Greetings to the group. Thought you might be interested in this response
written by noted ethnobotanist Jim Duke regarding the Science magazine/
golden rice issue.
An Herb a Day: Golden Rice ( First Draft; for Discussion)
Lo Tech vs High Tech
Gold for the Poor or Gold for DuNovSanto
By Jim Duke
Rice is not generally considered a health food, although many people
sensitive to gluten find great relief in substituting rice bread
substitutes. A recent Science article, congratulating genetically modified
organisms (GMO's ), suggests that a golden rice (rice containing genetically
engineered carotene) might help reverse the image of the GMO "Frankenfoods".
Yes, even though I am a member of AAAS, the publisher of Science, I have
written them often to complain that they do not speak for all scientists
when they praise the Frankenfoods. And here's their first major praise from
the year 2000. "Crops such as Roundup Ready soybeans developed by Monsanto
and corn expressing Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) toxin reduce costs to the
farmer by minimizing the application of herbicides and insecticides . . .
The report . . . by Ye et al, who engineered rice grains to produce
provitamin A (beta-carotene), exemplifies the best that agricultural
technology has to offer a world whose population is predicted to reach 7
billion by 2013." I am waiting to see the bottom line on these so-called
reduced costs to the farmer. Only the future will tell the real bottom line.
I hope they are correct. I fear they are optimistic.
In SE Asia, 70% of children under 5 are deficient in Vitamin A. UNICEF
predicts that improved vitamin A nutrition could prevent 1 to 2 million
deaths each year among 1-4 year olds alone. Worldwide, an estimated 124
million children are vit-A-deficient. Low-tech solution: Manually harvest
the edible weeds and add it to unprocessed rice. Starving
carotenoid-deprived families can afford this logical solution. High-tech
solution: Kill weeds with weedicides; genetically modify rice so it is
tolerant to the DuNovSanto weedicide; genetically engineer rice to make its
own carotenoid; buy your fertilizers, pesticides and GMO seeds from
DuNovSanto. (contrived name for hi tech firms involved in GMO, herbicides
etc.) . The starving families cannot afford the hi tech approach. Nor can
the first world.
Carotenoids are orange, red, or yellow pigments, essential to the
photosynthetic membranes of all plants. So yes, they occur in every green
leaf out there, including the weeds in the rice paddies. As antioxidants,
carotenoids quench tissue-damaging free radicals such as singlet oxygen
species.. Milled rice normally contains no carotenoid nor carotenoid
precursor. Guerinot (2000) makes the strange comment "Perhaps the only
objection to golden rice in the end, will be its color." Strange, because
many people add carotenoids , or at least yellow pigments to their rice in
the form of pot marigold, safflower, saffron, and/or turmeric. And Perdue
colors his chickens and their egg yolks feeding them carotenoids in the form
of marigold petals. Think of golden Spanish "paella", based on that very
expensive additive spice called saffron. In Peru, they call turmeric
"guisador" or stewing herb rather than "azafran" (a common Spanish name for
both saffron and turmeric. Curried rice is eaten by a lot of poor people,
satisfying, perhaps trivially, their carotenoid deficit. And North Americans
have come to think, rightly or wrongly, of brown rice as nutritionally
superior to white rice. Now curry powder, saffron and turmeric, are not
particularly good sources of carotenoids, but safflower and marigold are,
pot marigold flowers being one of the richest sources of lycopene. But since
all green leaves, including herbs, contain carotenoids, herbed rice
contains some carotenoids, depending on the added herbs.
Ironically the Science magazine article praising GMO efforts, hints to me
that high lycopene fruits may compensatorily have less alpha and/or beta
carotene and/or lutein and/or zeaxanthin. The illuminating diagram presented
by Guerinot (2000) suggests that lycopene is often converted to alpha
carotene which in turn is converted to lutein AND/OR lycopene which is often
converted to beta carotene (under the influence of lycopene beta-cyclase)
which may further be converted to zeaxanthin. So I suspect a high lycopene
guava, will have proportionally less of the other derivative carotenoids
than a low lycopene guava. Lycopene is better for the prostate, me-thinks,
lutein and zeaxanthin for macular degeneration. So I suspect certain
hi-lutein varieties of kale would be better for macular degeneration, but
low lutein-varieties might have more lycopene and hence be a bit better for
the prostate. And I suspect that the gene jocks will be able to engineer a
high lycopene rice for us BPH-sufferers and a high lutein a/o zeaxanthin
rice for us macular degenerates. Of course we don't need gene jocks to do
this. We can stir in some tomato or elaeagnus to color our rice, aiding and
abetting the prostate in the process, or for the macula, we can stir in any
of several dark green leafy veggies like kale.
