A vitamin-enhanced \u2018super-banana\u2019 developed by scientists is to be tested on humans. The trials are to take place in the US over a six-week period. Researchers aim to start growing the fruit in Uganda by 2020.<\/p>\n
The bananas are \u2018super\u2019 because they have been genetically enhanced to have increased levels of vitamin A \u2014 a deficiency of which can be fatal.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands die annually worldwide from vitamin A deficiencies, while many others go blind, the project’s leader told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of vitamin A deficiency are dire with 650,000-700,000 children worldwide dying…each year and at least another 300,000 going blind,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Professor James Dale stated.<\/p>\n \u201cGood science can make a massive difference here by enriching staple crops such as Ugandan bananas with pro-vitamin A and providing poor and subsistence-farming populations with nutritionally rewarding food,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Dale said.<\/p>\n The project was created by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know our science will work,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Dale said.\u00a0\u201cWe made all the constructs, the genes that went into bananas, and put them into bananas here at QUT.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Dale added that the genetically modified banana flesh is more orange than a usual banana, but otherwise looks the same.<\/p>\n The highland or East African cooking banana is a dietary staple in East Africa, according to the researchers. However, it has low levels of micronutrients, particularly vitamin A and iron.<\/p>\n If the project is given the go-ahead for Uganda after the US trials, micronutrient enriched\/modified crops could also be given the green light for Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania.<\/p>\n