美國學者告訴你 香蕉裏面的白絲是什麼

Bananas are a wonderful source of potassium and are the perfect on-the-go snack.

香蕉中不僅富含鉀元素，而且它也是一種完美的即食零食。

The only downside to the fruit are those irritating leathery strands - which are actually called 'phloem bundles' - that you get when you peel back a banana skin.

不過，這種水果唯一的缺點就是那些煩人的皮革線--實際上被稱爲“韌皮束”，也就是剝香蕉皮的時候拉出來的絲兒。

But while those stringy bits may not be the most palatable, they are in fact very important - and we wouldn't be able to eat bananas without them, according to Nicholas D. Gillitt, a US academic.

美國一位名叫尼古拉斯·吉利特的學者認爲，儘管這些粘手的白絲可能不是最可口的，但實際上它們非常重要--如果沒有他們，我們將無法吃香蕉。

The clue as to why those strands are so important is in their name.

關於爲什麼這些絲兒如此重要的線索，其實全部蘊含於他們的名字之中。

Phloem is one of two types of transport tissue that you can find in all plants, and moves nutrients and other substances around the whole plant.

韌皮部是你可以在所有植物中找到的兩大類運輸組織的其中一個，在整個植物周圍運輸營養物質和其他物質。

In a banana, the phloem strands are therefore the reason why all the nutrients can reach the whole of the fruit - which allows it to grow into the fruit we know of.

因此，正因爲香蕉中韌皮部的存在，所有營養成分纔可以輸送到整個水果--這才使得它長成了我們所熟知的這種水果。

Nicholas D. Gillitt, who is director at the Dole Nutrition Institute explained to Huffington Post: 'Phloem bundles are necessary for the adequate disposition of nutrients throughout the plant.'

多爾營養研究所所長尼古拉斯·吉利特在《赫芬頓郵報》中解釋說：“韌皮束對於整個植物中營養的適當分佈是必要的。”

The phloem bundles are completely edible and are just as nutritionally rich as the main part of the fruit, according to Dr Gillitt.

據吉利特博士表示，韌皮束完全是可食的，並且與水果的其他主要部分一樣營養豐富。

In fact, the strands probably contain a lot more fibre than the rest of the fruit.

事實上，這些白絲可能比水果的其它部分富含更多纖維。