Technologies in the Marketplace : Human Nutrition

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Technologies in the Marketplace

Introduction

Agricultural Research Impacting the Lives of Americans Today and Tomorrow

ARS has a successful history of partnering with commercial firms to transfer the fruits of its labor to American farmers and consumers. We are a leader in the Federal government in transferring new technologies developed from our scientific research to the marketplace. The links on the right contain information about many of our technology success stories.

Updated 5/6/03

Medicine

Producing Penicillin

Alexander Fleming, a British researcher, observed in 1928 that a blue-green mold that had landed accidentally in a culture of bacteria on his desk produced a substance that killed several disease-causing microbes. He named it penicillin after the mold, Penicillium notatum. During the next 13 years, the British succeeded in converting penicillin into a stable brown powder. In 1941, a few months before Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, they still had not found a way to mass-produce the drug.

In June 1941, two British scientists, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley, came to the United States carrying a small package of brown powder-penicillin. Their mission: to work with Americans to produce the drug in quantity and to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis. From Washington, D.C., they were directed to USDA's Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria, Illinois, where researchers had experienced success in growing molds with a process called deep vat fermentation.

One of the Peoria scientists, Andrew J. Moyer, grew the penicillin in a nutritious medium that included corn steep water, an inexpensive byproduct of the wet corn milling process. He kept adding nutrients to his medium until he had increased penicillin yields by more than 10 times. Moyer's results encouraged four U.S. drug companies to try large-scale penicillin production. The public-private agreement came soon after Pearl Harbor.

But Moyer was dissatisfied with results. He could grow Penicillium notatum on the surface of his medium, but it wouldn't grow in deep vats, where prior experience with other molds had taught him he could increase production substantially.

On the lookout for a more productive strain of Penicillium, a staff member found it on a moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria market. It was Penicillium chrysogenum, and Moyer was finally able to grow it in quantity submerged in deep fermentation vats. The medium was corn steep water and milk sugar. Results were so promising that the U.S. drug industry adopted the medium and the newly found mold and began to increase penicillin production. By the end of 1942, 17 companies were working to increase output still more. Thanks to the combined efforts of the public and private scientists, enough penicillin was available on June 6, 1944, to treat Allied troops wounded on D-day. It was penicillin that helped vanquish the terrible killer of earlier wars, gas gangrene.

More New Drugs

Selman Waksman at Rutgers University discovered the powerful antibiotic streptomycin in 1943 from among a group of soil microorganisms called actinomycetes. Drug companies soon found more antibiotics--chloromycetin, aureomycin, and terramycin. Researchers in several places, including the ARS lab in Peoria, discovered the antibiotic polymyxin in 1947, and the Peoria lab found a way to increase its production, as it had with penicillin. Waksman, in 1948, discovered neomycin, and in 1950, USDA scientists in Peoria found a new form of streptomycin, produced by a different actinomycete. Today, ARS maintains the world's most complete collection of these valuable microorganisms.

Search for Cortisone

Shortly after cortisone was found to relieve rheumatoid arthritis in 1948, USDA and the National Institutes of Health conducted a worldwide search for plants containing precursors of the steroid. A precursor is a substance that precedes and is the source of another substance; one important such compound in producing steroids is diosgenin.

Some 6,600 plant species were collected and screened for diosgenin in the 1950's, using analysis techniques developed by Philadelphia lab researchers. Highest yields of the compound were found in a wild Mexican yam. Within a few years, 70 percent of the steroids produced in this country were made from the diosgenin in these tubers.

A replacement for blood plasma called dextran was first administered intravenously to wounded troops during the Korean War, when plasma was in short supply. Dextran persists in the blood longer than plasma and does not need refrigeration. Developed at the ARS lab in Peoria, dextran proved effective in treating shock and blood loss and is credited with saving thousands of American lives.

Dextran is made by fermenting sugar with a microorganism first found in a bottle of spoiled or "ropy" root beer. Now researchers are producing special dextrans for food processing and industrial applications. These natural carbohydrates could possibly replace costly plant gums as binding agents, emulsifiers, and stabilizers in processed foods. ARS is breeding several strains of the same bacterium used to produce the original dextran to isolate new dextrans.

Drug from a Yew Tree

The anti-cancer drug taxol was first discovered in the bark and needles of the Pacific yew, an evergreen tree native to the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, the yew is a slow-growing tree, and it takes several thousands trees to produce just one pound of the drug.

An ARS biologist and her team in New Orleans eventually found taxol in not one but six different species of Taxus yews. They also were able to employ tissue-culture techniques to grow the taxol-producing cells of the tree in the laboratory. The team's research was patented and licensed by Phyton Inc. of Ithaca, New York (USPN 5,019,504; Docket #1047.87). Additional research on the drug was carried out by Washington State, Colorado State, and Cornell universities and by other institutions.

Subsequently, Bristol-Myers-Squibb began producing taxol, using what the company described as a "semisynthetic" process. The drug passed its clinical trials and has now been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It is being used to treat ovarian and breast cancer and also appears promising as a treatment for certain forms of lung cancer.

Updated 7/17/03

Food Processing & Safety

TTT Stood for Quality

TTT Stood for Time-Temperature-Tolerance. That was the name of the ambitious 8-year research project carried out in the 1950's at the ARS Western lab near San Francisco. Its aim was to improve frozen food quality.

Clarence Birdseye, a U.S. inventor, started the industry in 1925, when he quick-froze fish on a refrigerated moving belt. The frozen foods industry grew slowly but steadily until after World War II, when the renewed availability of home freezers boosted production to more than one billion pounds.

But there were consumer complaints over loss in flavor and changes in color and texture. The industry had production problems, too, and sought USDA research help. The Department accepted the challenge.

Building their own freezer plant inside the lab, Western researchers conducted painstaking experiments with every step in food freezing. These included selection of the right crop variety, handling produce between field and plant, blanching and freezing, packaging and storing, and transport of the products to market. They also invented processing equipment to improve frozen products. What scientists learned--and passed along to processors--helped beyond measure to ensure the survival and growth of America's frozen food industry. For today's consumer, TTT resulted in an almost unbelievable variety of quality frozen foods.

