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Re:
Personal Nutrition:
food science’s
new frontier
I NSI D E
VO L . 8 , 2 0 1 1
A Magazi n e of th e
Agr icu ltu ral R esearc h Pro gram
AT NORTH CA ROLIN A AGRICULTURAL
A N D TECHNICA L STATE UNI VERSIT Y
> Could hog waste be North Carolina’s black gold?
> Mushroom growers explore the great indoors.
> Undergraduates solve issues in ag.
Re:
<
North Carolina A&T State University
Agricultural Research Program in the School of
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
12 Undergraduate
Research Scholar:
Kaya Feaster
investigates
essential oils
that may fight
foodborne
pathogens.
Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr., Chancellor
Dr. Donald McDowell, Interim Dean, School of
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
Dr. Shirley Hymon-Parker, Associate Dean, Research
Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, Associate Dean, Administrator,
The Cooperative Extension Program
Tommy Ellis, Associate Dean, Administration
Produced by the Agricultural
Communications and Technology Unit:
<
Director: Robin Adams
Writer: Laurie Gengenbach
Contributing Writer: Cathy Gant Hill
18
Editors: Alton Franklin, Cathy Gant Hill,
Laurie Gengenbach
Photographer: James Parker
Contributing Photographer: Stephen Charles
Graphic Designer: Donna Wojek-Gibbs
Video Producer: Ron Fisher
Send change of address and correspondence to:
Laurie Gengenbach
Agricultural Research Program
C. H. Moore Agricultural Research Station
Greensboro, NC 27411
7,000 copies of this public document were
printed on recycled paper at a cost of $9,780.00 or
$1.40 per copy.
North Carolina A&T State University is a
land-grant, doctoral research university and
AA/EEO employer.
Distributed in furtherance of the acts of Congress
of May 8 and June 30, 1914. Employment and
program opportunities are open to all people
regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age
or disability. North Carolina A&T State University,
North Carolina State University, U.S. Department of
Agriculture and local governments cooperating.
The projects described in this document are supported in whole or in part by the USDA National
Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors,
and do not necessarily represent the official views
of NIFA.
Copyright © 2011 School of Agriculture and
Environmental Sciences, North Carolina A&T State
University. Re:search may not be reproduced unless
prior permission is granted and credit is given.
<
On the cover: From left, Drs. Shengmin Sang,
Guibing Chen, Mohamed Ahmedna and Leonard
Williams, lead scientists at N.C. A&T’s Center for
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies at the
North Carolina Research Campus.
Health Science’s Frontier:
A media outlet interviews
Dr. Jianmei Yu about progress
toward creating peanuts safe
for allergy sufferers.
Re:
18 Health Sciences
Frontier: Peppers
await testing in
the Food Safety Lab.
For an online edition of Re:search, visit
www.ag.ncat.edu/research/re_search_magazine.html
For video interviews with researchers providing additional
information, visit www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html
Vision
The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences shall be a premier
learner-centered community that develops and preserves intellectual
capital in the food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences through
interdisciplinary learning, discovery and engagement.
The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences provides
opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to achieve
excellence in the food, agricultural, family and environmental sciences
through exemplary and integrative instruction, and through scholarly,
creative and effective research and Extension programs.
Mission
A magazine of the Agricultural Research Program in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
4Research is making mushroom production a year-round opportunity
Growing in the great indoors
8Researchers smell opportunity in hog waste
From waste stream to revenue stream
12
Undergraduate Research Scholars Program
Young scientists address issues in economics, health, soils, animal feed
18
Food science’s NEW frontier
A look at food safety, functional foods, inactivating allergens, food fiber, designer biochar
34Building Capacity
USDA funded projects in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
>
8
Administrator’s Desk
From economy to ecosystem, the land-grant mission connects the dots
discoveries in order to spur economic growth,
protect the environment, and improve health
and well-being for individuals.
We meet these goals best when engaged
in collaborative partnerships with private
industry. For instance, our ag and tech
researchers are now working with such
companies as Pre-Gel America, Dyadic, and
Mycorrhiza Biotech LLC to develop better
consumer products and industrial processes.
The problems that confront us today are
staggering in their complexity. They include
an obesity epidemic that now afflicts children
as well as adults and global climate change
that is likely to disrupt food and agricultural
systems in the coming years. Meanwhile,
fossil fuel supplies are dwindling at the same
time the world’s population grows rapidly. By
2050, this larger and increasingly prosperous
population will require substantially more
food and energy than the world can supply at
present rates of output, and will add further
strain to the natural resources that
sustain life on our planet.
The good news is that our land-grant
The good news is that
universities are developing answers in the
our land-grant universities are
forms of sustainable biofuels and bio-based developing answers in the forms
of sustainable biofuels and bioproducts for the emerging green economy.
based products for the emerging
green economy. Many of the
also developing a desire to pursue careers
answers that will fuel our future will come
as scientists. It’s this new talent that our
from agricultural and life-sciences research
knowledge-based economy will rely on in
that takes place here at N.C. A&T and at
the future.
institutions like ours.
Talent is part of our present as well.
The Agricultural Research Program at
For instance, our new Center for Excellence
A&T is proud to be part of the land-grant and
in Post-Harvest Technologies is already
USDA system that is dedicated to solving
beginning to make its mark in the food
these issues. We look forward to doing our
research arena. In the following pages, you
part to make sure the next century is at least
will read how scientists there are developing
as productive as the last. With the public’s
biotech solutions to foodborne illness, food
continued support for science, we are
allergens, diabetes, cancer and other issues.
confident it will be.
The Center’s overarching goal is the same
as that of the North Carolina Research
Campus: to commercialize these and future
Re:
information
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A strong economy is often
described as one that “makes,
creates and innovates.” To
this I would add, it is also one
that educates. As a land-grant
university, we cannot be “makers.”
That’s the province of private
industry. But we can improve
on what we do best: innovate
and educate.
That’s why I am especially
pleased to bring you this special,
expanded issue of Re:search, in
Dr. Shirley
which we highlight two of our
Hymon-Parker
forward-looking contributions to a
stronger economy and ecosystem: the Center
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies
at the North Carolina Research Campus,
and our Undergraduate Research Scholars
Program. Undergraduates selected for
this program are not only gaining a better
understanding of science, but they are
Re:
Animal sciences professor
named A&T Senior Researcher of the Year
Dr. Mulumebet “Millie”
Worku’s genomics research
focuses on immunity
in cows and other
ruminant animals.
Dr. Mulumebet “Millie” Worku’s research program is
focused on exploring the molecular and genetic basis for
I gained in her lab and under her mentorship have been
natural resistance or immunity to mammalian diseases
extremely helpful in obtaining a challenging career in
— especially mastitis — with the goal of improving the
industry,” wrote Antrison Morris, a graduate of A&T’s
diagnosis, treatment and selection of animals.
master’s program in animal sciences, and now associate
It was her work in this area that garnered the
scientist at Xenobiotic Laboratories in Plainsboro, N.J.
professor of animal sciences the University’s Senior
During her tenure, Worku has led or collaborated
Researcher of the Year Award for 2010-11, which recognizes
on 29 research projects worth $7.5 million, and
her outstanding contributions to the science of immune-
she continues to lead or collaborate on three or
system genomics, and to A&T’s research program.
more research projects each year. Over the years,
her grantsmanship has enabled the Department of
Worku reports that some of her most rewarding
“I believe that the experience and knowledge that
discoveries to date include the discovery of the “wingless
Animal Sciences to acquire genomics-related tools and
gene” in goats and pigs, which is the same gene that was
instruments that are now providing students with
first discovered in fruit flies, and is important to growth
biotechnology skills in a new genomics course that
and development. She has also contributed research
she developed. These acquisitions include quantitative
toward developing breeding goats for the production of
polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and microarrays
prosaposin-rich milk, which is a protein that could be
instruments, and a bioinformatics learning lab.
helpful in managing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other
neurodegenerative diseases.
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and
“It is highly rewarding to be able to share in the
Worku previously served as a researcher with
Drug Administration. She was an International Atomic
excitement of discovery and learning with my students,
Energy Agency research fellow at the University of
colleagues and collaborators to impact food security and
Glasgow in Scotland.
safety using the fruits of genomics progress,” Worku said.
Her recent publications include articles in the Journal
of Dairy Science and the American Journal of Animal and
To colleagues who have observed her dedication and
commitment to both teaching and genomics research
Veterinary Sciences, which report on gene expression in
since her arrival at N.C. A&T in 1999, the award came as
bovine blood neutrophils, and an evaluation of plant
no surprise. Her awards nominations from students and
extracts for use in treating meat goats.
colleagues from the University and from across the state
cite her “knowledge, enthusiasm, vision and energy,”
animal sciences, from the University of Maryland, and
and particularly her ability to inspire students to pursue
a bachelor’s from the University of Alemaya in Ethiopia,
careers in the sciences — qualities which also garnered
also in animal sciences.
Worku holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree, both in
Worku the SAES Teacher-of-the-Year Award in 2007.
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3
Re:
Research is
making mushroom production a year-round
opportunity
SAES mycologist is leading the way to the
information
[email protected]
great indoors
Re:
It’s nearly a decade since Dr.
Omoanghe Isikhuemhen began
shiitake studies at A&T. Much of
Mycologist Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen is turning his focus to high-yield
indoor production for North Carolina’s exotic mushroom industry.
4
his research during the past 10 years has focused on
outdoor production, a process in which hardwood logs are
inoculated with spawn, sealed with wax, periodically soaked
in water and left in shade to fruit. Their harvest accounts
for the bulk of the state’s shiitake crop. Although successful
with farmers, outdoor-grown shiitake – like production
of other crops – is a seasonal endeavor dependent on
temperature and shade. But it doesn’t have to be.
As evidenced by Isikhuemhen’s latest series of
research forays, indoor fruiting houses are the new
frontier for mushroom production, and just as with
the early days of outdoor log inoculation, farmers are
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North Carolina’s diverse climate and region make it one of the most ideal places in the country
to produce mushrooms – particularly shiitake
beginning to embrace the new possibilities.
“We are exploring indoor shiitake production
because it is the only way to guarantee yearround production of shiitake,” says Isikhuemhen,
a researcher and assistant professor in A&T’s
Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Design.
The research into indoor production
means that growers can control such factors as
temperature, light, humidity and air exchange;
and thereby extend the mushroom growing
season. Traditionally, indoor shiitake facilities
don’t produce at the same robust level as outdoor
cultivation. Mushrooms grown indoors often have
milder flavors, and can also be smaller, softer and
lighter colored than their outdoor counterparts.
Consequently, Isikhuemhen is working
to genetically stimulate indoor mushrooms to be
more akin to outdoor mushrooms in taste, size
and color. What that stimulation generally amounts
“Yes, the taste of
the outdoor fruit
is related to its
environment, but
with the proper technology you can
bring those qualities
together for indoor production.”
— Isikhuemhen
to is a kind of shiitake mating game. Among
the scores and scores of shiitake strains
in Isikhuemhen’s laboratories are 25 select
varieties that were tested to assess their
adaptability to growing indoors. The process
included using spores that were ejected from
the gills – the thin, papery structures that hang
vertically under the cap – of those 25 shiitake
isolates destined to be crossed with one another.
Some of the crossing was done from like strains
and some from different strains.
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Isikhuemhen and his assistant, Dr. Felicia
Anike, then created a matrix to track the various
pairings and outcomes, ultimately choosing
isolates that adapted best to such standards as
temperature and light. From the resulting pairings
of the original isolates, three top performers
emerged. Their spores yielded spawn that was
shared with three select mushroom growers in the
western and southern parts of the state to test in
their own indoor environments.
