Researchers from the University of Skövde has developed a new type of plant to absorb arsenic from the soil and store the poison in their roots.
Arsenic is extremely toxic to humans and can lead to diabetes, cancer and fertility damage from prolonged exposure. Meanwhile, it is one of the most common elements in the earth’s crust.
In Southeast Asia exposed millions of people daily for arsenic, either by drinking contaminated water or by eating crops grown on arsenic poisoned farmland. Also in other parts of the world, including Sweden, have arsenic in the soil has become a problem that creates great anxiety.
At the University of Skövde ongoing research with the aim to remove or reduce the accumulation of arsenic in food and the environment. Now, researchers have developed a plant that stores arsenic in the roots, while the other parts of the plant can serve as food.
idea is that the poisonous roots should be sorted out so that the arsenic in them can be used in industry. That creates a purifying cycle.
– One can compare our breakthrough in this research with the “golden rice” which was developed in the 1990s as an aid project to help children in Asia and Africa. It was a rice which, among other things, to put carotene and iron to rice to address the vitamin A deficiency, with blindness as a result, affecting many children at risk of poor areas, says Abul Mandal, Professor of Molecular Biology at University of Skövde, in a press release.
research has been conducted on a tobacco plant. The next step is to move to a crop of great social and economic importance, such as rice and wheat.
Foods that are free from arsenic or have significantly reduced levels of arsenic could protect millions of people around the world from matbaserad arsenic poisoning and its deadly consequences, writes University of Skövde in the press release.
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