Improving Frozen OJ

Some 50 years ago, orange juice concentrates were relatively flavorless--so insipid, in fact, that consumers opted instead for full-strength canned orange juice, which had a taste all its own. Meanwhile, Florida oranges were a surplus crop, with tons and tons going to waste every year.

The Florida Citrus Commission and ARS researchers at Winter Haven, Florida, partnered together to improve frozen concentrated orange juice. They found that adding the fresh juice resulted in a vastly improved concentrate that could be easily frozen. USDA, as had been agreed in advance, took out a patent on the process and then licensed it nonexclusively to interested companies (USPN 2,453,109). So it was that the frozen concentrated orange juice industry was born--an industry today worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales.

Explosion Puffing

For a number of foods, dehydration is an unsatisfactory way to preserve them. Many dried foods rehydrate slowly in boiling water and contain tough and unappetizing areas. ARS researchers at Philadelphia modified and improved dehydration with a step they called "explosion puffing."

A partially dried piece of apple, for example, is subjected briefly to high temperature and pressure, then released into the atmosphere, where it expands instantly, or explodes. The result is a lightweight, porous piece of apple that can undergo further drying more quickly than an unexploded one. Researchers found that apples, celery, carrots, and potatoes so processed reconstitute in water quickly, fully, and evenly.

The technique has many applications. Explosion-puffed blueberries are suitable for inclusion in cereals and muffin mixes. Sliced mushrooms also can be explosion-puff-dried in a USDA-patented process (USPN 3,833,747 and USPN 3,408,209), retaining their nutrients and delicate flavor. The mushrooms can be stored for more than a year, then rehydrated in only five minutes. Used in dehydrated soup mixes and similar products, puff-dried mushrooms can also be eaten as is in salads in place of conventional croutons.

Making More Corn Sugar

Corn sugar, or glucose, was once a possible substitute for cane sugar, but known methods for converting cornstarch to glucose either cost too much or produced too little sugar.

Screening fungi in a fungus collection housed Peoria, IL turned up a superior strain of Aspergillus. When combined with an improved growth medium this strain enabled ARS scientists to increase production of gluco-amylase (the enzyme that converts cornstarch to glucose). As a result, the corn processing industry could meet increased demand for corn sugar without costly expansion of facilities.

The enzyme research also resulted in a technique later adopted and modified by industry for production of high-fructose corn syrups. This syrup now sweetens hundreds of products, including many fruit drinks and practically every soft drink.

Extraction Process

Carbon dioxide (C0₂), a gas that forms part of the air we breathe, can be heated and pressurized until it becomes what chemists call "supercritical." In this strange, intermediate state, it remains a gas but takes on some liquid properties. It can flow through such materials as ground coffee, corn germ, soybean flakes, hops and spices, dissolving their oil and sometimes their flavors. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide reverts to a gaseous state, leaving the oil behind with no solvent to dispose of or recycle.

Supercritical extraction can remove caffeine from coffee, extract the essence from hops to flavor beer, oil from soybeans and corn, and refine many spices. An Italian scientist visiting the Peoria lab used the technique to extract oil from the seeds of the evening primrose suggesting that it could be used in the perfume industry.

Peoria and University of Illinois scientists used the process to remove fat and 50 percent of cholesterol from freeze-dried hamburger patties. And University of Missouri researchers report removing up to 75 percent of cholesterol from freeze-dried ground beef and pork. The meat, they say, can then be rehydrated, cooked and eaten. While meat processors may be inhibited by the high initial cost of supercritical fluid extraction equipment, researchers believe the product may fill a market niche for low-cholesterol, low-fat, freeze-dried meats.

Soap for Hard Water

When water is cold or where it is hard--loaded with calcium or magnesium salts--soap washes poorly. In hard water, it forms a curd-like substance called lime soap, the culprit behind the bathtub ring.

ARS scientists in Philadelphia modified soap by blending it with other substances derived from tallow called "lime soap dispensing agents." The resulting detergents clean well in hard, soft, cold, and hot water. They biodegrade completely, contain no phosphates, and are nontoxic to humans and animals. They also make use of a surplus product: tallow. The research has been applied in several U.S. toilet soaps, including Zest and Lever 2000, and is being used for laundry soaps in several foreign countries.

Sourdough Leaves the Bay

ARS scientists found an unidentified bacterium in starter doughs from local San Francisoco bakeries. It worked cooperatively with a yeast to produce the bread's unusual crust, texture and slightly sour taste.

Subsequently, researchers on the other side of the continent, at the ARS lab in Philadelphia, worked with industry to develop a simple new procedure for making the bread. It used sour whey and vinegar instead of bacteria as sources of acetic and lactic acid. When the acids are added to a French bread formula in the quantities and proportions found in the traditional product, the result is a bread with the resilient body, robust flavor, coarse structure, and crisp chewy crust of the native San Francisco product. As a result, supermarkets everywhere today feature, not only sourdough breads, but also rolls and English muffins. And so does at least one fast-food chain--Wendy's.

Instant Mashed Potatoes

At a 1954 press conference, ARS scientists in Philadelphia announced the development of the instant mashed potato flake. The press was shown how the potatoes were precooked, cooled, cooked again under carefully controlled conditions, mashed, and spread onto a heated drum. Starch granules were undamaged in the process, an important key to product quality. The dried potatoes came off the drum in a thin sheet and were broken into flakes.

Subsequent market tests of the flake form of instant mashed potatoes indicated that consumers would buy and use the new product, and the first commercial production began in just three years. And three years after that, in 1960, six processors converted more than four million bushels of fall potatoes into flakes.

