…. Osaka Prefecture University announced that it has succeeded in developing eggplants that contain about 30 times more beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body after ingestion, by using gene recombination technology.

Although there are examples of eggplants that are resistant to pesticides and pests using genetic engineering technology, it is the first time in the world to succeed in research that modifies the nutritional components of eggplants. The results were published in the plant science journal “Plant Cell Reports”.

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The eggplant selected for research was considered to be poor in nutrition. The research group thought that the practicality of GM could be proved in a more convincing way if an eggplant containing a large amount of β-carotene contained in carrot was produced. In Asian and African developing countries where eggplants are cultivated, vitamin A deficiency, which induces blindness and immunodeficiency, is becoming a problem, and this study was defined as a remedy for vitamin A deficiency.

[Editor’s note: This article was published in Japanese and has been translated.]

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