Fungi fruiting fans out
Steve Rice, one of the three farmers included
in the research project, has been cultivating
mushrooms for 20 years, and recently built an
indoor fruiting facility at his Madison County
farm. He grew indoor shiitake, with favorable
results, from spawn-infused substrate that
comes in sawdust blocks that were provided by
Isikhuemhen. A primary goal of Isikhuemhen’s
research is to produce strains that can be used
cost-effectively year-round, so that growers aren’t
overwhelmed by heating or cooling costs.
Rice’s fruiting house is made of two metal
shipping containers that are buried under 2 feet of
earth. The fruiting house abuts a small greenhouse
used for staging, washing and packaging. In
summer, the temperature in the houses stays in
an ideal range of 65 - 80 degrees, and in winter
the houses are warmed to that same range with
passive solar heat generated by the greenhouse
and a stone storage heat source.
Rice is known informally around the region
as “the mushroom man,” and more formally as
the president of the 80-member North Carolina
Mushroom Growers Association that Isikhuemhen
and A&T helped establish. What began as a
hobby with mushrooms has evolved into more
of an agricultural career – and certainly more
farm income – for Rice since he started working
with Isikhuemhen and the mushroom research
program at A&T.
“There has been a total upgrade of my
knowledge and of the quality of the mushrooms
that I grow,” Rice says.
Indoor production also offers a reduction in
labor demands to farmers. Whereas with outdoor
production scores of logs have to be bored with a
drill, inoculated with spawn, sealed, regularly
soaked and restacked; indoor production isn’t quite
as demanding. With the latter method, fruiting
blocks of sawdust are soaked once for about six
hours, and the blocks begin to fruit in three-to-four
days and no more than 10 - 12 days. After the first
fruiting, growers can repeat the six-hour soakings to
force second and even third fruitings.
Inoculated logs have longer incubation periods
and generally require more watering (Isikhuemhen
recommends every week or so) to lower the logs’
internal temperature. All that maintenance has
traditionally paid off, though, in the form of taste.
The outdoor-produced shiitake is infused with
elements of its natural surroundings, resulting in an
earthier flavor. Isikhuemhen, though, is undeterred.
His research on indoor shiitake production is
also examining ways to enhance the flavor of fruit
produced in a more controlled environment.
“Yes, the taste of the outdoor fruit is related
to its environment, but with the proper technology
you can bring those qualities together for indoor
production,” Isikhuemhen says. “You can use the
[sawdust] block situation to mimic the logs.”
The results of Rice’s indoor experience have
been positive, but Isikhuemhen isn’t yet ready
to release details of the findings from him and
the other growers. Building better shiitake, so to
speak, will require fruiting bodies hardy enough to
withstand the most minimal heating in winter and
least cooling in summer, to achieve both a quality
product and one that is affordable. That basic
premise was begun back at the A&T laboratories
where Isikhuemhen and Anike chose donor spores
– to create a superior strain – based on how well
they survived specific temperatures. The next goal
is to ensure that indoor shiitake can compete with
the flavor of their wilder, outside counterparts.
Some results of some of the tested isolates,
such as the ones from Rice’s farm, are already back
and others are still in production.
“We know what strains are doing well, but
we expect more to come out of our screening, so
that we have large numbers to give to farmers,”
Isikhuemhen says. “Although we are doing indoor
research, we still have to make sure we give the
farmers the optimal, most cost-effective strains to
work with.”
Bucks haven’t stopped here
For Isikhuemhen and the mycology program
at A&T, the goal is to generate and develop the
scientific support that helps farmers become more
successful. Rice is poised and ready to continue
reaping that A&T research. His production has
averaged about 400 –700 pounds of mushrooms a
year, from mushrooms grown outside on hardwood
logs. With his indoor operation, though, Rice expects
to at the least quadruple that output. He anticipates
increasing his outdoor production to 50 – 60
pounds per week, and combined with his indoor
operation, as much as 100–200 pounds a week. His
corresponding mushroom income would grow from
about $6,000 annually to a conservative projection of
$12,000 a year, Rice says.
Rice’s projections are right in line with
estimates from A&T agribusiness experts, who
project an average of about $5,000 a year for
outdoor producers, but as much as $15,000
annually for those with indoor as well as outdoor
facilities. Overall, the 400 or so mushroom growers
in North Carolina account for about $1.2 million a
year in total industry gross sales, according to Dr.
Osei Yeboah, interim director of the L.C. Cooper Jr.
International Trade Center at A&T. Those estimates
and projections are intentionally conservative,
Yeboah says, and are based on the lower production
levels in the state’s eastern region.
Whereas Yeboah exercises a more restrained
eye toward financial possibilities, Isikhuemhen has
an enthusiasm shaped by previous research and
faithful farmers. Testimonials like Rice’s validate the
success and the ongoing work of A&T’s mushroom
biology and biotechnology laboratories; work that
Isikhuemhen sees as integral to the success of
the steadily evolving shiitake industry in the state.
North Carolina’s diverse climate and region make
it one of the most ideal places in the country to
produce mushrooms – particularly shiitake, which
is the second most commonly grown mushroom in
the United States.
“When North Carolina mushrooms come out,
people should know, ‘Oh, this is North Carolina
mushroom,’ ” Isikhuemhen says. “The business
of shiitake production in North Carolina is going
to be fully researched so that it is not targeting
production quantity, but quality.”
7
Re:
opportunity
Researchers smell
in hog waste
Re:
information
[email protected]
The goal of North Carolina’s Strategic Plan for
Biofuels Leadership is that 10 percent of liquid
fuels sold in North Carolina will come from
biofuels locally grown and produced by 2017.
Researchers in the Agricultural Research Program
at A&T are working to make that happen.
8
Dr. Shuanging Xiu (right) a
researcher in A&T’s Agricultural
Research Program, holds a flask of
bio-oil derived from hog manure,
and Dr. Ellie Fini, a researcher
in A&T’s Department of Civil
Engineering, holds a sample of
bio-asphalt derived from the
same source. The researchers say
both products have potential to
transform swine manure from
waste stream to revenue stream
for the benefit of North Carolina’s
environment and hog industry.
In North Carolina, hog waste has
come to be synonymous with headache.
Whether it’s a question of how to store
it, how to dispose of it, or how to prevent
it from stinking up the neighborhood,
answers haven’t come easy.
But where farmers, environmentalists, and homeowners see costly
problems, researchers at North Carolina
A&T see economic opportunity, thanks
to emerging biomass industries in North
Carolina and worldwide.
Using thermochemical conversion, a
technology that applies heat and pressure
to wet biomass, Drs. Abolghasem
Shahbazi and Shuanging Xiu have been
transforming hog waste into bio-oil, a
product that could be valuable in its own
right as boiler fuel, or refined further into
transportation fuels – or, as another A&T
researcher has discovered – converted to
road asphalts.
“Bio-oil from animal waste has
potential because bio-oil can be upgraded
to ethanol or even better fuels or other
products” says Shahbazi.
Doing so is technically possible
because crude bio-oil from hog waste is
similar to crude oil pumped from ancient
fossil beds beneath the earth’s surface,
explains Xiu.
“The process we use mimics the
geological processes that created fossil
fuels” she says.
9
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Fini, Xiu and Shahbazi aren’t the only ones excited about
National Science Foundation
the prospects. Four grants have been awarded to A&T to pursue the technology
further. Two industry partners are collaborating, and the
University’s Office of Technology
Transfer is also interested in the commercial potential.
“Mimics” might be something of an understatement.
The petroleum deposits that fuel our cars today were
created from millions of tons of rock, pressing down
on millions of tons of carbon-rich algae deposits over
millions of years. Xiu simulates this process in a small
room adjacent to A&T’s swine facility housing a labscale Parr bioreactor. She places about a cup-and-a-half
– 750 mls. to be exact – of raw hog waste into a metal
container the size of a coffee can, flips a switch and lets
it cook. Two hours later, she retrieves a 5-ounce sample
of crude bio-oil. Not much, to be sure, but enough to run
experiments, and enough to characterize the product.
The odor of hog waste has been replaced by an acrid,
smoky smell.
The smallness of that lab scale helps illustrate why
the challenge in biofuels nowadays is more a matter of
economics than of technology. It’s one thing to prove
the concept in a laboratory – quite another to bring
the logistics, cost of transportation and consistency of
feedstock supply up to commercial scale. Biorefineries
are very expensive to build, and one of the standards for
a viable plant is 1,000 hours of continuous production
of marketable fuels and co-products. Biorefineries also
must be within 100 miles of their feedstock supply to
be economically viable, and so far, few if any pilot plants
have managed to meet all these conditions. Shahbazi
sees one possibility vis-à-vis hog waste is to replace hog
lagoons and spray fields at the farm level with small
thermochemical processing units capable of converting
up to 1,000 gallons of hog waste at a time into crude
bio-oil. This product could then be transported to larger,
centrally located biorefineries for further processing into
transportation fuels and co-products.
“All biomass-to-biofuels technologies are facing the
same problems. So in addition to improving efficiency,
our studies are seeking to produce more marketable coproducts to make the economics work,” Shahbazi says.
10
Improving efficiency
Researchers have been using heat and pressure
to convert biomass into biofuels for decades, but few
outside of A&T have studied its application to swine
waste, with the notable exception of the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has made great
strides in the technology in recent years.
One of the chief advantages to thermochemical
conversion is that the raw material does not have to
undergo expensive drying in advance. Nevertheless, the
process as it stands now still uses too much energy to
make it economically feasible on a large scale, so Xiu is
hoping to improve processes further for greater efficiency
and to produce more marketable products.
Here and now is a good time to be doing so, she
says, given that North Carolina is second only to Iowa
in hog production, with approximately 15 million tons of
waste a year generated from 9.5 million pigs. Preventing
hog waste from fouling ground and surface water
continues to bedevil the industry. In order to make this
manure into an economical feedstock for biorefining,
however, the efficiency of converting it into bio-oil has to
be improved. Xiu has achieved some success in this area
by adding crude glycerin, which more than doubled the
yield of bio-oil from hog waste alone. That was exciting,
she says, because crude glycerin is a troublesome
byproduct of the biodiesel industry, which has more of
the stuff than it knows what to do with, and refining into
a marketable glycerin is very expensive.
Xiu estimates that North Carolina could potentially
produce 67.7 billion gallons of crude bio-oil per year,
which is equivalent in volume to about 37 percent of
U.S. crude oil imports. However, the heating value of the
hog waste crude is lower than petroleum crude, so it is
difficult at this stage to make an exact volume-to-volume
comparison, she says.
climate change, and also in light of increasing emphasis
Co-products from bio-oil
on sustainability in government transportation agencies
Even more profitable potential locked away in
and industries. And, as if these attributes weren’t
hog waste came to light after Xiu and Shahbazi gave
compelling enough to merit further research, Fini also
some samples to Dr. Ellie Fini, in A&T’s Department of
discovered that the byproduct of bioasphalt production
Civil Engineering.
contains simply a watery mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus
An expert on sustainable, alternative asphalts, Fini
and potassium that could be marketed as a spray
had approached Shahbazi soon after arriving at A&T in
fertilizer. Developing a bioasphalt along with biofuel and
2008 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
fertilizer makes the whole process economically viable,
where she had been researching sustainable adhesives.
according to Fini.