Improvements and new potato products followed. The ARS Western lab developed a satisfactory potato granule after first inventing a new kind of dryer. Later came explosion-puffed potatoes and a way to make crisper french fries using infrared lamps. Partly as a result of all these convenience foods, only one potato in three today is peeled at home.

Easy Way to Peel Citrus

ARS researchers in Florida developed and patented (USPN 4,284,651; Docket #0644.87) a process that easily separates the peel from oranges and grapefruit without damaging the fruit or losing any juice or vitamins. The easy-peel process uses a mixture of pectinase, an enzyme, and water to soften the material that binds the peel to the fruit.

Peeled and chilled citrus fruits have alonger shelf life than unpeeled fruit, allowing them to be dispensed in individual sealed plastic containers in vending machines in such places as schools and health clubs.

Defatting Peanuts

ARS chemists in New Orleans, LA developed a defatting process that kees much of the peanut flavor intact in defatted peanuts. They also succeeded in restoring the lower calorie peanut to its original shape by expanding it in steam before roasting.

Using sensitive instruments, they identified and ranked a dozen compounds crucial to the aroma and flavor of peanuts. Peanut processors can use the findings to enrich their products, making them "pea-nuttier."

Lower-Salt Pickles

A new and better way to make pickles has been developed by ARS technologists in cooperation with the pickle industry and North Carolina State University. Improvements include a new strain of lactobacillus plantarum, the bacterium that converts the sugar in cucumbers to lactic acid and gives pickles their characteristic sour taste. The microorganism, which was chemically mutated, allows cucumber pickling with less salt and is not as likely to cause softening of pickles during fermentation. It also permits using closed pickling tanks.

Updated 7/15/03

Milk, Meat, Poultry

Milk for More People

Millions of people worldwide suffer from lactose intolerance caused by a deficiency of the enzyme lactase in their digestive tracts. As a result, they are unable to digest large amounts of lactose (milk sugar) present in cows' milk without suffering from abdominal discomfort.

In the 1980's, ARS researchers used lactase from nonhuman sources to break down about 70 percent of milk sugar into simple sugars--glucose and galactose. Trials showed most lactose-intolerant people could drink this modified milk and digest it without problems. Scientists also used the treated milk to make other milk products, including ice cream and yogurt.

A private firm, Lactaid, Inc., became the first company to commercialize the research.

Canned Milk that Pours

Some 30 years ago, industry preferred to sterilize evaporated milk in 3 to 15 seconds with an efficient high-temperature, short-time (HTST) process. The trouble was that evaporated milk made the HTST way tended to gel in the can if stored too long at room temperature. The thickening was harmless, but consumers understandably wanted milk that poured.

An ARS dairy team in Philadelphia found that the shelf life of the HTST sterilized milk could be extended from two to six times by adding stabilizers already used in processed cheese. The practice was adopted by industry and is still in use today.

Saving Our Bacon

It's no exaggeration that ARS researchers in Philadelphia helped save the bacon industry. In the mid-1960's, it had been reported that sodium nitrite, an inorganic compound used to cure bacon and frankfurters, could, under certain conditions, form cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines. After analysis with sensitive instruments, extremely small amounts of one nitrosamine were discovered in hot dogs. Another was found in minute amounts in bacon after frying it at high temperatures. It was the heat that did it; the chemical wasn't present in raw bacon at all. Consumer organizations promptly called for a ban on nitrites in foods and a similar ban on sales of bacon.

In an effort to save the nation's bacon, Eastern lab researchers first searched for substitutes for nitrites, testing some 500 compounds as curing agents. Unfortunately, none retarded the growth of microbes as well as sodium nitrite. But researchers also found that the addition of vitamins C and E reduced the levels of nitrosamines in fried bacon and in nitrite-cured products. The findings led to changes in Federal regulations and in industry processing to minimize consumer exposure to nitrosamines. The proposed ban on bacon, a favorite breakfast meat, was averted.

Low-fat Pizza Cheese

ARS researchers developed reduced-fat mozzarella cheese--now used in the USDA National School Lunch Program. To date, more than $44 million worth has been purchased for the program. This all-natural cheese contains only 10 percent fat--full-fat mozzarella contains 23 percent fat. ARS's low-fat mozzarella has melting and texture properties similar to commercial full-fat Mozzarella. The cheese is manufactured using ordinary cheesemaking procedures, but at reduced temperatures. This novel treatment produces mozzarella that melts and strings freely when heated in a pizza oven. Reduced-fat mozzarella cheese allows school children to enjoy pizza--their favorite lunch--while reducing their dietary fat intake and lowering their risk of diet-related diseases as adults.

Finding Uses for Whey

Agricultural scientists continue to search for new ways to use whey, and they have found a good many. Besides animal feed, whey is used today in a few dairy products--including a popular chocolate drink--in prepared dry mixes, in candy, in baked goods, in pasta fortified with extra protein, and in baby foods. ARS chemists also cut the cost of an expensive noncaloric sugar--lactulose--used to treat a serious liver disease, by making it from whey.

Beef Today

Many people refer to select-grade beef as "grass-fed," but that's a misnomer. Steers graded either choice or select typically had the same feedlot diet of grain; corn is currently cheap and plentiful. The breed frequently accounts for the difference in grade. Some breeds that do well in hot climates, like Brahmans, are apt to be on the tough side. Angus-Hereford crosses fed in Montana are usually tenderer.

Much of current ARS beef research is directed toward cross-breeding cattle. The most ambitious program, begun in 1970, is carried out at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, near Hastings, Nebraska. So far, some 30 breeds of cattle sires from Europe, Africa, India, and South America have been crossbred with Hereford or Angus mothers. The offspring are evaluated on growth rate and size at maturity, lean-to-fat ratio, age at puberty, and milk production. Their meat is also evaluated for marbling, the interwoven fat associated with tenderness.

Center researchers have found, however, that marbling accounts for only 10 percent of the variation in beef tenderness. The biggest factor, controlling 44 percent of the variation in meat tenderness, is a protein called calpastatin. Various forms of a gene for calpastatin have been located on a beef chromosome, and Center scientists hope that further genetic research will help them develop new strategies for producing more tender beef. Meanwhile, they are working on breeding tenderizing traits into cattle.

