Amazing stuff! Yawn! Watch out next when you eat vegetables!
I use Melatonin quite often to help me sleep better! Now I will also live longer? 😊
Will we sleep better in the future by eating more vegetables? 😊
"... Central to their approach are patches of silk microneedles. The microneedles can get through the tough, waxy skin of plants without causing a stress response, and deliver precise amounts of melatonin into plants’ inner tissues. ...
researchers ... applied small patches of the microneedles containing melatonin to the base of the leafy vegetable pak choy. After application, the researchers found the melatonin was able to extend the vegetables’ shelf life by four days at room temperature and 10 days when refrigerated ...
For years, ... lab has been exploring the use of silk microneedles for things like delivering nutrients to crops and monitoring plant health. Microneedles made from silk fibroin protein are nontoxic and biodegradable, and ... previous work has described ways of manufacturing them at scale.
To test microneedle’s ability to extend the shelf life of food, the researchers wanted to study their ability to deliver a hormone known to affect the senescence process. Aside from helping humans sleep, melatonin is also a natural hormone in many plants that helps them regulate growth and aging. ..."
From the abstract:
"Postharvest management of leafy vegetables requires refrigeration to control their rapid deterioration and loss, which accounts for ∼30% of total food waste. Here, silk microneedles with a length of 700 μm were used to deliver physiological doses of melatonin (approximately 22 μg) in the leafy vegetable Pak choy (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) and successfully extended the shelf life of the harvested crop by 4 and 10 days at room temperature (25 °C) and under refrigeration (4 °C), respectively, compared to non treated control plants. The exogenous dose of melatonin did not alter the natural concentration of the hormone in the harvested plants.
Transcriptome analysis showed that melatonin regulates senescence by modulating auxin synthesis, the antioxidant system, and chlorophyll degradation. Overall, silk microneedles can be used to precisely deliver in harvested products compounds that extend their shelf life outside the cold chain."
Precise Delivery of Physiological Doses of Melatonin in Planta to Control Postharvest Physiology and Extend Shelf Life Outside the Cold Chain
The researchers applied small patches of the melatonin-filled microneedles to the bottom of pak choy plants by hand. A patch is seen in the inset.
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