A few months ago there was a discussion about the usefulness of
bromelain in pineapples and presumably other bromeliad fruits. People
wondered why a plant would put a feeding deterrent like that in a fruit
when it presumably "wants" the fruit to be eaten so that the seeds will
be distributed. The best hypothesis was that the "desired" consumer was
not affected by the bromelain.

Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to eat a really ripe, some might
say overripe, pineapple, and I'm here to tell you that this extremely
sweet and juicy fruit had no apparent proteolytic effect on the mucous
membranes of my mouth. So I hypothesize that like many other fruits,
the feeding deterrent is no longer present at the time the seeds are
ready for dispersal, and the "purpose" of bromelain is to keep animals
from eating the fruit before maturity.

I hope I don't sound like A.Plutonium....

Beverly Erlebacher schreef
Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to eat a really ripe, some might
say overripe, pineapple, and I'm here to tell you that this extremely
sweet and juicy fruit had no apparent proteolytic effect on the mucous
membranes of my mouth. So I hypothesize that like many other fruits,
the feeding deterrent is no longer present at the time the seeds are
ready for dispersal, and the "purpose" of bromelain is to keep animals
from eating the fruit before maturity.

+ + +
As likely an explantion as any!
PvR

In article ,
P van Rijckevorsel wrote:
Beverly Erlebacher schreef
Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to eat a really ripe, some might
say overripe, pineapple, and I'm here to tell you that this extremely
sweet and juicy fruit had no apparent proteolytic effect on the mucous
membranes of my mouth. So I hypothesize that like many other fruits,
the feeding deterrent is no longer present at the time the seeds are
ready for dispersal, and the "purpose" of bromelain is to keep animals
from eating the fruit before maturity.

+ + +
As likely an explantion as any!

Hrmph! What's with this damning with faint praise? It's a likelier
explanation than many, if not most! ;-)

I dunno what the universe is composed of and I don't think A.Plutonium
does either.

Beverly Erlebacher schreef
Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to eat a really ripe, some might
say overripe, pineapple, and I'm here to tell you that this extremely
sweet and juicy fruit had no apparent proteolytic effect on the mucous
membranes of my mouth.

So I hypothesize that like many other fruits,
the feeding deterrent is no longer present at the time the seeds are
ready for dispersal, and the "purpose" of bromelain is to keep animals
from eating the fruit before maturity.

P van Rijckevorsel wrote:
As likely an explanation as any!

Beverly Erlebacher schreef
Hrmph! What's with this damning with faint praise? It's a likelier
explanation than many, if not most! ;-)

I dunno what the universe is composed of and I don't think A.Plutonium
does either.

+ + +
Allright, if you are so sensitive about it, let's modify this to:
"Best explanation yet!" which is not saying a lot more but sounds better ;-)

The important thing in such cases is not the hypothesis, which are
relatively easy to think up, but in the gathering of hard empirical data.
You certainly provided a bit of hard data!

Still there remains an element of uncertainty in a plant with such a long
history of cultivation. The other day somebody who should have known better
came up with a story about the 'evolutionary importance of the fact that
unlike the rest of the plant the potatoe itself is not poisonous unlike the
rest of the plant'.
PvR

PS: There appears to be insufficient data about what the universe is
composed of. The only thing that seems certain is that research into it is
quite expensive.