Reducing Salt in Meat

Responding to increasing health concerns over salt in the 1980's, researchers at the ARS Philadelphia lab wondered how much salt is really necessary to preserve meat. How much, they asked, is simply added by processors "for good measure." Painstakingly, they replaced traditional formulas with precise information on salt content for product after product. In the mid-1980's, they reported that just about all processed meats could be made with 20 to 25 percent less salt without risking spoilage. Lower-salt franks, they found, compared well with conventional hotdogs in flavor, texture, and shelf life. They also found that refrigeration is more important than salt level in retarding the growth of microorganisms that cause spoilage.

Cracking an Egg Mystery

It's rare today to break an egg that isn't fresh, but that wasn't always the case. In the 1960's certain kinds of bacterial spoilage in fresh eggs were costing the industry $20 million a year. It was common practice on egg farms to machine-wash all eggs before marketing them. ARS researchers in the Western lab traced the cause of the spoilage to washing eggs in water high in iron. As a result, egg producers had their wash water tested and stopped using water with high iron content. That particular problem of spoilage disappeared.

In other egg research over the years, the San Francisco scientists improved the flavor of powdered eggs, which had been despised by millions of servicemen in World War II; found a way to pasteurize the whites of eggs for use in meringue and angel food cake; and adapted frozen convenience breakfasts originally developed for the Air Force for civilian use in microwaves.

Pork Has Fewer Calories

Pork is a lower-calorie meat than it was 10 years ago, thanks to a combination of breeding, diet, and better farm management. Pork is 31% leaner, 14% lower in calories, and 29% lower in saturated fat than it was in the mid-1980's.

The most important single reason for production of a leaner pork is selective breeding--the careful selection of leaner hogs generation after generation. The process was begun by ARS in the 1960's, and it has been continued by a number of state agricultural experiment stations. Next in importance in the development of leaner pork is scientific diet. The feed for pigs today reflects a proper balance of amino acids, from which protein is built. Several institutions have contributed to this research, including the University of Illinois. Finally, improved management and better vaccines also have played a major role. The net result has been a steady improvement in pork quality.

The First Small Turkey

A milestone in turkey breeding was achieved in 1941 with the release of a new breed, the Beltsville Small White. It was the culmination of seven years of research at the USDA farm at Beltsville, Maryland--a project that made use of six breeds of turkey, including the native American wild turkey. Express aim of the project was to breed a small, meaty, full-breasted bird to meet the needs of the modern American family, which also was getting smaller.

Before the Beltsville White, the average weight of an adult tom turkey was 33 pounds, with toms in some breeds reaching 40 pounds. Average weight of young hens was 14 pounds, with hens of one breed topping 25 pounds at nine months. A roast turkey of such formidable size meant endless rounds of leftovers, and some breeds were too big to fit in an apartment-size oven.

A Beltsville White tom averaged only 15 pounds and young hens, 9 pounds. Despite some resistance to raising the new breed by turkey farmers, who preferred the profit from bigger birds, the Beltsville turkey by the early 1960's accounted for more than 20 percent of domestic turkey production in the U.S., and the breed had spread worldwide. It helped make the turkey a year-round staple.

By 1970, the Beltsville White as a breed had disappeared, replaced by other small turkeys. But the strains and knowledge developed in the Beltsville project made a tremendous contribution to breeding the small turkey of the 1990's.

Updated 7/17/03

Products & Inventions

Home-Grown Paper & Ink

A potential source of pulp for paper is kenaf, a fibrous import from Southeast Asia. Resembling bamboo, kenaf grows tall enough to harvest for paper pulp in just 160-180 days. ARS has already developed varieties with increased fiber.

A potential source of home-grown ink is made from soybean oil instead of petroleum. A hybrid ink of 70 percent petroleum and 30 percent soy oil is now being used by many newspapers. Illinois state publications already are being printed with 100-percent soy ink developed by ARS chemists in Peoria.

Keeping Lyme Disease Away

ARS chemists and entomologists teamed up to find a substitute for citronella, which was typcially used to repel mosquitoes, chiggers, and fleas.

Research entomologists tried keeping pests away with literally thousands of substances, reporting their findings to chemists. Chemists observed that one particular group of chemicals had repellent action. In time, they came up with 33 new chemicals and sent them to the entomologists for testing.

One of the chemicals, deet, proved superior to all others. At half strength, it kept mosquitoes and other pests away for four hours; at full strength, for at least 20. Diluted with alcohol, it didn't feel greasy. And it was safe to use directly on the skin.

Deet soon turned up as the active ingredient in a whole array of commercial repellents. In a recent survey, deet was the active ingredient in 35 commercial repellents, including sprays, lotions, gels, creams, towelettes, and sticks. The amount of deet in these various formulations ranged from 7-percent to 100-percent. One popular line of repellents, OFF! (Registered Trademark) manufactured by S.C. Johnson & Son, includes a 15-percent spray and 100-percent deet lotion.

Tests of deet's efficacy resumed a few years ago with identification of Lyme disease, a debilitating illness carried by the tiny deer tick. Agricultural scientists, working in deer country on Cape Cod, demonstrated that when clothing and skin were sprayed with deet, deer ticks (and Lyme disease) were kept at bay.

When U.S. soldiers were assigned to Operation Desert Storm and Somalia, they protected themselves from mosquitoes and other disease-carrying pests with a cream containing deet.

Omnipresent Xanthan Gum

Xanthan gum, a thickener discovered at the ARS lab in Peoria, is not a chemical dditive but a natural food. It is fermented from glucose, a simple sugar made from starch, by the action of a microorganism, Xanthomonas campestris. Xanthan gum turns up in Kraft French dressing and nearly every other bottled salad dressing; in Cool Whip and other whipped toppings; in Weight Watchers foods; Wonder Bread products; and Plax mouthwash. It's also in barbecue sauce, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, salsa, and Alfredo sauce.