While there, Fini became acquainted with other research
She, Xiu and Shahbazi aren’t the only ones
examining the potential of
excited about the prospects. Four National Science
soybean meal and swine
Foundation grants have been awarded to A&T to pursue
waste. She was interested in
the technology further. Two industry partners are
pursuing that line of research
collaborating, and the University’s Office of Technology
at A&T, and asked Shahbazi
Transfer is also interested in the commercial potential.
to connect her with a source
“We have 4 million miles of highways in the
of soybean meal.
country and the maintenance costs are extremely
Shahbazi was surprised.
expensive; extending pavement service life by reducing
Even if the technology could
be developed, it might be hard the pavement cracking would be significant,” Fini said.
“We have been looking for a sustainable replacement for
to make the economics work,
petroleum-based asphalts for a long time.”
he told her.
Shahbazi
Fini points out that the bioasphalt also has a
“I wouldn’t use soybean
potential role in transforming recycled roofing shingles
meal” he said. “You need to find cheaper stuff.”
and reclaimed asphalt pavements into new paving
He suggested trying the viscous residue left over
mixtures, which could be attractive to state departments
from his ongoing hog-waste-to-fuel conversion research.
of transportation that are using reclaimed paving.
Fini agreed, and three years later, she has published
But perhaps the best opportunity lies in the
significant data which indicates that this sticky, tarry
potential to transform hog waste into a profitable revenue
byproduct – a substance that few researchers had ever
source while making highways safer and cheaper to
given much thought to – might well be more valuable
maintain. If the research pans out as hoped, a day
than the biofuel itself.
might come when hog producers see their costly public
The result of her work is an effective bioasphalt,
which has potential to replace or modify petroleum-based relations and environmental headache become instead a
hot commodity, as eagerly traded on Wall Street as pork
asphalt binders used in roads, or it could also be used in
bellies or heating oil.
roofing shingles, carpeting and construction adhesives.
Among the list of attributes Fini reports is that the
manure-derived asphalt can withstand significantly lower
temperatures with less cracking, that it’s easier to work
suggested
with in lower temperatures and that it might be far less
asphalt
binders trying the residue left over from
costly to produce than petroleum-based
(at an estimated 54 cents a gallon, instead
of $2).
On his ongoing
top of that, the product also sequesters carbon, which
conversion
is increasingly important in light of global warming and
SHAHBAZI
Hog-waste to-fuel
research. Fini agreed, and three
years later, she has published significant data which indicates This sticky,
tarry byproduct might well be
more valuable Than The biofuel itself.
11
Re:
www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html
Undergraduate
Research Scholars
Program
Jefferson-Moore
video
Jazmine Bowzer, an
agricultural economics major,
examines an organically
grown apple at a Greensboro
grocery store, during her
research project on the
economics of organic produce
grown in North Carolina.
Re:
information
[email protected]
Economics opportunity
12
Research scholar develops career focus while examining the economics of organic produce grown in NC.
Although she’s barely out of her teens,
Jazmine Bowser already has a pretty good idea of
the kind of life she wants to make for herself. She
sees herself working in a corporate environment,
maybe as a financial advisor, maybe as a lawyer.
She’d like to be well-off. She “definitely” has to
live in a fast-paced city, she says with conviction.
And that’s why she majored in agricultural
economics at N.C. Agricultural and Technical
State University.
“I wouldn’t know what to do with animals or
crops,” Bowzer says.
Still, she has to constantly explain to
family and friends who are thrown by the word
“agricultural” that no, she does not intend to “go
into farming,” as they assume must be the case.
So she finds herself patiently explaining for
the umpteenth time that agricultural economics
is not a career path leading to bookkeeping
for a family farm. It is instead the application
of statistics and mathematical models to the
incredibly varied and valuable products of
agriculture, whether they be fibers for clothing,
materials for housing, ethanol for transportation,
biomass for chemicals, commodities for export
– or food for feeding hundreds of millions of
Americans three times a day.
“Everything comes from agriculture”
she says.
Analyzing trends and making informed
predictions are what appeal to her about
economics, Bowzer adds. The results can help
businesses large and small make better decisions,
and help inform government policy. But because
the ag econ classroom examines real agribusiness
commodities in the here and now, she has a
better grasp of how economic models work in the
real world.
All these lessons have come into stronger focus
now that Bowzer is studying the wholesale organic
vegetable market in North Carolina, as a participant in
the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’
new Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Her
original research hypothesis has changed, because
of what she found out after analyzing agricultural
databases and statistics.
What she discovered, with the help of her faculty
mentor Dr. Kenrette Jefferson-Moore, is that there is
not yet an adequate variety of organic commodities
sold in large enough numbers in the state for tracking
trends or making any meaningful conclusions about
production. That finding is already leading to new
questions, and possibly a new direction for her
research project.
“I’d like to know why sales are so low in North
Carolina; if it’s true that organic is a movement or a
rising trend,” Bowzer says. “What are the numbers in
other states? How do they compare?”
Such is the dynamic nature of economics
research. Hypotheses and questions have to change
in response to real life evidence, not follow a preconceived idea or plan, she explains. But it’s OK that
her project is changing, Bowzer says, because, at the
time she spoke for this article, she had more than a
year ahead of her to refine the project. Spring 2012
will see her making presentations at professional
conferences, and finally, as she prepares to graduate,
submitting an article to an academic journal in hopes
of publication.
The program is “a lot of hard work,” but worth it
in the long run, she says.
“When I get ready to apply to graduate school, I’ll
already have a leg up because I’ll be more prepared,”
she says. “You have to do research in graduate school.
I always think of the long-term benefits of taking
advantage of the opportunities I’m given now.”
13
Essential research
Undergraduate
Research Scholars
Program
video
www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html
Re:
Re:
information
[email protected]
Undergrad experiments with essential oils that may combat salmonella and other foodborne pathogens.
Don’t tell Kaya Feaster that
academia has no relevance to the
real world. Since experiencing a
painful inflammatory ailment, her
participation in the Undergraduate
Research Scholars Program
suddenly became very personal.
“I realized medications had
their limitations. I said, ‘There
has to be a better way.’” That
search for a better way led her
to read everything she could
about alternative treatments for
inflammation, which, in turn, led
her to take an interest in Dr. Ipek
Goktepe’s research on essential
plant oils. As it happened, Goktepe
was one of several faculty mentors
in the School of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences who had an opening in her lab for an
undergraduate research scholar.
“Now I see how research relates to my life,” Feaster said.
“This is different experience from a lab in chemistry,” she continued.
“Now I get to explore deeper. Here, you get to understand the whole
procedure, why you’re doing this and you get to see the results. You’re here
all day.“
Among the skills she’s learned are how to sterilize equipment in an
autoclave, lab protocol and safety, and how to conduct a literature search,
“because you need to know what other people have already done,” she
explained. She’s also learned much about the care and feeding of bacteria.
“You want to keep it growing, or you’ll have to order more and start
over,” Feaster says. “It can really set you back.”
One day during spring semester found her testing two plant oils for
their action against E.coli, listeria and salmonella. It’s an experiment that
will play a part in Goktepe’s research project aimed at producing a wash
for consumers and food handlers to use on fresh fruits and vegetables.
The hope is that the produce wash will not only kill pathogenic microbes,
but also promote better health. Such a product would represent an
improvement over present washes that rely
on chlorine to kill bacteria, but can leave
toxic traces behind.
Even more exciting to Goktepe and
Feaster is a forthcoming exploration to
determine if these same essential oils
could be effective in combatting cancer.
Goktepe has done preliminary studies
that show the oils are effective against
colon and breast cancer in test tubes,
and she has received funding to pursue
the work further. In her second year
as a research scholar, Feaster will run
experiments with cancer cell lines. By
her final semester, she will be prepared to
publish and report her findings.
“Undergraduate research scholars
are extremely valuable to the work we do
here,” Goktepe said.
Exploring animal feed
[email protected]
information
Re:
Goktepe
Animal sciences major Adrienne Goode prepares
samples for a feed digester.
Enzymes coupled with high fiber feed could improve animal health.
Adrienne Goode, an animal sciences major and undergraduate
research scholar in A&T’s Agricultural Research Program, carefully
measures a powdery brown substance into a vial, places it in a caddy with
similar vials, and lowers the assembly into a mechanical feed digester.
These are enzymes mixed with an experimental hog feed,
she explains. And the reason she is studying them is that her
faculty mentor, Dr. Abraham Woldeghebriel, had earlier that year
discovered some interesting things about the experimental highfiber feed: Namely, that it promoted faster growth and more robust
health than commercial hog rations. There was also evidence that
it might have reduced the incidence of scouring (diarrhea) in pigs,
which is a costly problem for the hog industry. But that raised the
question of how to make the fiber more digestible. Enzymes could
be the answer, she says.
“We use this instrument to mimic what happens in the
animal’s digestive tract,” Goode explains. “It’s one of the scientific
techniques I’m learning here.”
Information gleaned from the laboratory process can provide
leads that will enable further studies on real animals, she says. After
collecting data from the mechanical digester, Goode will next feed
hogs at the University Farm, and collect data there. Her research
Kaya Feaster, a food sciences major, measures a sample
of essential oil for her food safety research project.
observations will include growth rate
comparisons, scouring incidence, and
the number of pathogenic organisms
in the digestive tracts of animals
fed the experimental feed and those
fed conventional feed. Then, along
with the other research scholars, she
will present her observations at a
professional conference. Maybe one
day, the findings could result
in better feed and healthier animals
for the benefit of the hog industry.
After all, the feeds commonly used
today were once the products of
research at a land-grant university
or U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) laboratory.
Aiding industry
Goode and Woldeghebriel
are experimenting with enzymes
provided by Dyadic International, an
industrial enzymes manufacturer that
maintains a research and development
lab in Greensboro. The enzyme is used
to soften natural fiber fabrics, but after a
company representative gave a presentation
at A&T, Woldeghebriel got the idea to try
it on his experimental, high-fiber feed, to
see if it renders it more digestible. If so, it
could open a new market for Dyadic, while
also benefitting the pork industry with
an improved, digestible, high-fiber feed,
he says. That’s how research progresses,
with one idea building on one another,
Woldeghebriel adds.
“I thought well, if it works on cotton
fibers, it might work on food fibers too,”
he says.
The impetus for his and Goode’s
research comes from the growing interest
Woldeghebriel
continued next page
14
15
16
Raczkowski
fields subjected to such treatment is highly erodible,
which is why soil researchers everywhere are now hard
at work experimenting with sustainable practices, such
as no-till and cover crops. The field test kit Shelton is
working on is just one piece of the puzzle.
“This way, growers would know right away what they
need to do to improve the soil,” Shelton says.
And with time running out for many of the world’s
soils, timely information is everything.
Soil may seem to be as common as dirt, but in
reality, it’s far more precious than gold. In fact, few
would argue that this humble substance is the basis for
all wealth on earth. And despite superficial appearances,
soil is not as plentiful as it seems. Like fresh water and
clean air, the soil we rely on for all our food is a finite,
nonrenewable resource, and there’s not just more where
that came from, unless you leave the ground fallow and
wait around several thousand years – which is not an
option in a world where population is expected to grow
by 30 percent in the next 40 years, to 9.1 billion.
