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Mature-green banana (Musa cavendishii Lambert.) fruit were held at three different temperatures (5, 15, and 25℃), and some physiological changes during storage were examined. Fruit ripening was rapid at 25℃, and fruit stored at 5℃ showed severe chilling symptoms. Weight loss and firmness decrease were high when fruits were at the ripening stage or developed chilling symptoms. At low temperature, the green color and lightness of maturegreen fruit was reduced slowly, developing external browning. Fruit respiration was low at 5℃ for the initial period of storage, but it was stimulated after fruit showed severe chilling injury (CI). The increase in reducing sugar content corresponded to the time of fruit ripening, and thus the content at 5℃ was low due to the lack of ripening processes. The activity of pectinesterase (PE) and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) maintained steady increase during storage and increased rapidly when fruit were transferred to room temperature. The level of α-farnesene was higher in the chilled fruit.
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