Xanthan gum is also used to extend the life of gas and oil wells that have stopped producing. A solution of water and xanthan gum is pumped into the earth to push out any remaining crude oil. This versatile product is also driven into the ground with sand under high pressure to fracture rock in oil and gas wells.

Several companies produce xanthan gum today. Kelco Company, a major pharmaceutical company, which is now a division of Merck and Company, was the first company to produce it.

Cornstarch costs about 89 cents a pound; xanthan gum sells for about $7 a pound.

Fiber from Oat Hulls

A no-calorie, high-fiber additive for baked goods was developed by ARS biochemists in Peoria. It is made from oat hulls and similar crop residues, like straw and corn cobs. These residues contain a substance, lignocellulose.

The scientists discovered that a slightly alkaline solution of hydrogen peroxide will dissolve the lignin in many crop residues after a few hours of soaking. Lignin is the cement that binds plant cell walls. Released from lignin, oat hulls and other residues disintegrate into absorbent cellulose fibers with a pulp-like consistency. The fibers can then be ground into a flour-like additive.

One scientist found that "fluffy cellulose" could be added to cakes and other items for human consumption. It does not alter a cake's flavor, but it does increase fiber content while lowering a cake's caloric value--two important dietary objectives. It actually improves a cake's texture.

Since its discovery, fluffy cellulose flour has been used in a variety of commercial products including "lite" breads, tortillas, buns, muffins, and beef and sausage patties.

New Cholesterol-Fighter

ARS scientists developed and patented;a fat substitute from soluble oat fiber called Oatrim (USPN 4,996,063; Docket #1074.87). The product, which reduces fat and calories and fights blood cholesterol, is commercialized and is an ingredient in many meats, dairy, bakery and other food items. Oatrim comes from enzyme-treated oats and barley that have unique fat-like properties. It is formulated into many low-fat foods because it has only about 10 percent of the calories as fat. The fat substitute is used in some baked goods and cheeses and is identified on the label as Oatrim or hydrolyzed oat flour. Oatrim hit the marketplace less than two years after its development. The technology led to the creation of a new company started by two women in San Diego, CA. The two entrepreneurs opened Jean's Posh Pastry, a manufacturer of mail-order cookies and baked goods. This development has been licensed by Rhodia, Inc.,Cranbury, NJ, and Quaker Oats Company, Chicago, IL.

Amazing Super Slurper

Super Slurper, one of the most commercially successful cornstarch products to emerge from the ARS lab in Peoria, can absorb 2,000 times its own weight in water.

Since it was patented (see end of this section for list of patent numbers relating to this invention) by USDA in 1976, Super Slurper has been improved several times, and new and practical uses for the thirsty gel are found every year. Among other things, it has turned up in disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, in bandages and baby powders, and as a seed jacket to accelerate germination. It is also used to remove water from fuels and to clean up pesticide spills.

A form of super slurper is also used in products to help plants hold moisture and fertilizer in the soil until needed. Another product is used to remove water from fuels and fuel storage tanks.

(US Patent Numbers 3,935,099; 3,981,100; 3,985,616; 3,997,484; 4,116,899)

Soap for Hard Water

ARS scientists in Philadelphia modified soap by blending it with other substances derived from tallow called "lime soap dispensing agents." The resulting detergents clean well in hard, soft, cold, and hot water. They biodegrade completely, contain no phosphates, and are nontoxic to humans and animals. The research has been applied in several U.S. soaps, including Zest and Lever 2000, and is being used for laundry soaps in several foreign countries.

Flexible Vinyl

A USDA chemist at the Philadelphia lab found that inserting an atom of oxygen into unsaturated fatty acids could convert them into valuable plasticizers and stabilizers. The process was called epoxidation and it led to a billion-dollar plastics industry. The chemist transformed vinyl plastics, which were then hard and rigid and decomposed in sunlight, into the soft, flexible, and long-lasting vinyl that is used today for floor coverings, upholstery, and many other products. At least 75-percent of the plasticizers used in flexible vinyl today are made from soybean oil.

USDA Invents the Aerosol

The first aerosol can was invented by a USDA chemist and a USDA entomologist shortly before the United States entered World War II. The scientists were looking for a way to apply oil-free insecticides in mushroom houses. After several false starts, which included vaporizing insecticides by spraying them on a hot plate, they came up with a brand new approach. They dissolved an insecticide, pyrethrum extract, in a nonflammable, nontoxic, liquefied gas under pressure in a steel container. The insecticide was allowed to escape in a fine spray through an oil burner nozzle.

The researchers, Goodhue and Sullivan, obtained a public service patent for their invention in 1941 (USPN 2,321,023), under which royalty-free licenses were issued for the manufacture of insecticidal aerosols until the patent expired in 1960.

Updated 7/18/03

Biotechnology

Scrapie Test for Sheep

ARS researchers have developed and patented two antibodies that can be used to test live sheep for scrapie (U.S. Patent Numbers 6,261,790 and 6,165,784). These new antibodies allow scientists to diagnose scrapie--a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or TSE--one of several related disorders that lead to brain disease in sheep and causes erratic behavior, weight loss, and eventually death. The inexpensive, non-invasive test consists of antibodies that bind the prion proteins, which are markers for the disease. The test can be done by taking a tissue sample from the sheep’s eyelid. The anti-prion antibodies will be extremely useful to researchers worldwide working on scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow disease”), chronic wasting prion disease of deer and elk, and human prion diseases. Affinity Bioreagents, Inc., of Golden, Colorado; VMRD, Inc., of Pullman, Washington; and Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., of Tucson, AZ have non-exclusively licensed USPN 6,165,784. VMRD, Inc.; Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.; and Wyeth of Overland Park, Kansas have non-exclusively licensed USPN 6,261,790.

