re:Search magazine by NC A&T School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Re: PERSONAL NUTRITION:

FOOD SCIENCE’S

NEW FRONTIER

I NSI D E

VO L . 8 , 2 0 1 1

A MAGA ZI N E OF TH E AGR I C U LTU RA L R ESEA RC H P RO GRAM AT NO RTH CA RO L I NA AGR I C U LTU RA L A N D TEC H N I CA L STATE U N I VERSI T 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 Dr. Harold L. Martin Sr., Chancellor Dr. William Randle, 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 Dr. Donald McDowell, Associate Dean, Academic Programs Produced by the Agricultural Communications and Technology Unit:

Director: Robin Adams Writer: Laurie Gengenbach Contributing Writer: Cathy Gant Hill

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

8,000 copies of this public document were printed on recycled paper at a cost of $11,212.00 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:

Health Science’s 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

Undergraduate Research Scholar: Kaya Feaster investigates essential oils that may fight foodborne pathogens.

A magazine of the Agricultural Research Program in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

4 RESEARCH IS MAKING MUSHROOM PRODUCTION A YEAR-ROUND OPPORTUNITY Growing in the great indoors 8

RESEARCHERS 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 HEALTH SCIENCEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW FRONTIER A look at food safety, functional foods, inactivating allergens, food fiber, designer biochar 34 BUILDING CAPACITY USDA funded projects in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Administrator’s Desk From economy to ecosystem, the land-grant mission connects the dots

Re:

information

sjhymonp@ncat.edu

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

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 new 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:

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

scientist at Xenobiotic Laboratories in Plainsboro, N.J.

It was her work in this area that garnered the

“I believe that the experience and knowledge that

professor of animal sciences the University’s Senior

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

During her tenure, Worku has led or collaborated

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. Prosaposin is a protein that could

instruments, and a bioinformatics learning lab.

be helpful in managing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and

other neurodegenerative diseases.

the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and

Drug Administration. She was an International Atomic

“It is highly rewarding to be able to share in the

Worku previously served as a researcher with

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.

of Dairy Science and the American Journal of Animal and

To colleagues who have observed her dedication and

Her recent publications include articles in the Journal

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 that 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.

omon@ncat.edu

information Re:

Mycologist Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen is turning his focus to high-yield indoor production for North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exotic mushroom industry.

Re:

RESEARCH IS MAKING MUSHROOM PRODUCTION A YEAR-ROUND OPPORTUNITY SAES MYCOLOGIST IS LEADING THE WAY TO THE

GREAT INDOORS

IT’S NEARLY A DECADE SINCE DR. OMOANGHE ISIKHUEMHEN BEGAN SHIITAKE STUDIES AT A&T. Much of 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 cultivation of 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 in the early days of outdoor log inoculation, farmers are

5 21

NORTH CAROLINA’S DIVERSE CLIMATE AND REGION 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 associate 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. 6

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 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

Re:

MAKE IT ONE OF THE MOST IDEAL PLACES IN THE COUNTRY TO PRODUCE MUSHROOMS – PARTICULARLY SHIITAKE 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 to 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 a product that is both high-quality and 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, outdoor 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 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 least quadruple that output. He anticipates increasing his outdoor production to 50-60 pounds per week, and combined with his indoor operation, he expects to produce 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 regions 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

ash@ncat.edu

information Re: 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 bioasphalt 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.

Re:

OPPORTUNITY

RESEARCHERS SMELL IN HOG WASTE

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.

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,” Shahbazi says. 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, Xiu explains. “The process we use mimics the geological processes that created fossil fuels,” she says. 9

FINI, XIU AND SHAHBAZI AREN’T THE ONLY ONES EXCITED ABOUT THE PROSPECTS. FOUR

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

GRANTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO A&T TO PURSUE WASTE 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 small scale of that lab simulation 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.

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 it 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.

