Bananas, a kind of fruit that is boring to eat alone and very domineering to eat.
No matter what kind of fruit it is, no matter how many fruits there are, as long as you pair it with a banana to make a food, the food will be full of rich banana flavor. Some netizens joked that bananas are the "Northeast dialect" and "suona" in the fruit industry, and as long as there are bananas, then other fruits will become foils.
Source: Xiaohongshu (authorized)
Why do bananas taste so "unshakable"?
What is the taste of "banana flavor".
The fruit aroma we smell is actually the volatile aromatic substance of the fruit, according to the sensory effect of the aroma components of different chemical structures, the fruit aroma can be divided into fruity type, sweet flavor type, light fragrance type, spicy type, wood flavor type, aldehyde flavor type, etc. Banana is a typical fruity fruit, and more than 230 volatile aroma components have been identified from the pulp of bananas by scholars at home and abroad.
Source: References[5]
But is the banana flavor strong because of its complex content of volatile aroma components?
Not really.
Most volatile compounds, although abundant in fruits, cannot be perceived by the human sense of smell. Only a small fraction of the aroma compounds, the key aroma compounds, make up the main aroma of the fruit, and the higher the content of this part, the stronger the flavor of the fruit. Specifically, there are mainly esters, alcohols, aldehydes, terpenoids and volatile phenols.
Let's start with the main aroma components of bananas.
In the article "Analysis of Fruit Aroma Quality of Different Banana Varieties Based on GC-MS" published in 2021, a total of 48 volatile aroma compounds were detected from 7 banana varieties, including 24 esters, 9 carbonyl compounds, and several other compounds such as alcohols, acids, and phenols.
Source: References[1]
The study showed that esters were the main components of aroma compounds in banana fruits, accounting for 33.51%~72.66% of the total content of aroma compounds, and the key components were isoamyl acetate, isoamyl isobutyrate, butyl butyrate and ethyl caproate. The main ingredient of the "banana smell" we smell is isoamyl acetate, a substance with a strong fruity sweet aroma that is typical of the flesh of ripe bananas.
Understand the composition of the banana smell, what is its aroma intensity, and also need to refer to the aroma value.
The aroma value is the ratio of the concentration of volatile substances to their threshold (aroma value = concentration of aroma substances/threshold), it can be seen that the smaller the threshold, the stronger the aroma, and the larger the threshold, the weaker the aroma.
In bananas, the substance with a larger content and a smaller aroma threshold is precisely its aroma representing esters.
According to the aroma threshold data of spices in water, the odor threshold of isoamyl acetate, the main aroma component of banana, valeraldehyde, the main aroma component of pear, ranged from 12ug/L~42ug/L, and the odor threshold of butyl acetate, the main aroma component of apples, reached 66ug/L.
In other words, people can perceive the banana flavor with just a little banana, and fruits such as apples and pears have to be added several times the amount of bananas to achieve the same effect.
This may also partly explain why with just a little banana, its "presence" is so strong.
Domineering "banana flavor"
So why is it that when bananas are fused with other fruits, they can still overshadow the aroma of other fruits on their own?
First of all, it has to do with its own strength. Most tropical fruits have thick skin, large kernels and strong smells, such as durian and coconut are typical fruits with thick skin, jackfruit, papaya, bananas, and durian belong to a category with a strong smell. In terms of smell alone, fruits such as apples, pears, and strawberries produced in temperate zones are properly "small fresh" in front of the strong-smelling bananas.
In other words, even if the "fresh taste" of other fruits can be perceived on its own, when mixed with bananas, it will be suppressed by the "heavy" bananas.
Secondly, the overall aroma of food is not a simple sum of all aroma components, but is finally formed through complex synergies. This process can be divided into the physicochemical interaction of aroma molecules at the macro level and the interaction between smell and taste at the micro level.
Let's start with the macro level.
The mode of interaction between aroma components is related to the component concentrations of the main aroma compounds of fruits. At low or medium concentrations, the aroma components are more likely to show synergistic or additive effects. At high concentrations, there is often a masking and inhibiting effect between the aroma components.
Source: References[8]
It can be seen from the table that the concentration of the main aroma components of bananas is relatively high, assuming that a variety of fruits are mixed, if there is a certain fruit with a high concentration of aroma, then the aroma of the high-concentration fruit will often mask the aroma of the low-concentration fruit.
Let's look at the micro level.
Our judgment of the taste of food comes from the interaction between smell and taste. Shepherd, a professor of neuroscience at Yale University, believes that taste perception is one of the most complex human behaviors, which involves almost all senses, especially olfactory perception, and the smell image produced by the olfactory pathway is involved in the formation of taste perception. From a physiological point of view, the olfactory and taste receptors and the neural pathways to the brain are separated, but the flavor perceived by food through oral chewing and other processes is produced by the combined action of smell and taste substances and recognized by the brain.
This aroma affects the perception of taste, which is called "odor-induced change in taste perception". In other words, smell can enhance the perceptual intensity of taste, which is the result of the cross-modal perceptual interaction between smell and taste.
When bananas are fused with other fruits, we first smell the strong smell of bananas, and even before we eat them, our brains have already determined the olfactory perception of "banana smell". When we eat, the non-volatile chemicals in the banana dissolve in the saliva and activate the taste receptors in the mouth, and the volatile chemicals reactivate the olfactory receptors through the reverse action of the back of the throat, so that the chemosensory system of smell and taste is activated at the same time, and the integration produces the perceptual experience of "banana taste".
Source: Picture Worm Creative
Therefore, the lingering rich banana smell stimulates our sense of smell, which affects our sense of taste, making people feel like they are eating something that tastes like a banana, even if there are other fruits, because the aroma is not enough to stimulate the sense of smell, and it naturally does not have a sense of existence when eating.
Other overbearing fruits
In addition to bananas, is there any fruit that is so "domineering"?
It has been suggested that the smell of durian, the "king of fruits", is also enough to dominate other fruits, and this may stem from our stereotype of durian with a strong smell.
The volatile components of durian pulp were mainly sulfur-containing compounds, mainly diallyl trisulfide (26.83%), diallyl disulfide (10.8%) and diallyl tetrasulfide (5.48%). The threshold of sulfur-containing compounds in durian is very low, so it contributes very much to the aroma, and this kind of sulfur-containing compounds have a unique smell, so the smell of durian pulp will discourage many people.
Source: Picture Worm Creative
At the same time, the components of durian fruit also include organic compounds such as palmitic acid, methyl palmitate, ethyl oleate, and some alkenes, alkynes, alcohols, aldehydes, acids and anhydrides. Together, these volatile chemicals make up the unique aroma of the durian fruit when it is ripe, with both a strong fruity and a strong onion flavor.
The peculiarity of durian's scent is enough to make the aroma of other fruits next to it "invisible", which is also due to its low threshold of fragrance components, such as methyl mercaptan, one of the main sources of durian's unique "smell", which is only 0.2ug/kg. Therefore, it is not surprising that durian and other fruits have a banana-like magic when mixed.
As for whether the banana flavor can continue to occupy the first place after the banana and durian are mixed, it is up to the warriors to try.
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