Well Hung Bananas

I recently received an unusual present, a banana stand.

It looks like a miniature gallows, with the noose replaced by a hook, from which one is bidden to hang a bunch of bananas. It is supposed to stop the bananas trurning to brown sludge as quickly as they usually do.

A little to my surprise, it seems to work.

My only guess at a possible mechanism, is that the arrangement allows the dispersal of ethylene.

Ethylene is alleged to be emitted by ripening fruit, and to speed up ripening, and bananas are regarded as a potent source of the gas. Adding a ripe banana is often recommended as a way of getting unripe tomatoes to ripen.

Ethylene (C₂H₄) has molecular weight 28, the same as nitrogen and a little lower than oxygen, so it should have a density close to that of air, suggesting that it would tend to hang around in an enclosed space, but draughts in the air should disperse the ethylene emitted by a hanging banana. However, that is just my speculation.