SYNTHETIC FOOD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19811, 1 December 1919, Page 6

SYNTHETIC FOOD.

RESULTS OF REGENT EXPERIMENTS. That nutritious foods oim bo made from throe dements—sunlight, air and wider—is claimed by Dr Winthrop John V. Oslorhout, professor of botany at. Harvard University, fellow of the American Association, for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, who Rave some of the practical results of his recent, experiments in synthetic; chemistry (savs the New York “ Jlcrahl”). Synthetic food making is as yet confined to the laboratory stage. Professor Oslorhout said, hut that is usual with most, discoveries of this kind. Speaking of this method of producing lood, lie sjiul : “ Analysing food, wo learn that the three chief components are sugar, tats and protein- Until recently it. was impossil)le to manufacture sugar .synthetically, but now wo have solved the riddle in several different ways. Iron rust, exposed to the phisiuatie rays of the sun through water, makes formaldehyde, since the rays of tlio sun, acting upon the rust- as a. contact agent, mixed with the carbon dioxide of the air, and water, makes this powerful chemical. I'roiu formaldehyde certain forms of sugar may ho. obtained. OlJuu ways of making sugar synthetically arc through the employment of nlta-violet rays, radium and electricity. 11 Part of our research work at Harvard’s botanical laboratory lias been to observe (ho process by which tlio plant; franstornis the carbon dioxide, pir and water together into sugar, ami later into starch, either of which forms can be preserved. “So much for obtaining sugar. Protein is composed of certain acids, lb has been found possible in the. laboratory to take tin' carbon dioxide of the air. water and ammonia, which is also found in llu> air in small ipumtities, j to form a simple kind of ptotein. Now. i through tlu. coiiTninariou of sugar ami i protein, both of which have been manufactured in the laboratory, tlio necessary fat is obtained, with tlio resultant initrioiis food, “Of eonr.se one of th,. greatest obstacles in _ the way of production of food by this method is the present cosi of making sugar, which cart only be manufactured as yet in small (pi'antiiies. Our greatest competitor in tin’s iumortant Held is the plant itself, which thus far undersells the .synthetic mot hod.”