seed dispersal as they consume seeds which are often contained inside many fruits. Consumption of grains and seeds at times leads to destruction of such seeds through the process of digestion but some are indigestible as they are resistant to digestive activity prompting them to be egested. The egested seed are in most case viable thus given favorable conditions they are able to grow. Considering the fact that human being are highly mobile in nature they travel with seed in their system thus egesting them in far distance hence facilitating the dispersal of such seed or grains. Human being also collect, store and even carry seed and grains with them especial those associated with aesthetic value like ornaments. Carrying them to new destinations help in fostering dispersing seeds and grains to new areas outside their original place of growth (Mauseth, 2003).

On the other hand human being can collect grains or seed and use them in manufacturing process to produce other products like flour or oil and in doing this they hamper with the process of seed dispersal as these seeds are destroyed in the process. Human beings also carry seed and grains that are useful to them especially those with high yield when it comes to agriculture thus helping promote the process of seed dispersal by introducing these seeds and grains to new regions. Generally, human being s in practice has less effect on seed dispersal process especially when one considers the fact that most seeds and grains are cultivated therefore the existence of mechanism to ensure that the process is not interfered with.

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As matter of fact the seed does not utilize starch or fructose that is found in fruits during its metabolism. This is because fruits and seed posses’ different storage paces of their own food thus instance where both can share anything is not possible. None depends on the other for any process thus seeds use its starch or fructose that is stored in its endosperm whereas the fruits use its own which stored in the fleshy component. Following a successful seed dispersal process seeds undergo a resting period when it matures and this periods is closely associated with seed dominance where it prepares itself for the process of germination. During the onset of germination process arising from availability of appropriate materials and nutrients, the seed utilizes starch stored in its endosperm to provide its energy essential fro germination process. Such starch has net undergone any conversion to fructose thus seed metabolism of the starch stored inside the seed only take place after dispersal and during germination.