By Joan Olson
Illustrations by Steve Porter

Editor's note: As a service to our readers, we provide news about the work of others in the ag utilization arena. Often, research done elsewhere complements AURI's work. (Please note that ARS is the research arm of the USDA).

Slickest bean so far
In a competition for new soybean uses, two Purdue university students presented a wax made of soy oil for skis and snowboards. Soy Ski Wax is made of hydrogenated soy oil and fully hydrogenated canola oil.

Soy oil alone cannot act as a strong ski wax, but when mixed with canola, it behaves like paraffin. About half a million pounds of ski wax are used annually in the $30 million ski wax market.

Fresh anyway you slice it
Sliced bananas aren't offered in salad bars because they turn brown almost immediately after they're cut. ARS scientists mixed citric acid and a sulphur-containing amino acid to keep banana slices for 14 days at 40 degrees F without browning. The treatment also retards browning and decay in fresh-cut apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines and avocado.
Source: J. George Buta or Harold E. Moline, Horticultural Crops Quality Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, (301) 504-6128, hmoline@asrr.arsusda.gov.

Hull gives up oil and gum
"AmaizingOil," an ARS-patented oil from corn hulls, may lower cholesterol in humans. Along with the oil, however, ARS researchers have extracted a highly prized gum called "Zeagen" from the fibrous hulls. The gum can be used as a thickener in foods or industrially in adhesives and paints.

USDA-ARS has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the National Starch and Chemical Co. of Bridgewater, N.J. to work with this product.

Currently, most corn fiber residue from corn milling is made into a livestock feed and sold for about five cents a pound. These new uses could turn corn fiber into high value products.

Mustard cuts the metal
A small weedy member of the mustard family has the potential to clean up soils contaminated with heavy metals. Thlaspi caerulescens not only tolerates but incorporates extremely high levels of zinc and cadmium from soil.

The metals could be extracted by harvesting the plant shoots, which might even be processed to extract accumulated metals. If extraction is feasible, such soils may no longer be a pollution hazard, but a source of metals.
Source: Leon Kochian, Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory, Ithaca, NY, (607) 255-2454, lvkl@cornell.edu

Corn kind to water
Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Johnston, Iowa is licensed to sell an ARS-developed and patented corn that could be more nutritious as a feed and reduce water pollution.

The new corn is low in phytic acid, a form of phosphorus. Phytic acid cannot be utilized by poultry, swine and other animals with one stomach. Instead, the phosphorus winds up in the animal's manure. Rain can carry excess phosphorus to waterways where it nourishes algae and can eventually choke out fish and other aquatic life.

The low-phytic-acid corn holds more nutritionally available phosphorus, so up to 40 percent less of it is excreted in manure. ARS researchers are expanding the approach to other grains in which phytic acid ties up phosphorus, such as rice, barley and wheat.
Source: Victor Raboy, Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research, Aberdeen, ID, (208) 397-4162, vraboy@uidaho.edu.

Mighty mice urine
Animal urine could become a source of valuable hormones and drugs. ARS and New York University researchers have developed transgenic mice that produce human growth hormones in the lining of their bladders. Excreted hormones are extracted from the mice urine.

Producing medicine in animal urine has the potential to be more economical than mammary gland "pharming" -- the practice of producing pharmaceuticals in the milk of transgenic animals. Urine can be collected a day or two after animals are born, versus waiting for two to three years for lactation to begin in most farm animals. Another advantage: urine comes from both sexes. Nevertheless, findings are preliminary and more research is needed to correct some drawbacks.
Source: Robert J. Wall, Gene Evaluation and Mapping Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, (301) 504-8362, bwall @ggpl.arsusda.gov.

Bin-busting corn
A Southern Illinois University biotechnologist found that corn he equipped with a nitrogen-loving gene not only makes better use of fertilizer, but produces about seven percent more protein. Now David Lightfoot and an animal nutritionist will test its potential as a livestock feed this fall.

If the research pans out, it could mean lower livestock production costs; protein supplements are at least twice as expensive as corn. For six years, Lightfoot has been trying to develop a line of corn that would need little fertilizer to produce bin-busting yields.

The corn should also help the environment because fertilizer used by the plant won't run off into streams and waterways. The key to engineering this crop is a nitrogen-loving gene called GDH, from a tiny organism that lives in dirt. Seed for nitrogen-loving corn should be on the market by 2003.
Source: Sue Davis, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, IL, (618) 453-2276

Bananas over corn plastic
Iowa State University and University of Cost Rica researchers are evaluating corn-based degradable plastic for use in banana fields.

Cost Rica's banana industry now uses 200,000 metric tons of polyethylene plastic a month. Plastic rope prevents banana plants from toppling in gusty tropical winds. Plastic sheets shroud banana "fingers" to enhance ripening. After harvest, the plastic ends up trampled in the ground or washed away by rains.

Researchers are testing corn-based degradable plastic supplied by Cargill and Chronopol, and research is supported by the National Corn Growers Association and Iowa and Nebraska corn promotion boards.

Source: Soybean Digest magazine, March 1998; and the National Corn Growers Association

Making milk better
Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center scientists are using cloning, computer design and other techniques to improve cow's milk. For example, the scientists are trying to increase lactoferrin, a protein that helps fight infections. There's a lot of it in human milk but not much in cow's milk. Enhanced lactoferrin should make infant formulas more like breast milk.

Source: Floyd Schanbacher, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, (330) 202-3507, ct-oards @osu.edu.

Tomato cocktails for cows
Ohio State University scientists aren't making tomato juice in the dairy barn, but they are ensiling tomato pomace -- the residue of water, tomato seeds and peels left behind after processing -- with corn plants. It's an alternative to sending pomace to landfills and it works as cow feed.

Most Midwest pomace is available in September, at the same time corn is harvested for silage. For dairies located near tomato processing facilities, it may an economic nutrient source.

Biodiesel Web site up
The biodiesel industry is online with a new Web site: www.biodiesel.org. The site leads visitors to reports and news about particular segments of the biodiesel industry, such as marine use, fleet use, premium diesel and a bulletin for questions. For the latest information from the National Biodiesel Board, there's still www.nbb.org.