Ten thousand years of human civilization’s plowing,
overgrazing, clearcutting and other unsustainable
practices have caused much of the world’s topsoil to
wash away into oceans. In North Carolina, many areas
in the mountains and Piedmont have seen significant
erosion and in some places soil is only a foot deep. It’s
only in recent decades that agriculturalists everywhere
have begun to turn toward sustainable practices, such as
no-till, cover crops and agroforestry, to increase organic
matter. Such practices can slow the rates of erosion by
building soil quality while rapidly improving crop yields at
the same time. Soil scientists such as Shelton are now at
the forefront of showing the world how best management
practices such as these can benefit the planet as well as
the people who inhabit it.
For now, this young scientist is mostly concerned
with finishing up his senior year and then going on for his
master’s. Soil science is a great career because it offers
the best of both worlds; it allows you to work outside, but
also exercises your intellect, he says.
His work as a research scholar is a far different
experience from lab courses in the standard curriculum,
he continues. In labs, the task is already defined, the
results are known and students simply repeat work
that has been done before. Research scholarship, on
the other hand, is original exploration directed toward
answering a real-world problem with new information
and data. Advanced laboratory procedures, calculations,
spreadsheets and the use of professional analytical
instrumentation are all part of the picture.
Challenging? Definitely. Worth it? Absolutely.
“This has been an extremely valuable experience,”
Shelton says.
video
It’s 8 o’clock sharp on a cold Monday morning in
January, and Jason Shelton is already in the lab and hard
at work. He carefully lines up rows of numbered and
labeled bottles – 57 in all – each one containing about
a half teaspoon of soil, and awaiting an infusion of acid
that will remove the carbohydrates so he can measure
and study them further.
Carbohydrates, he explains, are an important
factor in gauging soil quality, because they serve as
food for microorganisms. Those microorganisms then
secrete sticky substances that stabilize soil, increase
water retention and prevent erosion. In short, the more
carbohydrates, the better the soil, says Shelton.
“The soil in these bottles is about as low in quality
as you can find anywhere,” Shelton says. “We wanted soil
like this, so that we could see what happens when you
improve it with organic matter from cover crops.”
But there’s another purpose behind today’s
experiment, he goes on to explain. It will provide data
that will help answer whether or not a new field test kit
is appropriate for measuring soil carbon. The Natural
Resources Conservation Service has asked soil scientists
across the country to test it in their regions, and he is
one of many researchers now doing so.
As one of the first Undergraduate Research
Scholars in the School of Agriculture and Environmental
Sciences, Shelton will spend the better part of his final
senior semester working on this independent research
project. After collecting data, he’ll write up his findings
and present them at a professional conference.
“When he is finished, he will know more about
this topic than me, or anyone,” says Dr. Charles
Raczkowski, Shelton’s faculty mentor in the Department
of Natural Resources and Environmental Design. “He’ll
be teaching me.”
Raczkowski explains that the reason the quality of
the soil in Shelton’s experiment is so low is that it has
been growing annual crops of corn and soybeans, and
subjected to intensive tillage with the plow and disc, at
least twice a year for 30 years or more. In other words,
it is all too typical of conventional, non-sustainable
agriculture as it has been practiced in North Carolina
and around the world for hundreds of years. Soil from
www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html
Jason Shelton, a soil science major,
extracts a soil sample from a
conventionally tilled field.
Undergraduate researcher explores issues
in soil science.
[email protected]
Research journey
Goode’s work, in many ways, illustrates the landgrant university mission to conduct research for the benefit of agribusiness, which is a crucial sector of the U.S.
economy. Without an affordable, safe and reliable food
system, not much else can happen in a society. In fact,
the enormous productivity of the world’s agriculture,
and the abundance of affordable food that we take for
granted today are largely owing to the research that took
place in the USDA-supported land-grant universities and
agricultural research stations over the past 150 years.
But for Goode, the undergraduate research journey
today is as much about discovering her own abilities as it
is about finding answers in animal sciences. She said the
Undergraduate Research Scholars Program has provided
a route toward realizing her long-term career goals of becoming a veterinarian. She’s glad she applied, and would
recommend it to other students.
“It’s exciting because it has helped me discover talents I didn’t know I had,” she says. Thanks to the new
confidence she learned in the laboratory, she says her
lifelong dream now appears within reach. By the end of
her final semester, she had been accepted to Tuskegee
University’s veterinary science program.
“This has made me want to give 100 percent,”
Goode says. “It makes me say, ‘Let me hurry up and
finish school.’ I can’t wait.”
A dirty job
information
in antibiotic-free feed alternatives. For at least the
past 40 years, animals raised in close confinement
have been routinely fed small levels of antibiotics to
keep disease down, and to promote rapid growth and
efficient feed conversion. But public concerns about
antibiotic-resistant pathogens are gradually putting
a halt to the practice, and the livestock industry is
looking to researchers for alternatives that will keep
feed prices low and production high. The addition
of friendly bacteria known as probiotics has emerged
as one of the most promising alternatives. High-fiber
feed helps these bacteria flourish, which is where
Woldeghebriel and Goode’s study comes in, and where
enzymes also enter the picture. They could make the
fiber more readily available during digestion.
Dyadic currently manufactures enzymes for paper
and textile industries, but is interested in the animal
feed market as well, said Wes Lowry, applications lab
manager for the company’s Greensboro office.
“This is a nice little study,” he said. “We’re kind of
new in the animal feed market, so the kind of work you
(A&T) do there is really good for us.”
Re:
Exploring animal feed, cont.
Re:
Undergraduate
Research Scholars
Program
17
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Re:
Health
science’s
Clockwise from top: Green
onions await testing in the Food
Safety and Microbiology Lab; Dr.
Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for
functional foods, eyes a pile of
raw ginger roots which contain
cancer fighting compounds;
and Dr. Guibing Chen examines
a sample of treated wheat
bran fiber in the CEPHT food
engineering lab.
Re:
information
[email protected]
frontier
18
N.C. A&T scientists at the Center for
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies
(CEPHT) at the North Carolina Research
Campus are engaged in cutting edge
projects in their quest to harness the
power in food for optimal health.
n
utritional science is
entering a new era, and
the Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies, which
began full operations in 2010, is at
the leading edge. Here, scientists
are developing hypoallergenic foods,
advanced packaging technologies,
better approaches to food safety, and new natural products to prevent cancer, manage
diabetes and curb obesity. It’s all thanks to the North Carolina Research Campus, where
scientific expertise, sophisticated instruments, and a focused purpose on commercializing
technology converge to improve health, well-being and economic growth for the benefit
of all. The Campus is a public-private partnership developed by David H. Murdock,
owner of Dole Foods. Murdock’s vision, which he announced in 2007, is to create a
world-class research hub where collaborative science will lead the charge for great
discoveries in nutrition, health and biotechnology.
Of mice and milk
The history of nutritional science is fairly short, but, with the aid of chemistry, has
made significant advances. Back in the early 1900s, health researchers generally believed
that life processes required only four macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, fats and
salts. Not coincidentally, deficiency diseases such as rickets, beriberi, pellagra and scurvy
– diseases that are virtually unheard of in today’s vitamin-fortified world – were far more
common. Bodies were smaller and life spans were shorter too. The first confirmation
19
that there might be more to food
than these four macronutrients
occurred when chemists figured out
a way to isolate them from milk.
Nutritional scientists then were able
to conduct dietary experiments on
rodents. They observed that those
that were fed diets composed solely
of macronutrients died without fail.
Clearly, they reasoned, there must
be something else inside food that
keeps animals alive. Along came other
scientists reporting from Southeast
Asia that people and animals there
who consumed brown rice were less
susceptible to beriberi, compared to
those who ate only polished white
rice. But it wasn’t until chemists
isolated that vital compound in brown
rice hulls that came to be known as
“thiamin,” that the word “vitamin” was
coined. The connection between diet
and disease suddenly became clearer.
Further research found 13 additional
chemical compounds in foods that are
20
Collaboration is key
The full impact of CEPHT will be realized as projects with
the other seven university partners at the Campus develop in years
to come, says Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, CEPHT director and lead
scientist for product development and consumer research. For
instance, plant breeding for health benefits is taking place at N.C.
State’s labs, and studies on gene-nutrient interactions in those of
UNC Chapel Hill’s. Meanwhile, UNC Charlotte is specializing in
bioinformatics and N.C. Central in biomedical modeling. Sports
nutrition is the province of Appalachian State, and bioactive
compounds belong to UNC Greensboro, while Duke is delving into
translational medicine.
Food industries and agencies – including Dole Foods,
Monsanto, General Mills, and USDA – also have a high-visibility
presence at the North Carolina Research Campus. Five buildings
with 800,000 square-feet house all these partners, as well as RowanCabarrus Community College’s Biotechnology Training Center. Later
this year, a building housing Cabarrus Health Alliance will open, and
work will soon begin on Carolinas Medical Health Care clinic. The
pace of development has been “blazing fast,” says Clyde Higgs, vicepresident of business development for the Campus, and the land-grant
universities are integral to its success.
“If you think about health research as a continuum from farm
to fork, obviously the land grant institutions of A&T and NC State
play a big part, whether it’s Dr. Lilla at NC. State from a plants for
human health perspective, or Dr. Williams at A&T, from a post-harvest
perspective,” says Higgs.
CEPHT in service
As a key partner in this advanced
R&D facility, North Carolina A&T’s
Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest
Technologies plays a pivotal role.
Services for agribusiness combine
with basic and applied research. As
scientists in other university labs
develop new plant breeds, therapies
or products for robust health,
scientists with the CEPHT will be
connecting with industry partners to
develop technologies that will ensure
these new plant-based products are
stable, storable, standardized and
safe. Resources for industry include
expertise and technology for all phases
of product development, including
analyzing, engineering and stabilizing
foods and food components,
developing packaging and processing
technologies, food safety and
consumer testing.
“Our ultimate goal is new
agricultural products and functional
foods, grown and processed in North
Carolina for healthier individuals and
a thriving economy,” says Ahmedna.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
essential for life processes. This is how things stood in nutrition
for many years.
Fast forward about 100 years. Now, thanks to sophisticated
chromatography and magnetic imaging instruments such as nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which seem to become more
powerful every year, science is able to dig deeper into the extraordinary
complexity of food, revealing a new frontier in nutritional sciences.
Scientists are now discovering that beyond vitamins lie phytochemicals,
polysaccharides, flavanoids and thousands of other distinct compounds
that have yet to be researched. Evidence is accumulating in medical and
nutritional journals that many of these compounds have extraordinary
disease prevention and even curative effects. Combine these findings
with the emerging sciences of metabolomics, genomics and proteomics
– all of which are subjects of research at the North Carolina Research
Campus – and the Holy Grail of health science, the personalized
medical and nutritional profile, is coming within reach. As these
sciences advance so does the promise of longevity, optimal health, and
peak physical and cognitive performance. Researchers at the Campus
predict that at the current pace of research, personalized medicine
and nutrition could start appearing on the scene in 10 years and be
commonplace in 20.
Current research projects at the Center for
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies
* Post-Harvest Processing of Peanut and Wheat Products to
Reduce Inherent Allergens, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna,
USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, $500,000
* Program in Food and Bioprocess Technologies for Training
of Future Minority Faculty, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, USDA
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, $150,000
* Food and Agricultural Byproduct-based Biochars for
Enhanced Soil Fertility, Water Quality and Long-term
Carbon Sequestration, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, USDA
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, $300,000
* Ginger Extract: Bioavailability Study and Lung Cancer
Preventive Effect, Dr. Shengmin Sang, National Institutes
of Health, $361,000
* Dietary Flavonoids as Reactive Carbonyl Scavengers to Prevent the Formation of
Advanced Glycation End Products, Dr. Shengmin Sang, USDA Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative, $143,000
* Pterostilbene aspirinate as a novel chemopreventive agent for colon cancer,
Dr. Shengmin Sang, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, $75,000
* Building Capacity to Control Viral Foodborne Disease: A Translational,
Multidisciplinary Approach, Dr. Leonard Williams, USDA National Institute of Food
and Agriculture, $500,000
* Nutritional Analysis of Dried Blend Products, Dr. Leonard Williams, PreGel
AMERICA, Inc., $16,000
21
advancing
Food Safety
As scientists in CEPHT’s Food Safety and
Microbiology Lab track, trace and prevent
foodborne illness, they are beginning to
influence trends in food safety.
