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February 23, 2010
· Food production heading to the moon
· Super veggies are antioxidant all stars
· Science panel slams new soil fumigant
· Spraying keys to potato disease control
· Dancing bees’ ‘stop signal’ warns of peril
Food production heading to the moon
(LJWorld.com) – Remember the first part of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” when the ape threw the bone in the air and it suddenly cut to the space station? Food science took a similar leap in the first decade of the 21st century.
In 2009, science rewrote food history when, Science magazine reported, archeologists in Mozambique discovered traces of sorghum starch on stone tools dating back 105,000 years. Scientists previously believed that the human use of grains began only 23,000 years ago. Truth is, early humans probably used that grain to brew something like beer. Neolithic beer jugs date to at least 12,000 years ago, pre-dating bread as a grain-based dietary staple.
Now cut to the space station. Though NASA won’t be visiting
the moon again anytime soon, the private sector certainly will. An
They’ll start with mustard plants, whose flowering is attuned to lunar cycles. Each plant will have a tailored biosphere, much like an astronaut’s spacesuit. On the moon, earth-based life must adapt to one-sixth gravity and to cosmic energies usually deflected by Earth’s magnetosphere. Hopefully, that means 2-ton hands of garlic and 20-foot leaves of spinach.
But while agriculture prepares to leave the planet, one of the world’s oldest cuisines already has. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi closed out 2009 by becoming the first human to make sashimi and sushi in space, served to his Russian and American colleagues at the International Space Station.
Back on terra firma, Popular Science reported that
scientists in the
Think of the advantages of feeling completely satisfied after just two slices of pizza.
Think of the 20 plus-sized citizens of
As obesity rates continue to rise in developed nations,
starvation still plagues the
The implications of in-vitro meat are enormous. From a single animal cell, a limitless supply of meat could be produced, the quality precisely controlled. Issues of animal cruelty and negative environmental impact would be instantly eliminated.
“You could do it in a way that’s better for the environment and human health,” says Jason Matheny, director of New Harvest, a nonprofit spearheading in-vitro meat research. “In the long term, this is a very feasible idea.”
So far, the Dutch are in the lead again. Popular Science reports that last year, researchers at Eindhoven University succeeded in culturing stem cells to produce a thin strip of pork muscle — albeit a form far removed from your standard supermarket pork chop. Once the process is perfected, the culturing of in-vitro meat won’t necessarily be limited to barnyard stock. Any cell is fair game: polar bear, mandrill, even pterodactyl.
Savvy cooks have long known that aromatic sauces are
effective disguises for foods with potential “yuck” factors. According to
researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) in
Turmeric, a bright yellow rhizome in the ginger family, gives curry powder its color. And curcumin, a constituent of turmeric, kills cancer cells. A 2009 BBC News story about the findings of the CCRC stated that “curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours,” and is particularly effective against esophageal cancer. Long esteemed as an antiseptic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, curcumin is currently being tested as a treatment for arthritis and Alzheimers, and as protection for the skin during radiotherapy.
“I can vouch for its antiseptic qualities,” says Zen Zero
chef and owner Subarna Bhattachan,
a native of
The majority of the recent developments in food science titillate both the imagination and the tastebuds. Popular Science touts synthetic alcohol, for example, which yields a mellow, non-addictive buzz you can cancel instantly with an antidote pill.
For those who view these advancements with trepidation, take consolation in the fact that, a scant 50 years ago, the introduction of the home microwave oven caused a national wave of concern about radiation poisoning and complaints about the unappetizing appearance of microwaved foods. Yet it changed the way we eat, and now we can’t imagine cooking without it. Here we go again.
Super veggies are antioxidant all stars
(nutraingredients.com) -- “I'm strong to the finish when I eats me spinach,” said Popeye the sailor man, and he could have snatched Olive Oyl from the clutches of Bluto with even more ferocity if he had eaten his broccoli, tomatoes or onions according to an Australian/New Zealand project focused on super vegetables.
In the continuing Nutraingredients series on antioxidants, we look at these rivals to super fruits in terms of their antioxidant potential.
