Viagra for prevention of plant wilting
Can viagra really keep flowers (roses) "erect"?
A low-concentration solution of sildenafil in
water significantly prolongs the time before cut flowers wilt;
one experiment showed a doubling in time from one week to two
weeks. The mechanism of action is similar to that in humans: nitric
oxide leads to the production of cGMP whose degradation by PDE5
is inhibited by sildenafil.
Viagra makes flowers stand up straight
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich (Jerusalem)
Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is good not only
for treating male impotence. Israeli and Australian researchers
have discovered that small concentrations of the drug dissolved
in a vase of water can also double the shelf life of cut flowers,
making them stand up straight for as long as a week beyond their
natural life span.
They have already tested Viagra on strawberries,
legumes, roses, carnations, broccoli, and other perishables. In
this latest research they found that 1 mg of the drug (compared
with 50 mg in one pill taken by impotent men) in a solution was
enough to prevent two vases of cut flowers from wilting for as
much as a week longer than might be expected.
Professor Yaacov Leshem, a plant researcher at
Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and Professor Ron Wills
of the food technology department of the University of Newcastle,
Australia, also patented a safe, cheap process for increasing
the shelf life of fruit, vegetables, and cut flowers using nitric
oxide. The produce and cut flowers were fumigated with the colourless,
odourless gas, an environmental pollutant that in minute quantities
acts as the body’s most important signalling molecule.
The results of the applied research on nitric
oxide were first fully reported in late 1998 in Plant Physiology
and Biochemistry (1998;36:825-33) and have since been the topic
of discussion at international conferences of the food storage
and packaging industry. Professor Leshem will present his discovery
at the opening plenary session of the September 1999 international
conference on fresh cut produce in England.
An unexpected finding of Professor Leshem’s
group is that Viagra has a similar effect on plant ripening as
it does on men’s sexual organs. Viagra increases the vase
life of flowers by retarding the breakdown of cyclic guanosine
monophosphate (cGMP) (the production of which is mediated by nitric
oxide).
Both chemicals could provide the food industry
with entirely new, dramatically improved pro-cesses for preserving
agricultural produce, Professor Leshem said.
“Nitric oxide is practically free and plentiful,
with no identifiable side effects at the very low concentrations
we used,” he added. “Right now, Viagra costs much
more but does have certain advantages over nitric oxide—for
example, it’s easier to use in cut flowers.
“It is now up to industry to develop the
engineering methods for large scale, pretreatment of produce based
on our discoveries.”
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