Re:
information
llw@@ncat.edu
I
22
t’s a typical day in the Food Safety and
Microbiology Lab at CEPHT. Bags
of bright green cilantro swimming in
nutrient broth are lined up on a counter next
to stacks of petri dishes. In a refrigerator
down the hall, boxes of spinach, alfalfa
sprouts and green onions are waiting to take
their turn on the lab bench.
Lab technicians work quickly and
quietly, extracting liquid samples and
streaking the drops onto growth mediums
in each dish. The dishes are stacked, loaded
into an incubator, and fingers are mentally
crossed. In the back of everyone’s mind is
the hope that nothing will grow.
Unfortunately, those hopes are
occasionally dashed. Since the lab started
operations in spring 2010, it has tested
approximately 3,000 samples from produce
grown north and south of the U.S. border
with Mexico, and about 1 to 3 percent of
these samples have come up positive for
foodborne pathogens. That percentage is a
little higher than the national average of .9
percent per year.
The extraction-incubator activity is
“surveillance source tracking,” one of the
many key strengths of the lab, explains Dr.
Leonard Williams, lead scientist for food
safety and microbiology at the CEPHT. Like
forensic detectives, he and his technicians
use the same molecular tools and techniques
as those used in certified public health labs
to find bad guys with names like “E. coli,”
“salmonella,” “listeria” and “staphylococcus.”
They hope their efforts will prevent a
foodborne outbreak before it begins. If the
samples test positive, the next step is to
contact the distribution center where the
food came from and inform the managers.
And, because it is in everyone’s best interest
to stop foodborne illness in its tracks, the
common practice is for industry management
to alert groceries, destroy the product, and
make sure the farm where the sample came
from is following what the industry refers
to as GAP – Good Agricultural Practices.
Next, the CEPHT lab conducts rapid
DNA fingerprinting to enable tracking, in
case the microbe’s fingerprint shows up
again someplace else, or is implicated in a
foodborne outbreak. Knowing the origin of a
pathogen is the answer to stopping foodborne
illness from spreading.
Williams points to a petri dish where
fuzzy gray spots are growing.
“Here we have salmonella, from cilantro
from a farm in Mexico” he says.
He points to a second dish. This one
holds E.coli 0157:H7 from ready-to-eat
spinach grown on a farm in California,
he says. A third harbors listeria, also from
spinach from the same farm in California.
Williams stresses that a healthy dose of
caution – but not alarm – is in order here.
Such results are rare, he says. Furthermore
it is impossible to eradicate all bacteria from
foods that come out of soil. In addition, he
emphasizes that conditions in transport,
retail and home are not as conducive to
making bacteria thrive and multiply as a
sophisticated laboratory such as this.
“If there is just one bacterium in a
sample, we’ll find it,” he says. “One organism
is not going to be pathogenic to most people.”
Nevertheless, these petri dishes,
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Food Safety and Microbiology Lab
In both photos, food safety
researcher Dr. Leonard Williams
examines Petri dishes containing
salmonella, listeria, E.coli and
other foodborne pathogens.
although not reflections of real-world
conditions, still hold an important message
for consumers and industry: Consumers
need to take food safety in the home more
seriously nowadays, especially in homes
with small children, the elderly or those
who are immune compromised. Industry,
meanwhile, needs to remain vigilant, in
light of an increasingly industrialized and
centralized food system where food from
many sources gets mixed and mingled.
Williams feels confident the nation’s
food protection system is working, but he
maintains that until deaths and illness from
food poisoning fall to zero, there is always
room for improvement and new strategies.
“Bottom line, the message we want
to drive home to consumers is they should
wash their produce when they get it home,
before they put it away,” he says. “What
we’re recommending is, wash it in a capful
of chlorine bleach in a sink full of water. It’s
easy and everybody has bleach. Fill the sink up with water, gently agitate
for a minute. Rinse the bleach water off, dry it and then put it away.”
In addition to destroying pathogens, the practice will also
destroy spoilage bacteria, and your produce will keep longer, he adds.
Williams, along with other food safety experts, agrees that chlorine
isn’t a perfect solution, but until better ones are developed – hopefully
in his lab – it is the most cost-effective and convenient, especially for
home use. He also advocates the same advice health care professionals
give to sick and immune compromised individuals: They should cook
or at least steam blanch their food, especially fresh produce.
“The food industry is very appreciative of what we do here,”
Williams says.
Basic research in food safety
Surveillance and source tracking for industry are just two of
the many capabilities in the Food Safety and Microbiology Lab.
Other services for industry include shelf-life stability and quality
control, microbial risk assessment, analysis of GAP for farms, and
finding new ways to process fresh produce to inactivate pathogens;
All of which serve practical and immediate concerns and needs for
industry and consumers.
In addition to educating, advocating and researching practical
solutions – such as a project now under way to develop plant-based
23
Alfalfa sprouts, above, are one
of the foods regularly tested
in CEPHT’s food safety and
microbiology lab. In photo right,
Shurrita Davis eyes a bacterialaden sample.
antimicrobial hand sanitizers – the lab is also intent on advancing basic
research. For instance, CEPHT’s capabilities and expertise in cell culturing
using human and animal cell lines is expected to add new discoveries about
how pathogens interact with hosts, as well as the complex mechanisms of
pathogen metabolism and mutation.
These are important areas for basic research, because one unfortunate
downside to developing antimicrobials is that bacteria and viruses have a
remarkable ability to quickly adapt to whatever controls humankind throws at
them, and there is little reason to believe that it will be any different with natural,
plant-based antimicrobials either, Williams says.
“I’m not always the most popular guy in the room for pointing that out,”
he chuckles.
And so, as more functional foods emerge from other research labs at
CEPHT and the North Carolina Research Campus as a whole, Williams
and his technicians will be examining how these new products might affect
immunity to disease, or how they might prompt mutations in pathogens. The
lab is also one of the few certified Biosafety Level 3 labs in the Southeast,
which will enable it to conduct research on biohazards and potential bioterrorism threats.
In addition to basic and applied research, Williams helps chart a course
for new food safety practices and policies through his membership in the
Fruits and Vegetables Task Force of the International Association of Food
Protection, and Produce Task Force of the N.C. Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services.
On the case against norovirus
CEPHT is already gaining a reputation in the safety arena. Because of
its advanced capabilities in microbiology and its connections with industry,
William’s food safety lab was recently named a partner, along with 10 other
land-grant and medical universities and government partners, in a $25 million
grant to investigate solutions to norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness
in the United States. The project is led by N.C. State University, and receives
funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food
and Agriculture (NIFA).
24
Industrialization of food
It’s a new era in food safety, as an
increasingly globalized and industrialized
food system spawns the potential for
more outbreaks of foodborne diseases
over wider regions. But the good news is
that although the number of outbreaks is
increasing, the number of people actually
falling sick appear to be decreasing,
and that is perhaps due to increasingly
sophisticated surveillance and tracking.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reported in 2010 that each
year, approximately 48 million people
(one in six Americans) gets sick, 128,000
are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from
foodborne pathogens. That’s bad enough,
to be sure – but far better than in 1999,
when the same agency estimated the
annual rates at approximately 76 million
illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and
5,000 deaths.
Nevertheless, mostly because of
improved surveillance such as the type
performed each day at CEPHT, each
year seems to bring higher numbers
It’s a new era in
food safety, as
an increasingly
globalized and
industrialized food
system spawns
the potential for
more outbreaks of
foodborne diseases
over wider regions.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Food Safety and Microbiology Lab
Norovirus is rarely serious enough
to cause fatalities, and most people shake
off the upset stomach and diarrhea in a
day or two. Nevertheless, the virus merits
attention because it is highly contagious,
very difficult to eradicate, and spreads
quickly through hospitals and other
public settings such as nursing homes,
hospitals and cruise ships. Diligent hand
washing is currently the best-known
control strategy. The new collaborative
research team is hoping to add more
powerful controls and surveillance
technologies to the anti-norovirus arsenal.
The CEPHT’s role in the project will be
to develop plant-based antimicrobial food
sprays, and to conduct tests in real world
industry settings of new procedures
or products that emerge during the fiveyear project.
of recalls than in the year before, spurring regulators and health
agencies to stress vigilance at all levels, from farm, to distribution
centers, to grocery stores – to the kitchen sink at home. Some of
the improvements in surveillance include rapid DNA fingerprinting,
improved food labeling with bar coding, and the CDC’s national
database of pathogen DNA fingerprints known as PulseNet. Thanks
to this system, outbreaks can be identified in a matter of days or
even hours. Because of the national database, if the same fingerprint
shows up in different patients, it’s clear evidence that food from
the same farm or food handler is the culprit, even if those patients
are several states apart. Williams is working toward a day when
CEPHT’s food safety lab will be government certified and part of
the PulseNet system.
CEPHT has the expertise, equipment and capability to
do so, he says, but would first need to establish a long track
record of reproducible, consistent results with thousands of samples
over several years. For now, the lab is hoping to make its mark
in new product development and studies on cutting-edge trends
such as one that recently appeared in the scientific journal Food
Protection Trends.
That study, “Epidemiological approaches to food safety,”
concludes that Staphylococcus aureus appears to be the fourth
leading cause of bacterial foodborne disease outbreaks. That’s new
evidence in an increasing body of literature that suggests that staph
might need to be more closely monitored in food than it ever has
been in the past. And the study also offers new evidence that staph
needs to be added to the nation’s food safety monitoring system
“We’re hoping that public health agencies will increase
surveillance on staphylococcus. It’s important they understand it’s a
very common foodborne pathogen,” Williams says, adding, “We try
to stay ahead of the trends, and even influence the trends.”
25
closer at hand
Hypoallergenic peanuts could be making a debut in a few years’ time
thanks to USDA funding to conduct clinical trials, consumer testing and
expand the project to include wheat allergens.
Re:
information
[email protected]
D
26
r. Mohamed Ahmedna,
a food chemist and lead
scientist for product
development and consumer
research at CEPHT, has been
researching peanuts at N.C. A&T
for several years, and has reported
on several potential products that
could be developed from them,
including an infant formula, lowfat meat substitutes and powerful
antioxidants from red peanut skins.
His innovative post-harvest
technology on reduced-allergen
peanuts, however, has been the most
promising. It generated interest
in industry, media and allergy
sufferers worldwide when A&T first
announced it in 2007. Now, a $500,000 grant to the
Center for Excellence in PostHarvest Technologies (CEPHT)
from the USDA is propelling the
research closer to commercialization
by funding clinical trials, consumer
testing, and an expansion of the
project into preliminary research into
wheat allergens known as “gliadins.”
“We are extremely pleased
that we will be able to move this
promising research into clinical
testing to confirm safety prior
to commercialization of treated
peanuts for the benefit of the many
children and families who every
day must deal with the stressful
condition of peanut allergies,”
Ahmedna says.
Dr. Jianmei Yu prepares an ELISA assay to test peanut extracts for the presence of allergens.
