Laboratory Equipment

Researchers Uncover Onions’ Sulfurous Secrets

Plants are a rich resource of bioactive compounds, many of which have inspired therapeutic drugs. Yet countless plant compounds, potentially with medical uses, still remain to be identified. Kazuki Saito, Ryo Nakabayashi and colleagues from the RIKEN Plant Science Center have now developed a technique for rapidly cataloging subsets of compounds in plant extracts based on mass spectrometry data as a first step toward a fully automated system for cataloging novel plant compounds.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/researchers-uncover-onions%E2%80%99-sulfurous-secrets

Onion Waste Absorbs Heavy Metals

Onion and garlic waste from the food industry could be used to mop up hazardous heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, mercury and tin in contaminated materials, according to a research paper published in Inderscience’s International Journal of Environment and Pollution.

Biotechnologists Rahul Negi, Gouri Satpathy, Yogesh Tyagi and Rajinder Gupta of the GGS Indraprastha Univ., explain how waste from the processing and canning of onion (Allium cepa L.) and garlic (Allium sativum L.) could be used as an alternative remediation material for removing toxic elements from contaminated materials including industrial effluent.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/onion-waste-absorbs-heavy-metals