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http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jan262004/n8.asp Sweet news’ for the diabetics Scientists working on bio-resources have perfected the art of cultivating a Brazilian plant in Indian condition hoping that the plant will lead to a commercially viable natural sweetener for diabetes patients. By KALYAN RAY DH News Service, PALAMPUR (HIMACHAL PRADESH) More cheering news for scores of diabetics. Scientists working at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) at Palampur claim to have perfected ways to grow an alien plant that generates a naturally occurring sweetener which despite being 300 times more sweet than ordinary sugar, will be perfectly all right for diabetes patients. After three years of diligent research, often in the fields at an altitude of 4,000 feet and subsequent painstaking analysis in its advanced biological laboratory, a group of four scientists at IHBT have successfully cultivated a plant called Stevia rebaudiana which is native to Brazil and some other parts of South America, in Indian conditions. This plant which yields a sweet chemical called stevioside, can now be cultivated even in the mid-hills and some regions in the plains because of the IHBT innovations, which the institute is not revealing for patent reasons. Field trials are going on in various regions of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. At the flowering stage the plant has the maximum stevioside content of about 11 per cent. This innovation by the IHBT scientists now opens up a new vista for the artificial sweeteners industry in which almost all sweeteners currently available in the market are of chemical origin, according to Dr V K Kaul who heads the research team at IHBT. The plant is already being exploited commercially in USA, Japan and China, he said. In fact, though the IHBT prefers not to have much publicity on its achievement till it receives a patent - for which they will be applying soon, the news about the institutes ability to grow this plant has already spread by word of mouth. As a result of which, Dr Anil Sood who heads the business development and marketing division of IHBT, finds himself busy in responding to industry queries on a regular basis. “This is a highly promising sugar substitute, but we will first secure our rights,” Dr P K Nagar, one of the senior most scientists and head of the biotechnology unit told Deccan Herald. “Three years back, we even did not know whether the plant will survive or not in India. But now we have grown more than one lakh saplings,” Dr Kaul said, adding that besides the agronomic practices, IHBT had also come out with the processing technology. |
| << January24, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Socialism Today -- Challenges (Sitaram Yechury ) |
January27, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Autopsy of the World Social Forum >> |
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