Updated 7/22/03

Textiles

Fabric with a Thermostat

A decade ago two ARS scientists in New Orleans invented Polytherm, a remarkable fabric that warms you when you are cold and cools you when you're hot. Since then, it has been patented (USPN 4,871,615; Docket #0895.87) by USDA and has undergone several improvements. Two private companies in the United States have been granted non-exclusive licenses to develop products using the Polytherm-process. They are Wisconsin Global Technologies in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and Bayshore Absorbent Products in New York City.

A chemical treatment enables the fabric to absorb and store heat when surrounding temperatures rise and then release heat when temperatures fall. The inventors believe that their process could prove useful for building insulation, draperies, gloves, clothing, and slippers.

Updated 7/23/03

Crops

Tofu in America

In the produce department of a Washington, D.C. supermarket are two brands of tofu, a soft soybean curd. One was imported from Japan; the other was produced in Massachusetts. Both brands owe a considerable debt to ARS researchers in Peoria, who became involved after Japan complained of technical difficulties in making traditional Asian foods, like tofu and miso paste, from U.S. soybeans.

U.S. and Japanese technologists, working together in Peoria, improved soybeans for export in several ways. One action was as simple as removing the beans' seedcoat, which greatly improved their appearance in miso. They also increased the protein content and uniformity of soybeans. In time, varieties more acceptable to the Japanese were selected, and exports began to climb.

Meanwhile, American consumers' introduction to such delicacies as hot and sour soup and a growing number of Asians in the U.S. expanded the domestic market for tofu. As a result of its work on exports, scientists at the ARS lab in Peoria became the major source of technical information for this new American business.

Leavened Bread from Rice

Bread made with a high-protein rice flour has been developed by ARS researchers in San Francisco for people allergic to wheat protein. A natural gum added to the rice flour dough forms a film that makes the dough almost as elastic as wheat gluten, a characteristic that allows the bread to rise. Taste panels report that the rice-flour bread is almost indistinguishable from bread made with wheat flour.

Rice researchers also came up with a better process for making quick-cooking rice and, a few years later, developed a brown rice that could be prepared in one-fourth the time as raw brown rice.

Soybean Oil is No.1

Fifty years ago soybean oil tasted like paint. Today it is tasteless and odor-free and accounts for 75 percent of the vegetable oil sold in the United States. It is used in salad dressings and granola bars, to fry potato chips and french fries, and in 101 other products. It is in many non-food products, from printer's ink to caulking compound to lipstick. Further, after soybean oil is pressed from the bean, the remaining soybean meal is a valuable animal feed.

Most of the research that made soy oil palatable was carried out at the ARS lab in Peoria. A number of reasons were found for its unpleasant taste and smell, including trace metals from iron processing equipment and linolenic acid, a fatty acid naturally present in soybean oil. Equipment was replaced with stainless steel and processes were discovered to remove or inhibit oxidation of the linolenic acid, which occurred when the oil was exposed to air. Better storage improved shelf life. Each discovery made soybean oil better.

The noses and tongues of many ARS employees have been enlisted over the years to evaluate soy oil, both heated and unheated. Some testers chalked up more than 20-years of experience in oil-sniffing.

Remaking Poinsettias

Since ARS plant breeders took a hand in developing the poinsettia its popularity has rocketed, with its wholesale value rising 400 percent during the last 20 years and 2000 percent in the last 40. The annual value of the holiday crop has topped $170 million.

The first goal of ARS geneticists in Beltsville, Maryland, was to increase 'keeping quality' of poinsettias. In the 1950's, leaves fell off the plant after only a few days. One USDA geneticist found ways to breed several different varieties--including Rudolph and Stoplight--that combined vivid color and enough staying power to last through the holidays. Researchers then found ways to delay flowering of plants until growers were ready to ship them to market.

The flower of a poinsettia is small and yellow. Each flower is surrounded, not by petals, but by modified leaves, or bracts. Bracts may be red, pink, or white. It has been no small achievement by ARS scientists to synchronize the appearance of bracts with holiday demand. But it is done today as a matter of course.

Updated 7/25/03

Insects

Better Traps, Fewer Bugs

A natural sex attractant identified by an ARS researcher a 'friendly' insect--the spined soldier bug--to the garden or orchard. Once the bug is there, it reproduces and kills many pests of vegetables and trees. The research has been patented and licensed to Sterling International, Inc., of Veradale, Washington (USPN 6,083,498; Docket #0268.97). Sterling manufactures the attractors and distributes them through nurseries and hardware stores.

The sex attractant, called a pheromone, is housed in a yellow, weather-resistant cone, and placed in the soil every 10 feet. One cone is sufficient for a 10-by-20 foot garden. The manufacturer recommends setting it out in early spring and replacing the attractor every 60 days during the growing season.

The bug is a natural predator of 100 insect pests, including the nasty yellow larvae of the Mexican bean beetle and the destructive Colorado potato beetle. It also attacks such orchard pests as codling moths and tent caterpillars.

The spined soldier bug is but one of a number of beneficial insects that farmers can employ to destroy insect pests. An important advantage to controlling one insect with another is that the process doesn't harm other useful insects or birds and animals.

Updated 7/25/03

Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts

Goodbye Grape Seeds

After years in which the only seed-free grape available was the pale green Thompson Seedless, modern plant breeders have come up with half a dozen new varieties--and more are on the way. This is in part the result of a new lab method that accelerates the development of hybrid grape seedlings with the seedless trait.

First of the new grapes was the red Flame Seedless, introduced in the 1970's by the ARS lab in Fresno, California, and now grown worldwide. Flame's sweet, distinctive flavor made this crisp grape an instant hit, second in popularity only to the Thompson.

ARS Fresno researchers are understandably enthusiastic about a luscious new seedless named Black Emerald. These grapes, each about the size of a dime, are sweet, firm, and juicy, with an attractive dark black skin and are perfect for early summer snacking or salads.

Meanwhile, there are other seedless grapes that should be available now--or within a year or so. They include Autumn Seedless,Crimson Seedless, and Fantasy Seedless.

