UREASE ACTIVITY IN BANANA FRUIT

Urease activity for the first time is being reported in banana fruits. Use of urea as an additional dose of fertilizer to the bunch stalk en d and as urea spray not only enhanced urease activity in fruits of ban ana but also increased the yield and bunch characters. In bunch stalk feeding, a higher urease activity coincided with better bunch and fing er grade which revealed the possibility of conversion of urea into amm onia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and its better absorption and assi milation. This enzyme activity, in turn, is related with the molecular absorption of urea. A higher level of activity can be explained by fa ster conversion of urea and level of nitrate-nitrogen (NO2-N). The res idual levels of urea and NO2-N are very low. The study also calls for defining critical levels of permissible urea and NO2-N in fruits per u nit.