Eat Indian curry to lose weight

Eating lots of curry may help you lose weight, research suggests.

Scientists believe that haldi, or turmeric, which is used in most Indian meals, has an active ingredient that can help fight obesity.

A meal that includes haldi will lead to less weight gain than one without the yellow powder.

This is because haldi contains a plant-based chemical called curcumin which suppresses the growth of fat tissue in mice and human cell cultures, according to a study by Tufts University in Boston, published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Curcumin is also easily absorbed by the body, the researchers said, after experiments on mice.

"Weight gain is the result of the growth and expansion of fat tissue, which cannot happen unless new blood vessels form, a process known as angiogenesis," said senior study author Mohsen Meydani of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.

"Based on our data, curcumin appears to suppress angiogenic activity in the fat tissue of mice fed high fat diets," he said in a statement.

In particular, turmeric is effective when added to a high-fat meal, suggesting it could help fight obesity.

Researchers gave one set of mice high-fat diets and another set the same food with 500mg of curcumin added to each meal.

After 12 weeks, the mice which were fed curcumin weighed less than those which did not eat it.

The next step will be to perform clinical trials on humans, said the researchers.

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Soybeans Grow Where Nuclear Waste Glows

Photo: Soybeans growing near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.

Soy crops are so tough they can flourish in the contaminated soil around Chernobyl and produce healthy offspring.

If scientists can understand how plants survive in ultra-hostile environments, it will help them engineer super hearty plants to withstand drought conditions or grow on marginal cropland.

“The fact that plants were able to adapt to the area of the world’s largest nuclear accident, is very encouraging,” says Martin Hajduch, a plant biotechnology expert at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and coauthor of the study in the Journal of Proteome Research. “So we were interested to know how plants can do such a job.”

Hajduch’s team built and harvested seeds from a garden near the village of Chistogalovka, which is roughly five kilometers from the ruined nuclear power plant. They analyzed the seeds with all sorts of modern proteomics tricks, going a step beyond the narrowly-focused studies that other scientists have done.

Biologists have been studying the effects of radiation on plants for decades, and they have identified a handful of proteins that seem to protect crops from genetic damage, but this is the first time that anyone has taken a snapshot of everything that’s going on inside of Chernobyl-grown vegetables.

The Slovak scientists started by freezing each seed with liquid nitrogen and crushing it to extract a mix of proteins. Then they sorted those molecules in an electrified block of gel, and identified each one with a mass spectrometer. As a reference, they did the same thing to seeds from a garden 100 kilometers from the disaster area.

Hajduch learned that the contaminated plants make a lot of changes to defend themselves, adjusting the levels of dozens of proteins that also guard against disease, heavy metals, and salt. All of that makes sense, but the biggest difference between plants from the wasteland and the controls was somewhat surprising. The levels of hundreds of proteins that are known for their ability to shuttle other proteins around — or lock them up in storage — had been lowered.

As a result of those adjustments, the levels of Cesium-137 in the beans was remarkably low. The plants are healthy and fertile, but definitely not safe to eat. Hajduch says that he will complete a study of their progeny soon, but he wouldn’t want to make them into tofu.

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Biotech crops' global value reaches $7.5 billion

The global market value of biotechnology crops reached $7.5 billion in 2008, up from $6.9 billion in 2007.

Last year’s $7.5 billion represented 14 percent Dr. Clive James, founder and current board chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

New York (USA)-based ISAAA is a not-for-profit organization with an international network of centers designed to contribute to the alleviation of hunger and poverty by sharing knowledge and crop biotechnology applications.

The network includes the Southeast Asia Center based in Los Baños, Laguna, headed by Dr. Randy Hautea, currently ISAAA global coordinator and former director of the University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB).

Dr. James’ report, titled “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008”, was presented by Dr. Hautea and former UP president Dr. Emil Q. Javier at a media forum last Feb. 12 at the Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City.

In his report, the Welsh-born research administrator projected that the global value of the biotech crop market for 2009 is approximately $8.3 billion.

Of the genetically modified (GM) crops produced in 2008, biotech maize constituted the biggest chunk of the global biotech market – $3.6 billion or 48 percent.

It was followed by soybean, $2.8 billion (37 percent); cotton, $0.9 billion (12 percent); and canola, $0.2 billion (three percent).

The other biotech crops raised in 2008 in 25 countries were papaya, squash, tomato, sweet pepper, alfalfa, poplar, petunia, carnation, and sugar beet.

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Biotechnology boom raises security fears

As rapid advances in biotechnology make it easier to develop and produce deadly organisms, experts are calling for better industry oversight to stop that progress benefiting criminals and terrorists.

Hundreds of research laboratories are springing up around the world as costs and development times tumble and scientists compete to create products with commercial potential for medicine or food production.

In 2002 it took five years to develop the genomic sequence of a polio virus. Three years later it took a week for a team the same size to do the same on a virus of similar length.

Such rapid progress has left policymakers wondering how to ensure security in a disparate, thinly regulated industry -- a concern that surfaced at a weekend conference in Morocco where experts considered the threat of pandemics and major biological incidents in the Middle East and North Africa.