I predict that GMO golden rice will be more expensive, more prone to
disease, and hence demand more pesticides and weedicides, than good old
fashioned lo-tech rice. Instead or recommending expensive unnatural GMO rice
to provide carotene to starving poor children in the rice-eating parts of
the third world, I would more conservatively recommend instead incorporation
of a few leafy weeds into an herbed rice. We'll called them herbs or leafy
veggies instead of weeds. By the way, these non-GMO non-genetically
enginereed weeds' seeds will not be sold to poor people by Monsanto, weeds
like amaranth, edible jute, lambsquarter, and purslane, which Monsanto
devises strategies to eliminate. They are often more nutritious than
spinach. Eat your Weedies, seven good ones being amaranth, jute,
lambsquarter, nettle, purslane, sheep sorrel, and watercress.
IPP (Isopentyl Diphosphate)
tocopherols <- GGPP (Geranyl Geranyl Diphosphate) ->
chlorophyll, gibberellins
(phytoene synthase)
PHYTOENE
(phytoene-desaturase)
LYCOPENE
.................(lycopene-beta-cyclase)
Alpha Carotene Beta Carotene
Lutein Zeaxanthin
It's clear from Guerinot's equation that there is a possible conflict of
interest here, sacrificing Vitamin E for Vitamin A. But her equation shows
that the GGPP is also used in the synthesis of Vitamin E (tocopherols and
tocotrienols). Not being a chemist, I still deduce from her equation above,
that diverting more GGPP to Vitamin A precursors will divert it away from
Vitamin E. Unmilled rice, pre GMO innovations, is one of the better sources
of tocopherol and tocotrienols, most of it lost to first world food
processors, but retained in the primitive pot. Rice bran and rice bran oil
contain 125 to 830 ppm total tocols. Rice bran is 10% by weight of rough
rice grain, and contains some 18-22% oil. The tocols are quantitatively
extracted in the rice bran oil. One tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF 25)
extracted from the rice bran oil has the following breakdown: 6%
alpha-tocopherol, 12.5% alpha- tocotrienol, 21% gamma-tocotrienol, 10%
delta-tocotrienol, 4.5% d-tocotrienol (not a typo, it's d not delta)17%
d-di-desemethyl tocotrienol, 18% unidentified tocotrienols, and 10% sterols
and triglycerides. (Qureshi et al, 1997) Guerinot, ML. 2000.
The green revolution strikes gold. Science 287: 241-2 (Based onQureshi AA,
Bradlow BA, Salser, WA, Brace LD (1997).
Novel tocotrienolsof rice bran modulate cardiovascular disease risk
parameters of hypercholesterolemic humans. Nutritional Biochemistry 8, 290-
298.
Ye, X. et a. 2000. Engineering the Provitamin A (Beta-carotene)
Biosysnthetic Pathway into (Carotenoid-Free) Rice Endosperm). Science
287: 303-5. (Jan 14, 2000)
7 beta-carotene sources = purslane,, sorrel, carrot, nasturtium,
spinach, gotu kola, watercress)
7 top lutein sources; rhubarb, bilberry, prune, avocado, gooseberry,
kiwi, pear)
7 top lycopene sources: Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus sp) 10 times tomato;
USDA);Pot marigold (3,360 ppm), Watermelon (45-900), Tomato (16-663), Guava
(54-540); Grapefruit (red) (33-336); Bitter gourd (231); Carrot
(80-140); Rose hips (4-111)
Top Zeaxanthin Sources in USDA carotenoid database: corn (5.28 ppm);
japanese persimmons (4.88); spinach (3.31); turnip greens (2.67); collards
(2.66); romaine lettuce (1.87); kale (1.73); tangerine (1.12), orange
(0.80)iceberg lettuce (0.70)
James A. ("Jim") Duke Phone 301-498-1175
Botanical Consultant Fax 301-498-5738
Herbal Vineyard, Inc. URL for Father Nature's Farmacy
8210 Murphy Road http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke
Fulton, MD 20759 Email: jimduke@cpcug.org
For Medical Botany Syllabus see: http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/syllabus
Click and it will take you to the Medical Botany Syllabus with many
modules.
For example, there is an Herbal Desk Reference (HDR) Module, with
bioactives, indications, some dosage levels and counterindications and
side effects of more than 100 of the more important herbs.
Diana Erney
Sr. Research Associate
Rodale Organic Gardening Books
33 E. Minor Street
Emmaus, PA 18098
ph: 610.967.8191
fax: 610.967.7846
email: Diana.Erney@Rodale.com
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