Ahmedna was originally attracted to peanut research because of his
expertise in value-added product development for crops important to North
Carolina. In addition to peanut products, he has also reported on processes
for developing antioxidants from sweet potato skins, and activated carbon
from pecan shells. “An important part of our mission here at the Center for
Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies is to produce innovation that will
drive economic development,” he said.
Lab tests show effectiveness
Ahmedna and Dr. Jianmei Yu, a researcher in A&T’s Food Sciences
Program, reported on the process in the August 2011 issue of the journal
Food Chemistry.
The process involves treating blanched, whole roasted peanut kernels
with two food-grade enzymes for 1 to 3 hours. Researchers ground up the
treated peanuts and produced crude extracts from the flour, which they
then exposed to antibodies sensitive to the two major allergens
in peanuts, Ara h 1 and Ara h 2. The laboratory tests, known as
ELISA assays, indicated a reduction of the two allergens to nondetectable levels. Because the two allergens they tested for are
implicated in most peanut allergies, they served as indicators of
the treatment’s effectiveness.
“While these are good indicators of effectiveness, it does not
automatically mean you will get the same efficacy in humans that you
see in the lab. It’s important to confirm those effects in clinical tests,”
Ahmedna says,
Thanks to USDA funding, that next logical step can be
undertaken, in addition to the almost equally important step of
determining consumer acceptability of the treated product.
Clinical trials
If you had to choose just one food to keep you alive on a desert
island, you would be hard pressed to find anything better than
peanuts. Packed with proteins, healthful fats, carbohydrates, vitamins
and minerals, they are almost a nutritionally complete food. But in
one of nature’s cruel twists, this almost perfect food is also lifethreatening to growing numbers of children in industrialized nations.
The reasons are still not clearly understood, although evidence is
emerging that roasting increases the allergenicity.
“Food allergies and peanut allergies in particular have
increased remarkably in the past decade,” says Dr. David Peden of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who
is leading the team conducting the clinical trials.
Allergies occur when the immune system mistakes certain proteins
in foods as foes instead of friends, thus activating histamine release in the
bloodstream and kicking the inflammatory response into overdrive. The
result can be itching and rashes in mild allergic responses, or, in severe
cases, difficulty breathing and anaphylactic shock requiring emergency
medical care. Peden says that of all food allergies, a peanut allergy is
especially troublesome because, while children often outgrow allergies
to other foods, in most cases they retain their sensitivity to peanuts
throughout life, particularly if they were exposed early in life.
Before testing the peanut extracts on humans, he and his team
will conduct histamine release tests using blood samples from peanut
allergic individuals. Only samples of peanut extracts that show
complete inactivation of allergens in these tests will then be used in
skin-prick tests on volunteers.
“It’s a pretty safe test and biologically valid, but not as dangerous as
ingesting,” Peden said.
Avoiding peanuts is very difficult because they are so nutritious,
delicious and versatile that whole kernels and their derivatives, such as
peanut flour and oil, are favored ingredients in many processed foods.
About 75 percent of all exposures to peanuts by allergy sufferers occur
by accident.
“Our hope is that this will help food industry and individuals by
reducing the risk of accidental exposure,” says Yu.
Ahmedna
Product development
If people do show sensitivity to
the product, Ahmedna said the project
will still forge on, because there is
plenty of room to modify the process to
reduce allergens even more. If results
from the clinical trials are favorable,
researchers will proceed to consumer
testing at A&Ts state-of-the-art sensory
testing lab at its Greensboro campus.
Several food industries indicated
strong interest in licensing the patentpending process when A&T announced
the preliminary findings in 2007, but
are waiting to see results from clinical
trials first, says Wayne Szafranski,
A&T’s assistant vice chancellor for
outreach and economic development.
He adds that the project has the
potential to add considerable value to
North Carolina’s $74 billion agriculture
industry. The Tarheel state is the
nation’s fifth largest peanut producer
with 86,000 acres planted in 2010, and
peanut farmers returned $58 million to
the state in 2010.
Szafranski and Ahmedna anticipate that the move to commercialization could happen relatively quickly
if the clinical hurdle is surmounted,
because the process itself is affordable
and could easily be incorporated into
existing food processing lines.
If all goes as hoped, the process
is expected to be a boon to food
industries, which must take pains
to track and label for peanuts. For
them, as well as allergy sufferers
worldwide, relief could be in sight in
the foreseeable future.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Product Development & Consumer Research Lab
Safer peanuts
27
by design
Biochar from
cotton gin residue
F
CEPHT scientists
bring expertise in
value-added product
development to the
study of biochar.
Re:
information
[email protected]
ew people outside of agricultural and environmental communities
have heard much about the fine-grained charcoal known as
“biochar” – a substance similar to the activated carbon found in any
kitchen countertop water filter.
But despite its relative obscurity to the general public, this humble
material – old as fire itself – is making waves in agricultural research worldwide.
28
Scientists around the globe are
beginning to report on the potential in
biochar to address some of the world’s
most urgent problems, from world
hunger to water pollution, and even
global warming and climate change.
Biochar, or “agrichar” as it is
known when used in agriculture
as a soil amendment, is a finegrained, highly porous charcoal that
is produced through a simple and
well-established technology known as
pyrolysis. In this process, carbon-rich
plant materials are cooked at high
temperatures in oxygen-free chambers – a procedure similar in principle
to the traditional practice of making
charcoal in smoldering earth-covered
wood piles or pits. In pyrolysis, however, the temperature and atmosphere
are controlled, which means biochar
can be produced from any soft or hard
carbon-based material, from chunks
of wood to piles of grass. It yields bits
of pure, stable carbon in volumes
from 20 to 70 percent of the original
mass. Another advantage of biochar
production is that volatile gases from
the cooking process can be used as
a carbon-neutral source of heat that
can either be cycled back to fuel the
process or used for other operations.
The process also can be modified
by introducing steam or gases to the
cooking chamber, thereby producing
so-called “designer” carbon that has
different physical and chemical properties for specific purposes, from activated carbon water or air filters used
in industry and consumer products,
to various soil amendments. There
is much room for research to come
up with new processes for specific
applications, which is where CEPHT
enters the picture.
Designer biochars
Supported by a grant from
USDA, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna,
CEPHT director and lead scientist for
discovering, through agricultural and
life-sciences research, how all parts
of the natural world connect to the
whole ecosystem. The result is new
sustainable industries with potential
to expand the economy and improve
well being for people and planet.
“This non-food product development option complements other uses
of food and agricultural byproducts
in foods and feeds, and adopts the
total system approach for sustainable
agriculture,” Ahmedna says.
Biochar in history
The idea of using charcoal
as a soil amendment attracted the
attention of the world’s scientific
community about 10 years ago, when
soil scientists began writing about the
ancient and remarkably productive
manmade soil in the Amazon known
as terra preta, or dark earth. Although
many mysteries still surround exactly
how ancient civilizations created
terra preta, what is known is that
charcoal was one of its most important ingredients.
Today, 500 years after those civilizations vanished, the carbon in terra
preta remains stable and intact, and
the soils remain some of the world’s
most productive, lending support to
the belief that biochar for agriculture
could prove useful in sequestering atmospheric carbon, while also
improving agricultural productivity.
Interest in biochar has since been accelerating. Governments are funding
research, journal articles and even
textbooks are written on the subject,
and international biochar conferences are held to share findings. Both
New Zealand and the United Kingdom have research centers dedicated
solely to biochar research.
Climate connection
In order to understand how
biochar could theoretically mitigate
global warming and climate change,
we have to recall the basic principles
of nature’s carbon cycle from our school years. As we learned then, all
plants take in atmospheric carbon as they grow and respire, and then
return that carbon to the atmosphere after they die and decay or are
burned. Now, due to increasing use of fossil fuels, plant carbon that
was sequestered for millions of years underground is being released at a
higher rate than present day plant life on earth can absorb. The result is
an excess of atmospheric carbon, a greenhouse gas that traps the sun’s
heat, causing global warming and a resulting shift in ocean temperatures and currents that are contributing to climate change.
Now that the tipping point that scientists warned the world
about for the past 30 years has been reached, the impact is becoming more evident every year. Deadly weather extremes are worsening.
The world is experiencing increased heat and more droughts in the
growing seasons, and more severe cold in winters. Evidence points
to widespread droughts, famines, diseases, water shortages and crop
failures that show signs of accelerating over the next 100 years, unless
humankind discovers the will or the way to slow or reverse the trend.
Because pyrolysis locks plant carbon in a very stable form, biochar
production is one of the few known technologies that is carbon negative, which, by itself, makes it worth heightened attention. Add to
that characteristic the potential to expand the global economy, and it’s
easy to see why scientists and governments worldwide are increasingly
interested in researching it. If produced on a massive enough scale
worldwide, biochar could, in theory, serve as an economically productive carbon sink.
Because of their expertise in agricultural systems, USDA and the
nation’s land grant universities are better suited than any other public
or private research entity anywhere to address global climate change
and other monumental challenges facing the 21st century. Meanwhile, funding agencies and the private sector are directing more and
more resources toward the green industries of the future that will
provide answers.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Product Development & Consumer Research Lab
Biochar
consumer research and product development, will bring his experience
in value-added research and pyrolysis
technology to developing designer
biochars for agricultural uses. In
the past, Ahemedna has researched
ways to make activated carbon from
sugarcane bagasse, pecan shells, and
rice straw and hulls for various uses,
including whitening of raw sugar and
removal of harmful chemicals from
drinking water. Now he will be exploring ways to make biochar from similar
materials for soil quality.
“We want to study what are the
best conditions to produce a carbon
that is most useful in addressing specific chemical and functional needs in
soil,” Ahmedna said.
Some areas of exploration
include developing biochars that
can adjust soil pH, enhance water
retention capacity, and improve
soil stability. The latter is especially
important in North Carolina and
the Southeast, where soils are highly
erodible. Ahmedna and his team will
be collaborating with researchers
at the USDA Agricultural Research
Service’s Coastal Plains Soil, Water,
and Plant Research Center in South
Carolina, experimenting with hard
and soft feedstocks such as pecan
shells, peanut shells and switchgrass.
The latter, while not a byproduct per
se, is appropriate for biochar research
because it can be produced in high
volume on marginal lands unsuitable
for other uses.
Biochar serves as an ideal
subject for value-added product development, Ahmedna says, because
it can be made from agricultural and
food processing waste or byproducts,
and thus could transform what is
now a costly disposal problem for
industry into a valuable commodity.
The work is but one example of the
increasingly holistic and interdisciplinary emphasis occurring in today’s
agricultural sciences. This systems
approach is producing synergies by
Knowledge gaps
It has long been known that carbon can improve soil quality, and
growers are constantly seeking new and better ways to get more of it
into their soils, from composting, to cover crops, and now, through
incorporating biochar in fields. In preliminary studies from around the
world, scientists are beginning to report that biochar can significantly,
even dramatically, improve crop yields. Still, many questions remain.
Despite promising new data and observations about terra preta,
the science of biochar is still new, and little is known about exactly
how the substance would function in different soils and climates
over the short- and long-term. Will the productivity be as dramatic in
soils that are chemically and biologically different from those in the
Amazon? Will the microbial activity be different? Could carbon from
biochar-treated soils cumulatively release into the atmosphere years
down the road, inflicting on the world a rapid surge of greenhouse
gases? Questions such as these underscore the need for research,
Ahmedna says.
“This is a really new area for agricultural science and something
we don’t have all the answers for yet.”