Carrots: More Vitamin A

Carrots are an important source of fiber, bulk, and carotenes. Carrots are also loaded with a specific carotene--beta carotene--an antioxidant considered by many researchers as valuable to human health.

When ARS research began some 30 years ago, carrots contained only about 70 parts per million of carotene. Today most commercially grown carrots contain 120 to 160 parts per million, thanks in large part to the development of new carrot breeding lines by ARS researchers. Eating a single carrot today can satisfy 100-percent of the adult daily requirement for Vitamin A.

One new variety, A-Plus, a fine-flavored vegetable recommended for the home gardener, has nearly twice the carotene levels of earlier garden varieties. Even more carotenes are packed into another ARS-developed variety, Beta III, developed for commercial plantings. And the newest carrot, named simply HCM, has five times the carotene levels of most carrots grown today.

ARS carrot research has been carried out in cooperation with Wisconsin, Idaho, and Florida universities and with several seed companies.

Softball-sized Lettuce

One of America's foremost lettuce breeders, 65-year-old Ed Ryder of Salinas, California, says he has eaten a lettuce salad every day 'since I was able to chew.' Ryder, an ARS geneticist, in 1975 introduced his now legendary Salinas variety of iceberg lettuce to growers. Among its virtues, it was able to make it to distant markets with far less crushing and bruising than other icebergs of its time. Since then, seed company breeders have produced new improved lettuces, all of them derived from Salinas. Ryder himself improved on his initial product in 1988 with Salinas 88, a variety with all the attributes of the famous parent plus resistance to mosaic virus disease. Today Salinas and its progeny are the most widely planted iceberg lettuces in the Salinas valley, the world's foremost lettuce-growing region. Salinas and its spinoffs bring about $300 million a year.

One of the newest offsprings of Salinas is a miniature iceberg lettuce the size of a softball. ARS researchers wanted to breed a full-flavored lettuce for single people who have trouble using up a whole head of lettuce while it is still fresh. The "Mini-green" lettuce, is as crisp and flavorful as its parent. It can be eaten by one or two people at a sitting.

Hottest USDA Release

The hottest release (in more ways than one) of the U.S. Vegetable Lab in Charleston, South Carolina, is a cayenne pepper, which is ideal for the home gardener. Named Charleston Hot by the ARS and Clemson University researchers who developed it, the pepper is 20 times hotter than the typical cayenne. Charleston Hot is also more attractive; the pepper changes through a rainbow of colors as it ripens, an unusual trait for a cayenne. It starts out leaf green, changing to golden yellow, bright orange, and deep red when mature. One plant will produce up to 150 pepper pods, or about half a pound of dried peppers.

Sweeter Onions Are Here

Hearty eaters who like a thick slice of mild raw onion on their hamburgers welcomed the appearance of Georgia's Vidalia onion--at least for a few months in spring and early summer. Now ARS and university breeders have come up with several new varieties that are sweet and mild. One is the Sweet Sandwich onion, suitable for home gardens in the northern states. It has been released by ARS and the agricultural experiment stations of Michigan and New York.

When one looks at the history of onion breeding, however, it's a good bet that Sweet Sandwich will someday be replaced by other improved varieties. ARS plant breeders have released more than 40 varieties and 63 inbred lines. An ARS breeder discovered the male-sterile system for producing hybrid onions that has been used by industry since the 1940's.

Picking Good Cantaloupes

Growers assumed until now that a cantaloupe's sweetness was diluted by the excess water taken up by the roots. Not so, report scientists at ARS and North Carolina State and Arizona universities. They found that a cantaloupe will stay sweet if it is harvested within a day or two after a heavy rain. The objectionable bland flavor develops about four days after the rain, when roots shut down--stressed because they can't take up oxygen from water-saturated soil. Then they signal the leaves to stop manufacturing sugar. Meanwhile, the sugar in the cantaloupe starts breaking down. So after a deluge, say researchers, don't pick a melon on Day 4, 5, or 6.

An alternative for the grower who can't harvest his cantaloupes right away is to pick them at least a week after the rain, when the melon's sugar rebounds.

No 'Pillows' in Cukes

The produce trade calls them 'pillowy'--those spongy white areas that sometimes occur inside cucumbers. Invisible from the outside, they ruin a cuke's crispness and flavor. In pickles, pillowing shows up as unsightly discoloration--an unacceptable condition for processors and consumers.

In 1987, the Claussen Pickle Company asked an ARS plant breeder in Madison, Wisconsin how it could reduce losses from pillowing. The breeder found that the condition occurred when the cukes were stressed from high temperatures and inadequate water, either from rain or irrigation. Cucumbers need calcium from the soil, and without enough water, they can't get it. The researcher also found that pillowing can occur or worsen when cucumbers are heat-stressed after harvest, even on the way from the field to the plant. The breeder recommended hydrocooling cucumbers to 45^o F immediately after picking.

ARS and the University of Wisconsin also have developed cucumber lines with bright orange flesh. The color comes from the carotene, which can run as high as 25 parts per million. Flavor is unaffected. Unlike carrots, cucumbers grow well in the hot, humid climates of many Third World countries, and high-carotene varieties could help correct Vitamin A deficiencies in children.

Orange with Mixed Parents

An exciting new hybrid from Orlando, Florida, is Ambersweet, with a parentage of one-half orange, three-eighths tangerine, and one-eighth grapefruit. Developed over 28 years by an ARS plant geneticist, the new orange is sweet and much easier to peel than other Florida oranges, which should make it popular as fresh fruit. But it also has a brightly colored juice that tastes like orange juice, and the Food and Drug Administration has okayed labeling its squeezings as such, despite the fruit's mixed parentage. Ambersweet trees, which are moderately cold hardy, have been widely planted in Florida and fruit is available commercially.

