Hi Janet Paterson,
     I two of the lemon geranium plants in my planter outside and when I
water them the lemon sent is real strong and nice. Janice
----- Original Message -----
From: janet paterson <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 8:26 AM
Subject: NEWS: NPD: Lowly geranium feasts on toxins: Scientists try to
patent lemon-scented marvel


> Lowly geranium feasts on toxins:
> Scientists try to patent lemon-scented marvel
>
> Friday, July 16, 1999 - Researchers at the University of Guelph have
> applied for an international patent on lemon-scented geraniums, believing
> they are pollution-eating plants that could clean the environment and
> restore a toxic land patch to a Garden of Eden.
>
> Their research has found that the familiar flowering plant has an uncanny
> ability to absorb metal and organic pollutants which could help to
detoxify
> everything from abandoned gas station sites to old mining lands.
>
> They may also be of particular benefit to developing countries whose crop
> yields suffer because of naturally occurring high metal content in their
> soils.
>
> Plant biologist Praveen Saxena and his team are now hurrying to find the
> genes that endow the lemon-scented geranium with its rare ability to
> tolerate and absorb pollutants so they might, through genetic engineering,
> enhance those traits. And although they have not yet discovered those
> genes, they have requested in the patent application filed last year that
> their claim include any genetically modified form of the lemon-scented
> geranium that would be used to detoxify the environment.
>
> Patents have been issued on other plants, Dr. Saxena said. But the issue
of
> laying an ownership claim over a natural life form remains a controversial
> area of biotechnology. This is partly because critics argue that patents
> often make new agricultural technology unaffordable to farmers who could
> benefit most from it.
>
> Stephanie De Grandis, associate director of Guelph's business development
> office, explained that the patent would not be on the plant, but on the
> process of using the plant for cleaning up contaminated soil, called
> phytoremediation.
>
> "Anyone who went out to use these geraniums for phytoremediation would
have
> to come and talk to us [if the patent is granted]," Dr. De Grandis said,
> adding that anyone who didn't could face legal action.
>
> After planting the scented geraniums in contaminated soil samples from an
> undisclosed site in Canada and conducting a similar trial at a
contaminated
> Hamilton location, the researchers found that the plants cleaned up toxic
> soil and flourished in it.
>
> "With other methods to get rid of toxic metals in the soil, the soil is
> left clean, but it's useless," Dr. Saxena said. But by planting
> lemon-scented geraniums to clean the soil, the same land could later be
> used for farming, he added.
>
> Around the world, several different research groups are searching for
> metal-resistant genes in the few plant varieties that can thrive in
> metal-rich soils. Some, according to an article published today in
Science,
> are trying to insert metal-resistant genes from other organisms, such as
> bacteria, into the DNA of crop plants to make transgenic plants that would
> be metal-resistant. Such a project is under way at the University of
> Sasketchewan.
>
> Metals are a key enemy of plant growth and result in stunted plants and
> poor harvests in the Southeastern United States, Central and South
America,
> North Africa and parts of India and China.
>
> While some sites have natural metal contaminants, others have been
polluted
> by industry.
>
> Wilf Keller, research director of the federal government's Plant
> Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon, said a biological solution to clean
> up the "thousands" of contaminated sites in North America would be the
most
> environmentally friendly option.
>
> He noted that members of the cabbage family can grow in lead-contaminated
> soil, and that rubber trees in the South Pacific can absorb so much nickel
> from the ground that their sap turns blue. But, he said, the scented
> geraniums -- formally known as Pelargonium sp. Frensham -- are unusual
> because of their absorption capabilities and their ability to turn
> contaminated soil into arable land.
>
> "I think this research has to be treated as a significant invention . . .
> or a discovery. It will offer significant improvements for the
> environment," Dr. Keller said.
>
> He acknowledged that there is always the possibility for debate about the
> legitimacy of a proprietary patent over the biological function of a plant
> as an "invention." But he noted that the researchers discovered the
plant's
> environmental usefulness.
>
> The University of Guelph researchers suspect that scented geraniums may be
> the only known plant species that has the ability to absorb both
> multi-metal and organic chemical contaminants, anything from cadmium to
> hydrocarbons.
>
> Dr. Saxena has reported that the geraniums can soak up as much as 3,300
> milligrams of cadmium, 18,700 mg of lead, 6,400 mg of nickel and 650 mg of
> copper for every kilogram of plant tissue in two weeks. The plants do not
> exhibit any sign of toxic stress.
>
>
> Carolyn Abraham
> The Globe and Mail
> <http://www.GlobeandMail.ca/gam/Science/19990716/UPLANN.html>
>
> janet paterson
> 52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
> snail-mail: PO Box 171  Almonte  Ontario  K0A 1A0  Canada
> website: a new voice <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/>
> e-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
>