"There are so many advances in bacteriology and gene sequencing leading to the possibility of designing genes -- that is what is driving the concern," said Tim Trevan of the International Council for the Life Sciences (ICLS).

Organisms could be genetically manipulated to defeat vaccines, mild diseases could be turned into deadly ones and lethal viruses and bacteria might be created from scratch.

Equipment such as micro-reactors, flow reactors and disposable reactors to produce useable volumes of complex molecules were not even available 10 years ago.

"You want something very infectious if you aim to bring down society," said Trevan. "Whether you kill people or incapacitate them it doesn't really matter, as long as there is a major effect. This could all theoretically be engineered genetically."

A BIOTECH CHERNOBYL?

Potentially dangerous organisms tend to be harder to spot at the development stage than nuclear materials.

"You are talking about people and knowledge -- you're not going to just spring into a laboratory and find incriminating material," said ICLS President Terence Taylor.

He pointed to documents recovered from al Qaeda which had showed the group was considering developing biological weapons.

"If there is a serious, catastrophic incident involving the use of biotechnology, that will hold up the science like Chernobyl did with nuclear," said Taylor. "That's why we need to worry now."

Nuclear technology remains mostly in the hands of governments and heavily regulated state enterprises. In contrast, advanced biotechnology is already seeping into the consumer mainstream.

Taylor said parts of the private sector had taken a lead in building safeguards. One industry body, the International Association for Synthetic Biology, had developed software to allow its members to screen their customers.

Conference delegates called for better regulation and more cross-border collaboration to detect and ward off biological threats and share best practices.

Attacks involving anthrax-laced letters in the United States in 2001 killed five people, including two U.S. Postal Service workers from a facility in Washington, D.C., and made 13 sick. Thousands were given antibiotics to prevent disease.

In 1995, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult killed 12 people in a Sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.

"The thinking is out there and it is naive to assume some people are not exploiting available technology," said Taylor.

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India likely to launch bio-tech rice by 2011-12

Biotech rice is likely to be launched in India by 2011-12, after it gets all the required clearance, Sawapan Datta professor Calcutta University said today.

“After all the required processes and approvals, it is estimated that bio-tech enhanced rice could be launched in India by 2011-22,” Datta told reporters.

He said, with India’s population estimated to reach 1.3 billion by 2017, the government has estimated a 14 million tonnes shortage of the food grain.

Therefore, with low yield and rising demand it is essential to increase rice production, which is the second most consumed cereal grain, after maize, Datta said.

“Biotech enhanced rice could double farmer yields and can save traditional low yielding varieties from extinction by converting taller varieties into shorter heights with multiple tillers resulting in higher yields,” he said.

According to Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, head plant improvement G J N Rao, “Bio-tech rice can enhance productivity and help protect the environment by reducing the use of chemical pesticides.”

CRRI is working on developing nutritionally enhanced rice for high protein and high-iron to help address the problem of malnutrition among women and children.

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Biotech firm eyes algae as growth area

The simple marine organism that causes pond scum will someday be used to make people healthier.

A research team at Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd. in Dartmouth has found algae along the coast of Nova Scotia capable of providing essential nutrients in quantities sufficient to support commercialization.

Chief executive officer Robert Orr said Friday the fish-oil manufacturer is keeping the lid on most details for competitive reasons.

"There is a lot of research underway in this field around the world. We’ve made significant progress here in Nova Scotia but haven’t been overly public about it," he said.

Ocean Nutrition is preparing a fish-powder plant worth an estimated $23 million in Burnside Park. It is expected to open in a few months, but production will be linked to the health of the food industry."We will see more new food products launched as the economy improves," said Mr. Orr.

When the plant opens, operations will focus on turning oil from anchovies and sardines into fish oil and an omega-3 powder to be used as nutritional supplements to food.

The capacity to produce nutrients would increase significantly if a micro-fermentation process could be used to culture algae.

"We would be going directly to the same algae consumed by the fish to obtain omega-3 fatty acids and other nutritional compounds," Mr. Orr said.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish are linked to reduced risk of heart disease and improved brain function.

Extracting essential nutrients from fish like anchovies or sardines is a costly process, and the ability to use large volumes of marine algae as a raw product has huge implications for this emerging industry.

Mr. Orr said there is a large body of evidence supporting the health benefits of nutrients found in high proportions in fish, and North Americans eat very little fish, so the future of the industry looks good.

"Omega-3 is to the cells what calcium is to the bones," he said.

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India fourth largest adopter of biotech crop in the world

India became the fourth largest adopter of biotech crop in the world, displacing Canada, in 2008 and planting Bt cotton on 7.6 million hectares (82% of the total cotton are in the country), according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). This was almost a million and half hectares over planted area in 2007 (6.2 m ha, equivalent to 66% of the total cotton area in the country).A record five million small and resource-poor farmers planted Bt cotton in 2008, significantly up from only 3.8 m farmers in 2007, the ISAAA said.

