Super bananas will undergo the first clinical trial
Genetically modified super bananas enriched with provitamin A will undergo a clinical study, during which scientists plan to find out whether the use of this product can increase the content of vitamin A in the human body (all necessary preclinical studies have shown that in animals sustained on a diet with vitamin A and carotenoids deficiency, the addition of this genetically engineered product to the feed, quickly eliminates hypovitaminosis).
Bananas, which are the main food product for the population of East Africa, contain few trace elements and vitamins, especially provitamin A and iron. Globally, vitamin A deficiency annually leads to the death of 650,000-700,000 children and the development of blindness in another 300,000 children.
A possible solution to this problem is to replace traditional varieties of bananas with super bananas created by Australian researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (Australia), working under the guidance of Professor James Dale.
From the outside, genetically modified bananas do not differ from ordinary ones, while their flesh has an unusual orange hue due to the high content of alpha- and beta-carotene, converted in the body into vitamin A.
Currently, an experimental batch of bananas is being sent to the United States, where a 6-week clinical trial will be conducted, in which the ability of super bananas to increase vitamin A levels in the human body will be evaluated.
In case of positive results of the study, the cultivation of a new variety of bananas will be started in Uganda by 2020. After that, it is planned to introduce new varieties in other countries, including Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Tanzania. Farmers in West Africa grow another variety of bananas, but researchers believe that it can also be used to create a provitamin A-enriched variety.
In the most recent of the articles of the development group published in the journal QUT EPrints (Bresnahan et al., Cooking enhancements but the degree of ripeness does not affect provitamin A carotenoid bioavailability from bananas), it is shown that the content of carotenoids in ripe and unripe super bananas does not differ, and provitamins are better absorbed after cooking than from raw fruits.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials Phys.org : 'Super' banana to face first human trial.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.06.2014