A test for the viability of seeds
 

I stumbled across this whilst browsing Attachment 967 and it mentions a test for seed viability.

tetrazolium chloride 0.5% solution will turn red if the seed is viable, it is a redox reagent for testing cellular respiration.

Has anyone heard of this before? I'm intrigued

Re: A test for the viability of seeds
 

Yes, it works for pretty much all seeds that you can cut into and whose embryo will show color with the tetrazolium applied. This is only good for testing a batch of seeds to get an idea of the percentage of viable seeds since you have to destroy the seeds you actually test. There may be some exceptions to this, but in the case of bananas, you would definitely have to sacrifice the seed to see if its viable.