Worldwide, by the end of the second decade of commercialization in 2015, ISAAA predicts that four billion accumulated acres of biotech crops would have been planted. Further, 200 million hectares of biotech crops annually will be planted in a total of 40 countries. In 2008, three new countries and 1.3 million new farmers adopted biotech crops and planted an additional 10.7 m ha, the Association, which has been tracking global biotech crop adoption trends since 1996, said.

Last year, 13.3 million farmers in 25 countries planted 125 million ha of biote4ch crops, leading to the sixth largest growth spurt in 13 years of reporting . Infact, the two billionth cumulative acre of biotech crops was also planted in 2008, just three years after the first billionth acre was planted. That milestone, though, took a whole decade to be reached.

Cotton area in India comprises about 21% of the total are in the world and roughly 13% of the total cotton output in the world. At the national level, cotton production increased from 15.8 million bales in 2001-02 to 32.2 million bales in 2008-09, more than doubling cotton production in the short span of seven years. The ISAAA’s annual brief on Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops 2008 maintained that for the seven year period 2002-08, there was a 150-fold increase in Bt cotton in India.

That is four times the 74-fld increase for global biotech crops during the 13 period from 1996-2008.Accordign to the report, averge cotton yields following adoption of biotech increased from only 308 kg/ha in 2002 to 591 kg/ha in 2008, registering a 50% increase in yield. In tandem, cotton exports increased from 0.05 million bales in 2001-02 to an estimated 8.5 million bales in 2007-08. Also, the number of biotech events increased from one Event in 2002 to 4 Events in 2007 and t o five Events in 2008. There were 274 location-specific Bt cotton hybrids in 2008 compared to only 131 in 2007 and only three in 2002. Accordign to the ISAAA brief, there has been substantial increase in the approval of double genes Bt cotton hybrids to delay insect-pest resistance. From only 21 BG II hybrids in 2007, the number went up to 94 BG II hybrids in 2008.

“In India, growers increased income by upt to $250 (Rs 10,000) or more per hectare, increasing farmer incomes nationally by $3.2 billion in the period 2002 to 2007 and $2 billion in 2007 alone,” the ISAAA brief has claimed. Adding to the increasing adoption of biotech crop was the apex court’s decision in 2008 to lift restrictions on all field trials and commercial releases such crops. During the year, India also drafted a plan to establish a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) and adopted a new set of guidelines for GE (genetically engineered) plants and foods, even as the GEAC or the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee commercially released publicly bred Bt cotton varieties. India deregulated approved GM cottone Evetns and joined the OECD seed certification schemes.

Significantly, it was also the year when Mahyco received experimental seed production approval for its Bt Brinjal hybrids. For all that it was one of the leading, and earliest, developing countries to adopt biotech crops, India has yet to approve commercialsiation of any biotech food crop although Bt soyabean and Bt Maize are being cultivated by other countries for a decade or more now. In the face of criticism on the safety aspects of biotech crop in the country, commercial biotech crops have so far attracted less hue and cry in the second, and food safety centric, decade of worldwide GM (genetically modified) crop adoption. Biotechnology research in food crops in the country, however, are on for a wide variety of food crops such as banana, cabbage, acstor, cauliflower, corn, gorundnut, mustard, okra, onion, papaya, potato, rice and tomato.


“Future growth prospects for biotech crops are encouraging,” chairman and founder of ISAAA and author of the report Clive James said here, adding “The positive experiences int ehse new regional footholds in the south, north and west Africa will help lead the way for neighbouring countries to learn by example. Additionally, political leaders globally are increasingly viewing biotech enhanced crops as a key part of the solution to critical social issues of food security and sustainability.”

Africa is considered the “final frontier” for biotech crops as it has perhaps the greatest need for increased crop output and the most number of people to gain from it. Biotech famrming began in the African nations of Egypt and Burkina Faso in 2008, when Egypt planted 700 ha of Bt Maize and Burkina Faos planted 8500 ha of Bt cotton, joining S Africa, which since 1998 has adopted cotton, maize and soyabean biotech crops.

James said that increased political support from key regions such as the G-8 leadership (for the first time) to biotech crop, the EU and China had strengthened the acceptance of such crops in countries worldwide. “Biotech crops make two important contributions to global food security. First, they increase yields, which increase food avalabilityand supply. Second, they reduce production costs, which will also ultimately help reduce food prices. With 9.2 billion people to be fed by 2050, biotechnology plays a crucial role in helping to satistfy the growing demand.” As part of that goal, biotech is beginning to identify solutions to the growing challenges with drought being seen in sub Saharan Africa and Latin America, he said. Drought is the single largest constraint to increased productivity. For example, Argentina now faces a drought so severe that farmers have made a oss on their wheat crop. Drought-tolerant crops, maize in particular, are an emerging reality with seeds exp ected to be commercialized in the USA by 2012 or sooner and in Africa, by 2017, the ISAAA founder-chairman said.

A new biotech crop, RR sugar beet, was first commercialised in the USA and Canada in 2008.

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