29
Re:
information
[email protected]
Engineering lab improves food quality
with microfluidization.
30
M
ost consumers
nowadays know that
dietary fiber is good
for them, and food
industries are doing their best to
put more of the stuff in everything
from snack crackers to breakfast
cereals. But getting people past the
unpleasant gritty texture continues
to be a marketing and consumeracceptance hurdle.
The goal of getting the right
amounts of fiber – amounts that
deliver health benefits that at the
same time aren’t detectable to
the palate – in breads, breakfast
cereals and other baked goods has
stumped the food industry for years,
and prompted food engineers to
experiment with a dizzying array of
modification technologies. They’ve
treated food fibers with acids and
alkalis. They’ve exposed them to
enzymes, or sodium hydroxide.
They’ve heated them up, then
crammed them through extruders or
crushed them with ultrafine grinders,
all with varying degrees of success.
Dr. Guibing Chen, lead
scientist of the Food Engineering,
Processing and Packaging Lab
at the Center for Excellence in
Post-Harvest Technologies, thinks
a better answer for the future could
lie in some of the new tools that are
now being used in nanotechnology.
The technique he is experimenting
with, known as microfluidization,
forces streams of particles in a liquid
suspension at jet propulsion speeds
through a tube about 100 microns
in diameter – about the diameter
of a human hair. When it emerges,
the material experiences a sudden
pressure drop and produces minute
particles that, while quite a bit bigger
than nanoparticles, are tiny enough
to be undetectable in foods.
“This is a very new technology
for food, and one that we think will
deliver more fiber-enriched products
to consumers,” Chen says.
Fiber deserves this much
attention because the welldocumented health benefits
include reducing cholesterol and
lowering the risks of diabetes and
coronary heart disease. In fact,
the American Heart Association
recommends adults eat 25 grams of
fiber per day. Unfortunately, most
people choose foods based on taste
and texture, and for 100 years or
more, food processors have been
responding to consumer preferences
for smoother textured white rice
and white bread thereby removing
all or most of the outer bran layers
of grains. Many of the B vitamins
and minerals are contained in this
outer layer. Considering that a cup
of brown rice contains just 3.5
grams of fiber, it’s easy to see why
most Americans get only about
half the recommended amount
in a typical day. Food industries
strive to add more, but for most
people, high fiber products are
just too unpleasant, no matter how
much food processors endeavor to
compensate with flavorings, sugar
or salt.
“The reason is that raw fiber
is poorly compatible with food
matrices,” Chen says. For example,
he explains, bran fibers break apart
the stretchy gluten proteins that
make bread rise, thus rendering
whole wheat bread denser than
white bread. Microfluidization
alters the chemical and physical
properties of fibers, minimizing their
negative effects and, Chen believes,
providing a bonus in the form of
better health benefits.
Some preliminary studies in his
lab showed that treated wheat bran
had more than three times the total
antioxidant activity of untreated
bran. Chen thinks that ratio is due
to the increased accessibility of the
antioxidant compounds that are
originally bound tightly to the bran
fiber matrix. Now he’s hoping to test
the effects in animal models and
develop high fiber food products
by working with food chemists and
product development researchers at
the Center.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Food Engineering Lab
micro-technologies
for maximum
health
Dr. Guibing Chen,
lead scientist for food
engineering, selects a
chemical used in his
wheat bran research.
Commercial hurdles
Palatable fiber is just one of the capabilities of CEPHT’s Food
Engineering, Processing and Packaging Lab. Its focus is on using modern
tools of food engineering to make good on the Center’s overarching mission
of making healthier food products commercially viable. And so, while
scientists in the Functional Food Lab are finding new ways of purifying
the health promoting phytochemicals in plants or new plant-based antimicrobial food sanitizers, or developing hypoallergenic peanuts they are
creating new challenges in food engineering – namely, how to stabilize
these new products so they will withstand the rigors of processing,
transport and storage.
That is where Chen’s food engineering lab enters the picture and where
yet another micro-technology is coming into play. Chen is now experimenting
with a technology known as microencapsulation, to find out if the technology
can stabilize the fragile compounds that are under development in Dr.
Guibing Sang’s Functional Foods Lab and in Dr. Leonard Williams’ Food
Safety and Microbiology Lab. Microcapsules are edible sugar containers, a
fraction of the width of a human hair, that are undetectable in food. They
encase and stabilize any liquid active ingredient that would otherwise degrade
very quickly. They can also be engineered for slow or timed release, which is
expected to be especially helpful in
the Food Safety and Microbiology
Labs’ work on plant-based
antimicrobial food sprays.
Chen’s food engineering lab
also has capabilities to develop
other advanced packaging
technologies for industry, including
modified atmosphere packaging.
The lab also conducts mathematical
modeling and food analysis for
industries, as well as research
and development in the areas of
retort sterilization of canned foods,
ultrasound processing, freeze
drying, extrusion and many other
processing technologies.
As the Center continues to
make new discoveries, collaboration
and industry partnerships will be
critical to delivering on the mission
of solving human health problems
for the benefit of consumers,
agribusiness and the economy, say
Chen and the other lead scientists
at the Center.
“Our role as food engineers
is not only basic research,” Chen
says. “We do more applied
research with the purpose of
commercializing products for the
benefit of human health.”
31
for disease prevention
T
Natural plant compounds
show promise in managing and
preventing disease.
Re:
information
[email protected]
hey say the best cure is prevention. If research at the Center
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies (CEPHT) pans
out, and if industry takes an interest in developing new
products from its discoveries, compounds isolated from ginger, wheat
bran, tea, and other common foods could one day prevent disease
with minimal or no side effects.
Dr. Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for functional foods at
CEPHT, is particularly optimistic about the potential of ginger,
wheat bran and soy to counter two of society’s worst health scourges:
cancer and diabetes.
32
Ginger and cancer
A pungent, underground rhizome that is used either fresh or dried
as a spice, ginger is usually associated with Asian cuisine or baked
goods, and ginger ale has long been recognized as an effective homeremedy for nausea. Now, studies worldwide are beginning to show
it also strongly inhibits many cancers, including some of the worst:
ovarian, pancreatic and, as Sang has discovered, lung cancer cells.
While findings in laboratories are already offering compelling
evidence that suggests people could benefit by making ginger a
regular part of their diets, the real power of the spice will come from
isolating the compounds that confer the most health benefits and
using them in functional foods, supplements, or as base chemicals
in pharmaceuticals. That’s where post-harvest technology and Sang’s
Functional Foods Lab enter the picture.
Prior to Sang’s work, researchers have been mainly interested in
the gingerol compounds in the spice for their strong anti-inflammatory
and immune stimulating properties. But Sang has moved well beyond
gingerols, turning his focus on a less prevalent, but potentially more
active compound in ginger known as shogaol, a compound formed
when the spice is heated or dried. Little had been known about it
because purifying large enough quantities for further study had always
been a challenge. In 2009, Sang developed a method to do so. Now,
having surmounted that challenge, he is making discoveries that could
bring even more attention to ginger.
“Very few people have looked at shogaols,” he said.
Recently, with research made possible with National Institutes
of Health funding, Sang discovered that shogaols kill lung cancer
cells in-vitro (in test tubes). Encouraged
by those findings, he is now developing a
process to synthesize it so he can make
it in larger quantities for further tests in
CEPHT’s tissue culture lab, and then in
animal models.
Sang has also discovered a novel
compound in wheat bran that inhibits
colon cancer. That’s further evidence
of an emerging theory that it is the
phytochemicals in fiber, instead or in
addition to the physical properties of
fiber, that confer the anti-cancer effects.
His discovery was made possible by
powerful nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) spectroscopy at the David
Murdock Research Institute in the
Campus’s core lab – not to mention
Sang’s own ability to decipher the 50-plus
pages of data that the instrument yielded.
“It’s hard work, but for me, it’s fun
to figure out these chemical structures,”
he says.
Sang’s activity on this front
illustrates the extraordinary and rare
combination of synergies available at
the Center. He and other scientists at
CEPHT not only have strong chemistry
backgrounds, but also strong biological,
engineering and even business expertise.
This combination of talents, together
with ready access to every advanced
tool available to food science, will
make it possible for them to make
rapid progress in taking research from
start to finish: From raw foods; to
isolating, characterizing and purifying
active compounds from those foods;
to confirming health and safety effects
using animal models; to developing
packaging and processing technologies;
to consumer testing; and finally, to
working with industry to commercialize
so people can reap the benefits.
Depending on the product, clinical
trials and Food and Drug Administration
approvals could become parts of the
picture. Partnerships available at the
North Carolina Research Campus
provide additional synergies that enable
expansion beyond CEPHT expertise.
The Center for Excellence
in Post-Harvest Technologies
Functional Foods Lab
Functional
foods
“The Campus integrates basic
and applied research and product
development dedicated to the nexus of
agricultural products and human health,
bringing public and private institutions
under the same roof. You don’t see that
often in science,” says Dr. Mohamed
Ahmedna, director of CEPHT and lead
scientist for product development and
consumer testing.
Tackling diabetes
Chefs call a certain process that takes
place in cooking the “Maillard Reaction.”
We have it to thank for the golden crust
on fresh-baked bread, and the delectable
brown glaze that forms on the outside of
meat as it grills. Chemically speaking,
it’s what happens when sugar and amino
acid proteins in foods combine under
the intense heat of cooking. Much of the
pleasure we all derive from eating just
wouldn’t be the same without it.
But alas, as with so many savory
enjoyments in life, there’s a downside.
Chemical products of the reaction are not
healthful, and something very similar to
this reaction in the kitchen also occurs in
the human body. This is especially so in
people with high blood sugar and diabetes.
The reaction of sugar with proteins in blood
creates so-called “advanced glycation end
products” or AGEs, which are the real
culprits in diabetes. It is these chemical
end-products that are responsible for the
retinopathy, kidney failures and circulatory
system problems that make diabetes such a
devastating condition.
Sang has isolated, characterized and
purified flavanoid compounds in soy, tea,
apples and onions that can trap these
harmful end products in the bloodstream.
It doesn’t mean a cure, but it could present
an opportunity for managing diabetes,
Sang says. Encouraged by test tube results,
his next plan is to move the research into
animal testing.
“Our strategy is to prevent the
formation of these compounds and
therefore delay or prevent diabetic
complications,” he says.
Dr. Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for functional foods, holds a flask of ginger extract.
The compound above is one of 14 chemicals that Dr. Shengmin Sang purified from
wheat bran, and found to inhibit colon cancer cells in lab tests.
The future of personalized nutrition
The combination of biological and chemical expertise at CEPHT is
one reason Sang’s ultimate goal – the personalized nutrition profile – is no
pipe dream. Until recently, the best tool science had for understanding the
connection between diet and disease were epidemiological studies. Such
studies are notoriously inaccurate because they involve interviews with
many thousands of people over many years about what they eat, how much
and how often. Accuracy depends on how well people recall, how truthful
they are, and how good they are at estimating portion size. Those results
are then correlated with incidence of disease across the same population.
Such studies have always been acknowledged as an imperfect tool, but the
best available. Until now. Advances in science now make it possible to test
body fluids to determine metabolic activity. This yields more solid, scientific
evidence of what was eaten and when. As that information accumulates and
is sorted with databases containing genetic information, the potential for
individualized nutrition will be possible.
“A doctor or nutritionist would be able to tell you what to eat, and
what to avoid in order to prevent disease based on your genetic profile,”
Sang says.
