Since banana is a climacteric fruit it exhibits a respiretory peak during ripening, after harvest at 20°C. Within a couple of days, respiration rate of about 20 mg C02 Kg-1 h-1 in the hard green banana fruit may rise to about five times at the climacteric peak and then fall as the ripening advances and there is also a considerable water loss through transpiration after the initiation of ripening (Salunkhe and Kadam, 1995).