When you think of bananas, you think yellow. But scientists have now developed orange bananas that could save hundreds of thousands of lives.
The bananas have been produced by a genetic modification process to be highly rich in vitamin A.
Up to 750 000 children die from vitamin A deficiency in the world every year, mostly in countries such as Uganda where bananas form a major part of the daily diet. Vitamin A deficiency also causes blindness.
The work was carried out by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Professor James Dale, who led the research, explained: “The East African Highland cooking banana is an excellent source of starch.
“But it has low levels of micronutrients, particularly pro-vitamin A and iron. The consequences of vitamin A deficiency are severe.
“What we’ve done is take a gene from a banana that originated in Papua New Guinea and is naturally very high in pro-vitamin A but has small bunches, and inserted it into a Cavendish banana. Over the years, we’ve been able to develop a banana that has achieved excellent pro-vitamin A levels, hence the golden-orange rather than cream-coloured flesh.”
It’s hard to imagine a banana that is not yellow – but let’s hope this project can go on to produce great results.
Source: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/news/news?news-id=119796