Carolyn Lister, research leader at the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research told this publication that while fruit has tended to attract the greatest attention and the ‘super’ label, there is a body of clinical research underlining the significant health benefits of vegetables in both raw and cooked form, with broccoli along with the other brassicas, tomatoes, onions and other alliums proving to be the vegetables with the strongest scientific evidence behind them.
“This evidence varies from in vitro studies through to human feeding studies.
Although there is considerable variation in the results of different studies (at least in part due to the design of trials - these have often been done using a pharmaceutical type approach and this is not always relevant for design of trials with food), looking at the summation of results, there is quite strong evidence for benefits to human health of a number of vegetables,” she claims.
Lister is one of the key scientists involved with the Vital Vegetables programme, a research initiative between the Australian and New Zealand horticultural industries set up to develop vegetables with increased health benefits, using traditional breeding techniques.
Broccoli and beyond
In 2009, the joint research programme launched a variety of broccoli, Booster Broccoli, on the Australian market that is said to have 40 per cent more active antioxidants than regular broccoli varieties.
Lister explained that this variety has guaranteed levels of glucosinolates/sulforaphane, and is the first of a range of vegetables where the team measures and monitors the levels of active components within.
And she said hundreds of scientific papers, based on epidemiological data supported by experimental studies with cell and animal models and more recently small-scale human intervention trials, have been published detailing the effects of sulforaphane on cardiovascular disease, certain forms of cancer, diabetes, as well as degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Furthermore, continued Lister, the multiple actions of sulforaphane in humans have been widely studied since 1992
when Professor Paul Talalay and associates at
“Although broccoli contains a diversity of nutrients and phytonutrients, such as flavonoids and carotenoids, the components that uniquely set broccoli and other crucifers apart from other vegetables are the glucosinolates.
In particular glucoraphanin that is then converted to sulforaphane. Sulforaphane has attracted the most attention from a research perspective in terms of its health benefits. Although not a radical scavenging antioxidant it acts as an indirect antioxidant,” she added.
Tomatoes and onions
Lycopene, the bright red carotenoid pigment, is present in tomatoes in reasonable quantities but available in relatively few other foods, continued Lister.
The health benefits of tomatoes/lycopene have been the subject of a number of scientific reviews but the most intensively investigated, she maintains, is its cancer preventative ability: “The results of several prospective cohort studies suggest that lycopene-rich diets are associated with significant reductions in the risk of prostate cancer, particularly more aggressive forms.”
Lister explained that onions contain sulfur compounds and flavonoids and that their antioxidant potency and anti-cancer properties are being supported by research studies.
She also highlights the antioxidant benefits of capsicums with their high levels of vitamins A, C and E as well as sweetcorn, which she said contains lutein and zeaxathin to benefit eye health.
Cinderella class
One vegetable that often gets overlooked is the potato, said Lister, which is a good contributor of vitamin C depending on how it is cooked. “Red and purple skinned may offer greater benefits than standard potatoes and we have developed new cultivars on this basis,” she added.
She said there are a range of less mainstream vegetables that may contain higher levels of phytochemicals and that could be exploited as super vegetables such as watercress.
Consumer perception
But Professor Jeya Henry, head of the Functional Food Centre at Oxford Brookes University in the UK England, claims that consumer perception is currently preventing the advent of ‘superveg', and he said regulators and scientists need to boost clinical research and marketing to entice consumers and processors to make greater use of them.
And Stewart Rose, vice president of the US non-profit organization, Vegetarians of Washington argues that there are currently few crops that have consistent scientific backing for using health claims besides products like broccoli – the knock on effect, he argues, is a lack of innovation in regards to super vegetaables on the part of food manufacturers.
He said that while a single study praising the potential
benefits of a vegetable had shown demand balloon positively, similar negative
research could hit sales just as quickly, pointing to falls in the popularity
of carrots in the
But despite the possible difficulties, he said that there was growing interest in the US for the possibility of ‘superveg’, particularly in the aging baby boomer demographic that dominates demand in the US, meaning further promotion and research was viable.