Strawberries Year-Round

Ninety percent of strawberries marketed today are grown in California, Oregon and Florida, but the number of local pick-your-own farms, particularly close to cities, has grown steadily. One important reason for their success is research. While many highly skilled plant breeders work closely with the big commercial producers, ARS geneticists, including those at the Fruit Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, have also focused on helping small growers and home gardeners in the East and Midwest. They help them battle insect pests and the fungal diseases that are the scourge of berry growers. And they are breeding varieties that produce fruit longer.

Two of their most notable achievements are so-called everbearing strawberries, Tribute and Tristar, that bear fruit four months longer than conventional spring-fruiting varieties.

Three of the Fruit Lab's latest releases are Mohawk, Northeaster, and Delmarvel. In June, the plants produce firm, flavorful fruit suited both for shipping and local markets. Mohawk has been released jointly with Canadian scientists; the other two were released cooperatively with researchers at Ohio State University and Rutgers.

Painless Blackberries

Picking blackberries without pain became possible in the eastern United States in 1966. That's the year that USDA plant breeders introduced the first truly genetic thornless blackberries. From these, geneticists developed several bigger and sweeter varieties, encouraging growers located from the mid-Atlantic to Midwestern states to add this new crop to pick-your-own farms and roadside berry markets.

Nearly all the blackberries that are frozen or made into jams and jellies are grown in Oregon. One variety, Marion, was released by USDA in 1956. Its flavor, juiciness, and yield have made it the most important blackberry variety in the world.

Tons of Blueberries

Growing blueberries as a commercial crop had its origin 87 years ago, when a USDA botanist at Beltsville, Maryland, successfully crossbred several wild native plants to produce the first cultivated blueberry crop. Since then, ARS researchers, in cooperation with state and other federal researchers, have released more than 45 blueberry varieties.

U.S. growers supply the U.S. fresh market and processing demand and European and Asian markets. Blueberries are also exported to Europe and Asia.

One ARS variety--Bluecrop--common today on pick-your-own farms, has large berries that ripen through June. A new variety released in 1997, Chandler, will allow harvest through July and August.

A Crop Full of Flavor

Chewing gum, mouthwash, juleps, toothpaste, and candy canes have an agricultural ingredient in common: mint. As a crop, it isn't in the same league as corn and soybeans, but in the Pacific Northwest and several other locations, it's a specialized cash crop for a number of farmers.

An ARS repository in Oregon's Willamette Valley (one of 30 ARS managed gene banks) contains some 500 different species and varieties of mint. Spearmints and peppermints are the most familiar, but there are many others, including white-edged pineapple mint, that can be used as an ornamental, and aromatic orange mint, chocolate mint, and a fragrant eau de cologne mint.

Mint harvesting in the Northwest begins in midsummer. Farmers cut the mint close to the ground and dry it in the field for several days. The mint is then steam-distilled to extract the oil, which is sold by the barrel to mint users like Colgate-Palmolive and Wrigley's. A pound of mint oil, says the Oregon Mint Commission, can flavor 45,000 sticks of gum.

Pecans Getting Fatter

ARS geneticists are working to breed healthier, more productive pecan trees. Since the breeding program began in the 1930's, the USDA researchers have released more than 15 new varieties.

Kernels of the improved breeds are longer, fatter, and more uniform than those of native pecans. Each nut is 60 percent edible kernel, compared to 45 percent for natives. New pecan varieties are also bred for disease resistance and high overall yields. Several of the newer USDA varieties bear twice as much as the natives.

Better Hops, Better Beer

Most Americans have never seen or sniffed hops, which are cone-shaped clusters of dried flowers of the hop vine, grown mainly in the Pacific Northwest. But millions of beer drinkers know and appreciate their characteristic aroma and bitter flavor. Extract of hops is an essential ingredient of beer and ale.

In years past, the finest hops were a German-grown variety called Hallertauer mitteifrut. In recent years, however, fungal disease has all but wiped it out. Now ARS scientists in Corvallis, Oregon, have bred new varieties of U.S. hops with Old-World beer aroma and flavor. They were bred from the best German variety crossed with other European hops. Unlike their famous parents, the U.S. varieties are disease-resistant.

Two of the best new releases are Liberty and Mount Hood, which already are reducing the reliance of American brewers on imported hops. They are also popular with the growing number of local micro breweries, which typically use more hops to flavor their product than do the big brewers.

The mellow flavor of beer stems from its other chief ingredient, malted barley. An ARS research team in Madison, Wisconsin, is testing new barley breeding lines for qualities that will make good beer even better. The most important test is how much of a malt dissolves in hot water; brewers can't use malt that won't dissolve. A search is on for locations on barley chromosomes of genes that give rise to desired malting qualities.

Rotten-Apple Fighters

An ARS-developed product (USPN 6,017,752; Docket #1155.87), Bio-Save, uses a naturally occurring microorganism to fight apple and pear fruit rot. It is one of the first EPA registered biofungicides. Psuedomonas syringae, a harmless bacteria found on apple surfaces, is the active ingredient in Bio-Save™. The biofungicide prevents fruit infection by out-competing harmful pathogens on fruit surfaces, and protecting the wound so invading pathogens don’t have an opportunity to infect the fruit. More than 60 percent of winter pears in the Northwest are treated with Bio-Save™.

The natural active ingredient is an environmental alternative to methyl bromide and other chemical fungicides. It is effective against multiple postharves diseases, which can cost growers, processors, and consumers millions of dollars annually in losses and retail costs. Bio-Save™ is a licensed product of Village Farms of Longwood, Florida.

Human Nutrition

Burning Calories

ARS nutritionists find out how many calories we burn when performing various tasks by placing an individual inside a specialized laboratory called a room calorimeter. In Beltsville, a volunteer inside the 'box' performs various tasks and functions, from aerobic exercise to sleeping, and energy expended is carefully monitored. In the direct calorimeter, heat expenditures are measured; in the indirect calorimeter, energy expenditures are calculated from measurements of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. The two methods can be checked against each other to make sure results are accurate.

Updated 7/15/03