Red Apple Smiles Pennsylvania Academic Standards: Science and Technology 3.4.4 A What happens to sliced apples if you don't eat them right away? - They turn brown and yucky! Have you ever wondered why this happens? Try the following experiment to see if you can prevent fruit from going brown. You will need: 1 banana Cutting board Knife 2 small bowls 1/4 cup orange juice Procedure: Using the knife carefully slice the banana on the cutting board. Place half of the slices in one bowl and half of the slices in the other bowl. Drizzle the orange juice over the bananas in one bowl. Let the bananas stand for 15 minutes. Which fruit turned brown? What happened? When fruit is sliced, oxygen in the air reacts with chemicals in the fruit to make it turn brown. The process is called oxidation. The banana without the orange juice turned brown but the banana with the orange juice did not. Vitamin C, and antioxidant present in orange juice, prevented the oxidation process from taking place. Experiment adapted from: The Science Chef By Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond, copyright date 1995, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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