Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Washington (Agenzia Fides) - 'Orange' maize, a variety of the common cereal crop, could improve the lives of millions of malnourished people by providing increased vitamin A in their diet, according to a new study recently published by the Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Vitamin A deficiency is endemic in many poor populations, causing up to 500,000 children a year to go blind and increasing the risk of other diseases and death. Sources of Vitamin A like meat, eggs, darkly colored green vegetables, and orange fruits are generally too expensive for poor populations, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. But amongst other things, maize is a major source of everyday nutrition in the region. People consume white maize porridge in large amounts, sometimes eating as much as a half kilo a day.
Conscious of this traditional preference, researchers have bred orange maize to contain more beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A. The study proved that the beta-carotene from the orange maize was converted at nearly twice the rate previously assumed for maize.
In 2012, the American organization HarvestPlus intends to introduce the variety into Zambia, where vitamin A deficiency affects over 53 percent of the child population. They speculate that the new crop could account for 30 percent of the daily vitamin A required for children two to six years old and 40 percent for women of child-bearing age. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 09/14/2010)