The topic of super veg and many others will be considered in more detail at the upcoming NutraIngredients Antioxidants 2010 Conference. For more information and to register, please click here. http://www.ni-antioxidants.com/page/home.html
Science panel slams new soil fumigant
(fresnobee.com)
– A scientific panel has raised serious concerns about the use of methyl iodide
on
The report from the state-appointed group of experts comes
as a blow to farmers and the makers of the fumigant -- the Tokyo-based Arysta
LifeScience Corp. -- who have been fighting for more than a year to get the
chemical approved in
At stake for farmers is the loss of a potential replacement for methyl bromide, which was phased out by the federal government in 2005 because it damages the Earth's protective ozone layer.
"The products that we have just don't do the job," said Barry Bedwell, president of the Fresno-based California Grape and Tree Fruit League.
The federal EPA and virtually every other state has approved methyl iodide. But the eight-member committee
reviewing the chemical for use in
"Due to the potent toxicity of methyl iodide ... adequate control of human exposure would be difficult, if not impossible," wrote John Froines, chair of the review committee and a UCLA professor of environmental health sciences.
Listed by the state as a carcinogen, methyl iodide can cause thyroid cancer, respiratory tract lesions and neurological effects in laboratory animals.
Mary-Ann Warmerdam, director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation, will review the panel's findings and her own department's research as she decides if farmers can use the chemical and if so, under what restrictions.
A department spokesman said Warmerdam is expected to make a decision soon.
In
Farmers have tried other alternatives, such as telone or metam sodium, but many believe methyl iodide comes closer to achieving the same results as methyl bromide.
Environmentalists praised the panel's review, saying the scientists confirm what they have been saying for months: methyl iodide is too dangerous.
"Ultimately the decision rests with DPR," said
Advocates also have threatened the possibility of suing the state if methyl iodide is approved.
"If they don't make a decision that is protective of
Supporters of the fumigant say that despite the panel's
report, they hope the state agrees to register the chemical for use in
"All chemicals are toxic at some level, and a lot
depends on the dosage and concentration," said Robert Dolezal,
executive vice president of the California Association of Nurseries and
Arysta officials have said that methyl iodide can be used in lower quantities, reducing the total amount used in the field. The company also requires fumigant applicators to undergo special training.
In a recent statement, Arysta officials said they were disappointed with the panel's finding and blasted the experts for ignoring scientific research that helped methyl iodide gain registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2007. The fumigant can be used with restrictions, and 47 states also have approved its use.
"The panel has ignored solid science and taken an extremely conservative position that ignores the weight of scientific evidence supporting EPA's risk assessment," the Arysta statement said.
Bedwell worries that environmentalists are pushing farmers to be pesticide-free, and that is unrealistic.
"As much as I wish we could do that, we can't provide food at the level that consumers demand from agriculture and be sustainable," Bedwell said. "Fumigants, including methyl iodide, are part of that equation."
Spraying keys to potato disease control
(
Dr. Christian Nansen is part of a multi-disciplinary team that is examining a variety of factors, including insecticides, spray applications, performance, farming practices and potato plant attractiveness.
To reduce risk of the disease, researchers must determine how to control the potato psyllid, which spreads the Liberibacter bacteria that causes zebra chip, Nansen said.
Currently, only two practices are effective at managing potato psyllids - delaying planting and avoiding highly susceptible potato varieties - so insecticide-based control of the tiny bug is the most important tactic to concentrate on, he said.
"It is important that we collect enough information about insecticide performance before we make recommendations about which ones to use," Nansen said.
During the past growing season, Nansen and his team evaluated the "knock-down" effect and repellency of 12 insecticides on adult psyllids.
Knock-down effect was evaluated by determining mortality of potato psyllids exposed to treated potato leaves, he said. Repellency of insecticides was tested by spraying either one side or both sides of potato leaves and then exposing them to potato psyllids.
For some of the examined insecticides, there was much lower mortality when only one side of potato leaves was treated compared to trials in which both sides were treated, Nansen said. The most logic explanation for these findings is that these insecticides are repellent to potato psyllids.
"Repellency is a very important but vastly overlooked aspect of insecticide performance," he said. "An insecticide which is repellent will likely be much less efficient, because target pests will avoid treated leaf surfaces."
For some of these insecticides, Nansen also examined whether insecticides affected feeding on potato leaves by potato psyllids.
"Zebra chip is vectored by potato psyllids to potato plants, and transfer of the bacteria occurs during feeding, so it is equally important to suppress feeding by the insects," he said.