Re:

CO-PRODUCTS FROM BIO-OIL climate change, and also in light of increasing emphasis Even more profitable potential locked away in on sustainability in government transportation agencies hog waste came to light after Xiu and Shahbazi gave and industries. And, as if these attributes weren’t some samples to Dr. Ellie Fini in A&T’s Department of compelling enough to merit further research, Fini also Civil Engineering. discovered that the byproduct of bioasphalt production An expert on sustainable, alternative asphalts, Fini contains simply a watery mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus had approached Shahbazi soon after arriving at A&T in and potassium that could be marketed as a spray 2008 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, fertilizer. Developing a bioasphalt along with biofuel and where she had been researching sustainable adhesives. fertilizer makes the whole process economically viable, While there, Fini became acquainted with other research according to Fini. examining the potential of She, Xiu and Shahbazi aren’t the only ones soybean meal and swine excited about the prospects. Four National Science waste. She was interested in Foundation grants have been awarded to A&T to pursue pursuing that line of research the technology further. Two industry partners are at A&T, and asked Shahbazi collaborating, and the University’s Office of Technology to connect her with a source Transfer is also interested in the commercial potential. of soybean meal. “We have 4 million miles of highways in the Shahbazi was surprised. country, and the maintenance costs are extremely Even if the technology could expensive. Extending pavement service life by reducing be developed, it might be hard the pavement cracking would be significant,” Fini said. to make the economics work, “We have been looking for a sustainable replacement for he told her. petroleum-based asphalts for a long time.” Shahbazi “I wouldn’t use soybean Fini points out that the bioasphalt also has a meal,” he said. “You need to find cheaper stuff.” potential role in transforming recycled roofing shingles He suggested trying the viscous residue left over and reclaimed asphalt pavements into new paving from his ongoing hog-waste-to-fuel conversion research. mixtures, which could be attractive to state departments Fini agreed, and three years later, she has published of transportation that are using reclaimed paving. significant data which indicates that this sticky, tarry But perhaps the best opportunity lies in the byproduct – a substance that few researchers had ever potential to transform hog waste into a profitable revenue given much thought to – might well be more valuable source while making highways safer and cheaper to than the biofuel itself. maintain. If the research pans out as hoped, a day The result of her work is an effective bioasphalt, might come when hog producers see their costly public which has potential to replace or modify petroleum-based relations and environmental headache become instead a asphalt binders used in roads, or it could also be used in hot commodity, as eagerly traded on Wall Street as pork roofing shingles, carpeting and construction adhesives. bellies or heating oil. 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

THIS STICKY,

SIGNIFICANT DATA WHICH INDICATES

TARRY BYPRODUCT MIGHT WELL BE MORE VALUABLE THAN THE BIOFUEL ITSELF. 11

video

www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARS PROGRAM

Re:

information

jykenret@ncat.edu

Economics opportunity

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,” Bowser 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, Bowser 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.

Re:

Jefferson-Moore

Jazmine Bowser, 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.

All these lessons have come into stronger focus now that Bowser 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,” Bowser 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, Bowser 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

Re:

information

igoktepe@ncat.edu

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. 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,

Exploring animal feed

Re:

information

awoldegh@ncat.edu

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, earlier that year had 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

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

video

www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

Re:

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.

Kaya Feaster, a food sciences major, measures a sample of essential oil for her food safety research project.

Goktepe

Animal sciences major Adrienne Goode prepares samples for a feed digester.

provided by Dyadic International, an industrial enzymes manufacturer that maintains a research and development lab in Greensboro. The enzymes are 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 benefiting the pork industry with an improved, digestible, high-fiber feed, he says. That’s how research progresses, with one idea building on 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

Exploring animal feed, cont. 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.” 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 goal 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.” 16

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARS PROGRAM

A dirty job Undergraduate researcher explores issues in soil science. 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

Re:

video raczkowc@ncat.edu

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.

information

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

Re:

Raczkowski

www.ag.ncat.edu/research/interviews/index.html

Jason Shelton, a soil science major, extracts a soil sample from a conventionally tilled field.

Re:

information ahmedna@ncat.edu

HEALTH SCIENCE’S

FRONTIER

THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES

Re:

Clockwise from top left: 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.

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.

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 purposeful focus 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

foods that are 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, flavonoids 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.

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 “thiamine,” that the word “vitamin” was coined. The connection between diet and disease suddenly became clearer. Further research found 13 additional chemical compounds in

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 a health care clinic. The pace of development has been “blazing fast,” says Clyde Higgs, vice-president 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 N.C. State play a big part, whether it’s Dr. [Mary Ann] Lila at N.C. State from a plants for human health perspective, or Dr. [Leonard] Williams at A&T, from a post-harvest perspective,” says Higgs.

THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES

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.

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

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

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 media 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 those 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 way to stop 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. 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 in 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 whose immune systems are compromised. Industry, meanwhile, needs to remain vigilant, in light of an increasingly industrialized and centralized food system in which 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 these functions address practical and immediate concerns and needs of industry and consumers. In addition to educating, advocating and researching practical solutions – such as a project now under way to develop plant-based 23

A stack of Petri dishes (above) ready for loading into an incubator. In the photo to the right, Shurrita Davis eyes a bacteria-laden 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 natural, plant-based antimicrobials will be any different, 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 the 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, Williams’ 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).

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 appears to be decreasing; 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 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 DNA 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.”

SAFER PEANUTS 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

ahmedna@ncat.edu

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

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. Of all food allergies, Peden says, 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&T’s 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 future.

THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & CONSUMER RESEARCH LAB

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.

BIOCHAR

BY DESIGN

Biochar from cotton gin residue

CEPHT scientists bring expertise in value-added product development to the study of biochar.

Re:

information

ahmedna@ncat.edu

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.

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

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, Ahmedna has researched ways to make activated carbon from sugarcane bagasse, pecan shells, and rice straw and hulls for various uses – from whitening of raw sugar to 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

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

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 nonfood 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.

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

MICRO-TECHNOLOGIES

Re:

information

gchen@ncat.edu

Engineering lab improves food quality with microfluidization.

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

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 Lab’s 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

FUNCTIONAL FOODS

FOR DISEASE PREVENTION

Natural plant compounds show promise in managing and preventing disease.

Re:

information

ssang@ncat.edu

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.

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 home remedy 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. CEPHT’s capabilities include isolating, characterizing and purifying active compounds from raw foods, confirming health and safety effects using animal models, developing packaging and processing technologies, conducting consumer testing, and working with industry to commercialize innovations so consumers can reap the benefits. Depending on the product, clinical trials and Food and Drug Administration approvals could come into the picture. Partnerships available at the North Carolina Research Campus provide additional synergies that enable expansion beyond CEPHT expertise.

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 flavonoid 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.

THE CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES FUNCTIONAL FOODS LAB

“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.

Dr. Shengmin Sang, lead scientist for functional foods, holds a flask of ginger extract.

The compound above is one of 14 chemicals that Dr. 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 tools 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 imperfect tools, 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 economic challenges facing North Carolina. Seventeen projects funded under this competitive national program are now active in the SAES. The following is a summary of updates on these projects, which are contributing to A&T’s mission as a land-grant university to deliver quality education, outreach and research for the benefit of consumers, agribusiness and communities. INTERDISCIPLINARY PH.D. PROGRAM IN FOOD AND BIOPROCESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR TRAINING OF FUTURE 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

Re:

information

sjhymonp@ncat.edu

and strengthening infrastructure for long-term sustainability. 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 continual upgrading. Students are learning research methods to measure how the new approach increases 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:

ENHANCING COMMUNICATION, DESIGN AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF STUDENTS THROUGH PROBLEM SOLVING AND GIS APPLICATION IN NATURAL RESOURCES Principal Investigator: Dr. Godfrey Gayle In appreciation of the critical role water will play in achieving global food security and ending hunger, this project focuses on teaching undergraduate biological engineering students modern computer modeling tools that are used in hydrology and soil and water conservation. New computers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software are being purchased, and students are starting to learn the technology by applying it in real-life scenarios. 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.

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.

A study-abroad program and online undergraduate agribusiness degree program are being established under this project, with the overarching goal of better preparing

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 A REACTIVE DISTILLATION PROCESS FOR UPGRADING

INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND OUTREACH INTERVENTION

BIO-OIL TO TRANSPORTATION FUELS AND BIOPLASTICS

TO PREPARE SMALL-SCALE PRODUCE FARMERS IN

Principal Investigator: Dr. Lijun Wang

NORTH CAROLINA FOR UPCOMING TRACEABILITY

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

project examines the voluntary barcode and labeling

student are gaining hands-on education in bioprocess

system that is used by large producers for tracing

engineering research. The A&T team has developed

foods. This system is effective in halting the spread of

a thermochemical process to convert swine manure

foodborne pathogens, but expensive and cumbersome

and agricultural residues into bio-oils. The team has

for small producers. This project team will enroll

also designed a reactive distillation unit that is under

small farmers in a pilot study to examine the costs

construction at the A&T University Farm. The unit

of implementation and impact, while also providing

will be used to further research into how to refine

training in the technology. The outcome is expected to

the crude bio-oils into transportation fuels and

be recommendations appropriate for small farmers.

