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A cayenne pepper that sent a laboratory into overdrive to fill 28,000
requests for seed has sped to the market in two years. Charleston
Hot, released in early 1993, made its dinner table debut this year in two
new hot sauces--Holy City Heat, made by Atlantis Coastal Foods, in
Charleston, SC, and Charleston Hell Hot Sauce, made by Three Amigos
restaurants. Also, at least nine outlets are selling Charleston Hot seed:
DeGiorgi Seed Company, Omaha, NE; Jones Deade, Charleston; Pepper Joe's,
Inc., Norristown, PA.; Pepper Gal, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; R.H. Shumways,
Graniteville, SC; R.H. Shumway's Totally Tomatoes, Augusta, GA; Rupp
Seeds, Wauseon, OH; South Carolina Foundation Seed Association, Clemson,
SC; and Nanjemoy Flower and Herb Farm in Nanjemoy, MD.
U.S.
Vegetable Laboratory, Charleston, SC
Philip D. Dukes/Richard L. Fery, (803) 556-0840
Patent Licenses
...To Applied Separations, Allentown, PA, to commercialize a machine
that removes fats, chemical residues and other compounds from food
products. It's a multipurpose Supercritical Fluid Extractor (SFE),
developed jointly with ARS scientists under a cooperative research and
development agreement. The machine uses carbon dioxide, a harmless gas,
instead of toxic organic solvents to extract materials. The Environmental
Protection Agency has mandated that use of these organic solvents be
reduced or eliminated because of their harmful environmental effects.
Other uses for SFE, besides removing fats, include extracting residues of
herbicides and pesticides from grains and meats, and removing trace
antibiotics, nitrosamines and hormones from meat. Applied Separations
will also do pilot tests of SFE for industrial uses such as separating
dyes, essential oils and pharmaceuticals from plants and trace-level
cleaning of delicate electronic components. (PATENT APPLICATION
08/106,681)
ARS Contact: Robert J. Maxwell, Food
Safety Research Unit, Philadelphia, PA, (215) 233-6433
Cooperative Research and Development Agreements
...With B.C. Cotton of Bakersfield, CA, to develop and evaluate yarns
and fabrics containing naturally colored cotton fibers. These fibers
are typically too short and weak for routine processing on conventional
textile machines unless blended with white cotton, which reduces color
intensity. ARS researchers are using certain proprietary spinning methods
to overcome these limitations while obtaining superior physical and
aesthetic properties in the resulting textiles. These include richer,
more intense colors, improved yarn strength and resilience. The resulting
fabrics are generating considerable market interest, heightened by their
ecological benefit and possible cost advantage by not requiring chemical
dyeing. Ongoing research is exploring and characterizing the physical and
aesthetic attributes of these fabrics.
ARS Contact: Linda B. Kimmel, Southern Regional Research Center,
New Orleans, LA, (504) 286-4335
...With Tascon, Inc., of Houston, TX, to develop a recycled potting mix
from waste paper compressed into pellets and mixed with poultry litter or
other manures. The waste paper, such as newspapers and telephone
books, retains water. The manure acts as a slow-release fertilizer.
Also, ARS scientists are conducting tests to see if the waste paper
pellets can be used as bedding in poultry houses before being recycled
into a potting mix. In trials, farmers have noted that bedding made from
broken pieces of paper pellets absorbs urine better and keeps dust down
better than sawdust, wood shavings, peanut hulls and other commonly used
bedding material.
ARS Contact: J.H. Edwards, Jr., Soil Dynamics
Research, Auburn, AL, (334) 844-3979
...With Rogers Seed Co., Nampa, ID, to transfer corn earworm resistance
from field to sweet corn. This pest costs U.S. growers more than $100
million in losses each year. Growers often have to spray pesticides 25 to
40 times onto sweet corn headed for fresh market sale. Otherwise, the
worms will burrow into corn ears and feed on the kernels. But ARS
scientists have discovered certain field corn lines--normally grown for
animal feed--that have silks with genetic, chemical resistance to the
pests and require little spraying. Scientists will use breeding
techniques to transfer the field corn resistance to Rogers' sweet corn
lines. An earworm-resistant sweet corn could cut pesticide spraying by up
to 85 percent, reducing production costs and helping the environment.
ARS Contact: Neil Widstrom, Insect
Biology and Population Management Research Lab, Tifton, GA, (912)
387-2341
...With International Flora Technologies, Ltd., of Apache Junction, AZ,
to develop cosmetic and personal care products from lesquerella. This
semi-arid crop, suited to southwestern states, is a source of oil and
fatty acids similar to castor oil. The United States currently imports
castor oil from foreign countries. ARS will prepare derivatives from
lesquerella oil and its fatty acids. International Flora will develop
applications for the cosmetic and personal care industry.
ARS Contact: Thomas Abbott, New Crops Research, Peoria,
IL, (309) 685-4011
...With Monsanto Agricultural Company of St. Louis, MO, to evaluate the
commercial potential of genetically arming cotton plants to fight off
bollworms, tobacco budworms and other caterpillar pests. If the
plants pass muster on cotton yield, lint quality and other traits, growers
could get a new alternative to insecticides. Caterpillars cost cotton
growers millions of dollars annually in chemical controls and lost yield.
Monsanto scientists armed cotton plants with pest-fighting genes from the
natural soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. These genes
produce proteins that cause caterpillars to stop feeding on the plants and
eventually starve. ARS scientists earlier tested plants having one Bt
gene. But this CRADA calls for testing plants carrying two Bt genes as a
possible way to curb insect resistance to Bt. Also, scientists are
investigating a second resistance-delaying tactic--mixed plantings of Bt
and non-Bt cotton.
ARS Contact: Johnie N. Jenkins, Crop Science Research
Laboratory, Mississippi State, MS, (601) 323-2230
...With Mycotech Corp. of Butte, MT, to fine-tune production techniques
and conduct field trials on a new environmentally friendly fungal agent
that kills the sweetpotato whitefly, also known as the silverleaf
whitefly. An ARS fermentation process will be used to produce
quantities of the fungal agent. The sweetpotato whitefly attacks more
than 600 plants worldwide including cotton, ornamentals, vegetables, cole
crops and melons. Crop losses in California, Florida and Texas alone
exceed $250 million annually. This CRADA marks the 500th such agreement
between ARS and industry since the Federal Technology Transfer Act of
1986.
ARS Contact: Mark A. Jackson, Fermentation Research, Peoria,
IL, (309) 681-6283
...With SunRise Software, Inc., of Hancock, MN, to develop a farm-scale
production records, inventory and decision-aid system called FarmWin.
FarmWin software will provide records of past farm operations such as
crops planted, tillage used, yields, expenses and income. It will also
predict outcomes of alternate management decisions, helping farmers
compare the agronomic, environmental and economic benefits. This system
is based on earlier prototype versions of ARS-developed FARMBOOK software
tested by a group of farmers. FARMBOOK concentrated on providing basic
record-keeping, including types of vehicles and fuel usage. ARS
scientists are working with farm managers, agricultural and software
specialists to develop FarmWin.
ARS Contact: R. Samuel Alessi, North Central Soil Conservation
Research Laboratory, Morris, MN, (612) 589-3411
Last updated: October 29, 1996
Return to: Quarterly Report
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