Question

Artificial ripening of fruits is accomplished by treatment with
A. Sodium chloride
B. Ethylene gas
C. Kinetin
D. Benzoic acid

Answer 1

Hint: Artificial ripening is a process to speed up the ripening as sometimes natural ripening takes time and for this process hydrocarbons are used to speed up this process.

Complete answer:
First of all, you should know what artificial ripening is. Artificial ripening is the process which speeds up the ripening of fruits by using chemical agents particularly hydrocarbons i.e., ethylene, calcium carbide. Since it is not always possible to wait for the fruit to ripen naturally, this process is used to do the artificial ripening of fruits.

Most of the fruits produce a gaseous compound which is called ethylene and this ethylene starts the process of ripening. As the fruit grows, they produce large amounts of ethylene which speeds up the ripening process.

Moving to options,
> Option A is Sodium chloride. It is the incorrect option since sodium chloride is not used in artificial ripening but hydrocarbons are used. Therefore, this option gets eliminated.

> Option B which is Ethylene gas. It is the correct option as for artificial ripening, hydrocarbons are used and ethylene gas is one of them which is produced by the fruits. Thus, this option is the correct one.

> Option C which is Kinetin. Kinetin is not the correct option since it is not used for the process of artificial ripening and therefore it gets eliminated.

> Option D is Benzoic acid. It is also an incorrect option since benzoic acid is not used for the process of artificial ripening and therefore it gets eliminated.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Note: Most fruits produce a gaseous compound i.e., ethylene and this starts the process of ripening which is used when the natural ripening process is delayed. For fruits to ripen naturally, they need to be transported over long distances but they get spoiled before reaching their destination and hence artificial ripening is required which is done by the help of hydrocarbons i.e., ethylene gas.