biodegradable plastics. Sustainable, renewable bioenergy and sustainable rural economies are being

PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES THROUGH

addressed in this project. After developing the process,

SMART KITCHEN LABORATORY DESIGN

it will be analyzed for its economic viability at different

Principal Investigator: Dr. Valerie L. Giddings

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

The goals here are long-term solutions to the nutritional needs of families, and addressing childhood obesity. A â&#x20AC;&#x153;smart kitchenâ&#x20AC;? and food preparation laboratory for Family and Consumer Sciences students will be constructed with teaching and learning stations. A database of recipes, dietary standards and nutritional assessments will be developed in order to improve

N.C. A&T is leading research teams from Ohio State,

the capacity of the department to better prepare

Purdue and the University of Florida in developing

students for careers in nutritional sciences, and family

technologies to produce biofuels and biobased products

and consumer sciences education. The food and

from biomass. Four graduate and three undergraduate

nutritional sciences curriculum at A&T will incorporate

students at A&T have been educated in bioprocess

the database technology to better prepare students.

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,

achievements under this project so far include: (1)

and graduates and undergraduates will use the new

establishing a technical procedure to characterize the

technology for research projects.

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

Agroforestry, which is the practice of growing incomeproducing trees together with food crops, has the potential to create new economic opportunities for small-scale farmers in North Carolina. Consequently, the

Re:

project team is developing an agroforestry curriculum to

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN OBESITY REDUCTION VIA

educate Extension agents in the practice, and is planting a

INTERACTIVE TEACHING AND EXPERIMENTS (FAVORITE)

demonstration site to exhibit agroforestry techniques.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna

ENHANCEMENT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN FOOD, AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES. Principal Investigator: Dr. M.R. Reddy

Researchers took on childhood obesity by asking if 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

were recruited into graduate programs in the School

parents at three different schools. Researchers reported a

of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Graduate

25 percent and 20 percent increase in children’s liking of

assistantships were offered and the students were trained

fruits and vegetables, respectively, immediately following

in research techniques and skills. Linkages were established

the pilot play program. While the nutrition-educational

with four-year colleges and universities in North Carolina,

intervention showed more impact among children of

Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The graduate

low socioeconomic status, the ability of children to learn

students attended professional meetings and presented

appeared to be independent of socioeconomic status, and

papers at regional and national professional meetings. An

was enhanced by hands-on interactive learning activities.

SAES graduate program website is being developed.

Children at age 4 were the most receptive and most impacted by the nutrition education interventions, leading

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR

the study team to suggest this age group would be ideal

EDUCATING STUDENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL CAREERS

for early education interventions aimed at long-lasting

Principal Investigator: Dr. Kenrett Jefferson-Moore

change in dietary habits.

A new weeklong residential summer enrichment program and curriculum for high-school students who are interested in agribusiness careers was piloted in 2010, refined in 2011, and is now established. In addition, a group of A&T students were identified as future leaders in agribusiness, and traveled to the annual Agriculture Future of America (AFA) Leaders Conference in Kansas City, Mo. Marketing materials were developed, and an organized system was adapted for advising new freshmen and sophomores within the department. Additional recruitment strategies for attracting “millennials” into food and agribusiness industries is being developed. BIOCONTROL AND HURDLE TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE MICROBIAL SAFETY OF FRESH PRODUCE Principal investigator: Dr. Ipek Goktepe 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 approach of using bacteriophages to reduce contamination of foods by bacterial pathogens may be an effective natural approach to eliminate foodborne diseases without leaving 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.

_______________ Nonprofit Org. _______________ US Postage Paid _______________ Permit No. 202 _______________ Greensboro, NC _______________

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

raczkowc@ncat.edu

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&Tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agricultural Research Program.