To quantify feeding, Nansen's research team developed a chemical staining technique, which allows them to count how many times potato psyllids inserted their mouth parts into a given potato leaf.
"Using this staining technique, we were able to demonstrate that several insecticides markedly reduced or suppressed feeding of adult potato psyllids," he said. "This means that insecticide treatments reduced the likelihood of transfer of the bacteria to potato plants, which reduces the risk of zebra chip expression."
Nansen said it is known from other psyllid pests that there is a great risk for these insects to become resistant to insecticides, so it is important that control efforts embrace other tactics as well.
"We are collaborating with Dr. Creighton Miller, a potato breeder at Texas A&M, on evaluating the attractiveness of different potato varieties," he said. "The hope is that we can identify high-yielding potato varieties that are less attractive to potato psyllids and get them incorporated into commercial operations."
Preliminary results are promising and suggest that potato psyllids prefer certain varieties over others, and work by Nansen's research also suggests that the development stage of the potato plant is important.
"We conducted choice-tests, in which potato psyllids were given a choice between leaves in different development stages, and we also tested the attractiveness of flowers from potato plants," he said.
"These tests showed a clear preference for leaves of plants in the flowering stage, and this information may be important for determining when insecticide applications are most needed," Nansen said.
Dancing bees’ ‘stop signal’ warns of peril
(signonsandiego.com)
As it turns out, the bees butting heads with the wagglers to make them stop dancing may be just as important. The interruption is a “stop signal” — a warning to steer clear of a place with predators or competing bees.
Why is this significant?
Studies of bee waggling have led to profound discoveries about the complex communication patterns of some highly social insects, helped beekeepers improve their operations and earned an Austrian zoologist a 1973 Nobel Prize.
The anti-waggling discovery, by UCSD professor James Nieh, also may be historic: It’s only the second known example of a sophisticated insect society using “negative feedback” — signals that tell others to stop a behavior.
“People hadn’t given too much thought about the role of negative feedback in superorganisms like beehives,” said Nieh, whose research was published yesterday in the journal Current Biology. “This makes one wonder what else is possible, and not just among bees.”
Perhaps nothing gets a hive buzzing more than news of a rich new source of nectar and pollen. Incoming worker bees describe their discovery by performing a waggle dance, a series of choreographed movements intended to recruit and direct other bees to the fruitful site.
Scientists were perplexed by other bees that would interrupt the performance, seemingly to beg for a sample of the food.
Nieh, who teaches biology at the
“The honeybee’s system of collective foraging, already unbelievably complex for a creature with a brain the size of a grass seed, is even more complex than was previously realized,” said Gene Robinson, a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Negative feedback makes sense, Nieh said. “If a bee visits a location where she’s attacked by other bees or where there are predators like spiders, she’s not going to want her nest mates to go to that same location and confront the same risks,” he added.
The stop signals in a superorganism — a biological collection of individuals that behave as a unit, such as bees, ants and termites — are significant and surprising, experts said.
“The only other known example is of an ant species that puts down a chemical signal at the beginning of an old trail to indicate it no longer leads to a food source,” Nieh said.
The UCSD study was conducted in 2007, with Nieh and colleagues meticulously monitoring a research hive on campus. The researchers marked some worker bees with dabs of paint or tiny stickers. Then they exposed them to simulated dangers at feeding sites away from the hive, such as “alarm” pheromones that are produced when bees from other hives are nearby, or mechanical pricks to their legs to simulate spider bites.
When these worker bees returned to the hive, the researchers recorded their visual and acoustic behaviors. The bees targeted other waggle-dancing bees that had visited the same site and were now recruiting nest mates to go there.
The alarmed bees generated a vibrating signal lasting just a 10th of a second, while their bodies vibrated roughly 380 times per second. The stop signal, Nieh said, “is frequently delivered by a sender butting her head into a recipient, although the sender may also climb on top of the receiver.”
The greater the perceived danger, the more insistent the stop signal, Nieh said. Bees exposed to an alarm pheromone increased their stop-signaling by an average of 14 times. Those whose legs were pricked repeated their stop signals an average of 88 times.
After enough warning, most waggling bees stopped dancing and recruiting.
End Transmission