Medical scientists elsewhere at the North Carolina Research
Campus are combining genomics, proteomics and metabolomics in hopes
of developing personalized medical treatments. Scientists at CEPHT and
the Campus say at current rates of progress, personalized nutrition and
medicine might debut in 10 years.
Meanwhile, Sang keeps his focus on the present; his hopes on
the future.
“Our mission,” Sang says, “is the mission of the campus: To develop
functional food for disease prevention and personalized nutrition.”
33
17
Building Capacity
Thanks to $4 million in funding from the USDA Capacity Building Grants program, researchers,
Extension and teaching professionals in the School of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences at A&T have been building
infrastructure to meet some of the most pressing social and
Principal Investigator: Dr. Godfrey Gayle
In appreciation of the critical role water will play in
achieving global food security and ending hunger, this
engineering students modern computer modeling tools
that are used in hydrology and soil and water conservation.
New computers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
a land-grant university to deliver quality education, outreach and research for the
software are being purchased, and students are starting to
benefit of consumers, agribusiness and communities.
learn the technology by applying it in real-life scenarios.
Minority Faculty
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna
This project will lay the groundwork for establishing a new
Ph.D. program in food and bioprocess engineering. Objectives
include writing a proposed curriculum, securing approval for
the program, enrolling and mentoring new Ph.D. students
and strengthening infrastructure for long-term sustainability.
[email protected]
Solving and GIS Application in Natural Resources
this competitive national program are now active in the SAES. The following is a
Bioprocess Technologies for Training of Future
information
Thinking Skills of Students Through Problem
project focuses on teaching undergraduate biological
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Food and
Re:
Enhancing Communication, Design and Critical
economic challenges facing North Carolina. Seventeen projects funded under
summary of updates on these projects, which are contributing to A&T’s mission as
The project has the potential to increase the numbers of
minority Ph.D. scientists who enter the food sciences field.
Biological Engineering Laboratory for
Teaching and Recruiting Agriculture Majors
Principal Investigator: Dr. Manuel Reyes
The project was inspired by the growing demand
for professionals in “green” industries. Funds are
being used to develop a curriculum and materials to
educate 12 undergraduate biological engineering
students in sustainable planning and landscaping
methods, and to establish a learning laboratory
at Sockwell Hall to serve as a site for workshops
on sustainable landscape design. A landscape
design that serves as a laboratory has
been developed around the building and is
undergoing continuous upgrading. Students
are now learning research methods to measure
how the new approach improves biodiversity,
water and soil quality, and saves money.
N.C. A&T research on goat parasites is aiding the fastest growing
livestock industry in North Carolina.
34
Re:
Developing a Global Campus for the School
of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
Principal Investigator: Dr. Anthony Yeboah
students to understand global agricultural economics.
Tao Wang, a post doctoral research associate at the Center
for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, performs a lab
procedure to measure the antioxidant activity of wheat
bran that has undergone microfluidization, a process that
can increase antioxidant activity by up to three times
while rendering the fiber more palatable.
A study-abroad program and online undergraduate
agribusiness degree program are being established under
this project, with the overarching goal of better preparing
Preparing Undergraduate and SET (Science,
Food and Agricultural Byproduct-Based
Engineering and Technology) 4-H Students for the
Biochars for Enhanced Soil Fertility and
Global Workplace Through Enhanced Technology
Long Term Carbon Sequestration
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jane Walker
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna
Three laboratories in the Department of Family and
This research project will add value to food and agricultural
Consumer Sciences are getting upgrades to better meet
byproducts by transforming them into “designer”
the educational needs of professionals and industries
biochars that will improve agricultural productivity while
that employ them. In addition to renovations, the food
sequestering carbon. Biochars are carbon-rich products
and nutritional sciences, apparel design and textiles and
produced by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen.
computer-aided design (CAD) laboratories will be updated
They have emerged as one of the few materials in the
with new equipment and software. Faculty are being
world that can potentially slow global warming and
trained in the new software. In addition, a 4-H science,
climate change by serving as long-term carbon sinks.
engineering and technology summer outreach program
will be developed.
Development of Integrated Food Protection and
Defense Education and Extension Program for
Developing Sustainable Pasture Based Livestock
Students and Professionals in 1890 Universities
Extension Education Tools for Integrated Use
Principal Investigator: Dr. Salam Ibrahim
Principal Investigator: Dr. Niki Whitley
Food safety and protection are the ultimate goals of this
In an effort to meet demand for healthier, grass-fed
food safety project, which will create a new five-course
livestock and improve opportunities for small farmers in
curriculum in food protection and defensive measures at
North Carolina, this project will fund three demonstration
A&T that emphasizes protecting food from bioterrorism.
sites and educational tools and materials to train
The project leaders will then develop a working model for
producers, Extension agents, veterinarians and others
teaching food protection and defense at the other 1890
interested in sustainable production of goats and sheep.
land-grant institutions.
35
Building Capacity
Re:
A Reactive Distillation Process for Upgrading
Integrated Research and Outreach Intervention
project team is developing an agroforestry curriculum to
Fruits and Vegetables in Obesity Reduction Via
Bio-oil to Transportation Fuels and Bioplastics
to Prepare Small-Scale Produce Farmers in
educate Extension agents in the practice, and in planting a
Interactive Teaching and Experiments (FAVORITE)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lijun Wang
North Carolina for Upcoming Traceability
demonstration site to exhibit agroforestry techniques.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna
Led by N.C. A&T, research teams at Stony Brook
University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Requirements
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ipek Goktepe
are investigating a novel reactive distillation process
Food safety is the focus of this project, which will
for upgrading crude bio-oils produced from animal
aid small producers and health professionals in
wastes, municipal solid wastes and agricultural
tracing fruits and vegetables as they move through
residues into transportation fuels and biodegradable
the distribution chain from farm to consumer. The
plastics. Two graduate students and one undergraduate
student are gaining hands-on education in bioprocess
Enhancement of Graduate Student
Recruitment and Retention in Food,
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Principal Investigator: Dr. M.R. Reddy
play could increase children’s acceptance of fruits and
vegetables. The team assembled commercially available
food-related games and toys, and developed new play
activities as well. Data were collected from observations
Eighteen students from under-represented groups
and questionnaires with 124 preschool children and
project examines the voluntary barcode and labeling
were recruited into graduate programs in the School
parents at three different schools. Researchers reported a
system that is used by large producers for tracing
of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Graduate
25 percent and 20 percent increase in children’s liking of
engineering research. The A&T team has developed
foods. This system is effective in halting the spread of
assistantships were offered and the students were trained
fruits and vegetables, respectively, immediately following
a thermochemical process to convert swine manure
foodborne pathogens, but expensive and cumbersome
in research techniques and skills. Linkages were established
the pilot play program. While the nutrition-educational
and agricultural residues into bio-oils. The team has
for small producers. This project team will enroll
with four-year colleges and universities in North Carolina,
intervention showed more impact among children of
also designed a reactive distillation unit that is under
small farmers in a pilot study to examine the costs
Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The graduate
low socio-economic status, the ability of children to learn
construction at the A&T University Farm. The unit
of implementation and impact, while also providing
students attended professional meetings and presented
appeared to be independent of socioeconomic status, and
will be used to further research into how to refine
training in the technology. The outcome is expected to
papers at regional and national professional meetings. An
was enhanced by hands-on interactive learning activities.
the crude bio-oils into transportation fuels and
be recommendations appropriate for small farmers.
SAES graduate program website is being developed.
Children at age 4 were the most receptive and most
energy and sustainable rural economies are being
Promoting Healthy Lifestyles through
Recruitment and Retention Strategies for
the study team to suggest this age group would be ideal
addressed in this project. After developing the process,
Smart Kitchen Laboratory Design
Educating Students for Successful Careers
for early education interventions aimed at long-lasting
it will be analyzed for its economic viability at different
Principal Investigator: Dr. Valerie L. Giddings
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kenrett Jefferson-Moore
change in dietary habits.
The goals here are long-term solutions to the nutritional
A new weeklong residential summer enrichment program
needs of families, and addressing childhood obesity.
and curriculum for high-school students who are interested
A “smart kitchen” and food preparation laboratory
in agribusiness careers was piloted in the first year, refined
for Family and Consumer Sciences students will be
in the second year, and is now established. In addition, a
constructed with teaching and learning stations. A
group of A&T students were identified as future leaders in
database of recipes, dietary standards and nutritional
agribusiness, and traveled to the annual Agriculture Future
assessments will be developed in order to improve
of America (AFA) Leaders Conference in Kansas City, Mo.
N.C. A&T is leading research teams from Ohio State,
the capacity of the department to better prepare
Marketing materials were developed, and an organized
Purdue and the University of Florida in developing
students for careers in nutritional sciences, and family
system was adapted for advising new freshmen and
technologies to produce biofuels and biobased products
and consumer sciences education. The food and
sophomores within the department. Additional recruitment
from biomass. Four graduate and three undergraduate
nutritional sciences curriculum at A&T will incorporate
strategies for attracting “millennials” into food and
students at A&T have been educated in bioprocess
the database technology to better prepare students.
agribusiness industries is being developed.
engineering, thus preparing them for careers in this
Workshops for community groups will be held to
promising new agricultural industry. The research
teach kitchen technology for quality meal preparation,
Biocontrol and Hurdle Technology to
achievements under this project so far include: (1)
and graduates and undergraduates will use the new
Enhance Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce
establishing a technical procedure to characterize the
technology for research projects.
Principal investigator: Dr. Ipek Goktepe
biodegradable plastics. Sustainable, renewable bio-
scales. In the process, it is educating students in bioenergy production.
An Integrated Process for Production
of Ethanol and Bio-based Products
from Lignocellulosic Biomass
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lijun Wang
impacted by the nutrition education interventions, leading
physical and chemical properties of biomass materials;
(2) establishing a procedure to quantify the supply
Engaging Limited-Resource Audiences to
economics of biomass feedstock; (3) perfecting methods
Promote Best Agroforestry Practices in
to enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis and cellulosic
North Carolina
ethanol fermentation; (4) developing a process to
Principal Investigator: Dr. Joshua Idassi
improve the synergetic fermentation of ethanol from
glucose and acetic acid from xylose; and (5) developing
and refining a pyrolysis process to convert fermentation
residues to activated carbon.
36
Researchers took on childhood obesity by asking if
The results of this study suggest that naturally occurring
bacteriophages may be useful in reducing E.coli 017.H7
contamination on lettuce and spinach at refrigerated
temperatures, as well as reducing listeria and salmonella
on fresh produce. Therefore, researchers suggest that the
Agroforestry, which is the practice of growing income-
approach of using bacteriophages to reduce contamination
producing trees together with food crops, has the
of foods by bacterial pathogens may be an effective natural
potential to create new economic opportunities for
approach to eliminate foodborne diseases without leaving
small-scale farmers in North Carolina. Consequently, the
harmful residues in treated products.
Dr. Jimo Ibrahim, a specialist with the Cooperative Extension
Program, displays a crawfish during a demonstration of
integrated crawfish and rice farming at the University Farm’s
2011 Small Farms Field Day.
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Re:
Re:
A magazine of the Agricultural Research Program in the
School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
information
[email protected]
Jason Shelton, an undergraduate research scholar, examines a soil sample during field work
for his research on soil quality. Shelton reported that crimson clover and rye cover crops
can help prevent erosion as they decompose, thus adding more carbohydrates to the soil
and thereby feeding microorganisms. Cover crops, agroforestry and no-till are some of the
sustainable agricultural practices getting attention from A&T’s Agricultural Research Program.