Unusual sugar from cyanobacteria acts as natural herbicide

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-unusual-sugar-cyanobacteria-natural-herbicide.html

by jelliclesfarm • 7 years ago

77 18 7 years ago

danesparza• 7 years ago

inhibits the growth of various microorganisms and plants but is harmless to humans and animals

But what about gut biome? I would think if you injested this, it could seriously harm the natural (and good) biome inside of humans or animals. Am I misreading this?

adrienthebo• 7 years ago

Ingesting this could probably do some nasty things to your gut biome - but remember that we're talking about an herbicide. If you ingested most herbicides you'd be dead shortly after, so this could be much safer.

Edit - ingested herbicides at any meaningful quantity.

quxbar• 7 years ago

I think it's still reasonable to fear some ambient level of this stuff could do us harm over time despite being marketed as 'harmless'. See: asbestos.

bluGill• 7 years ago

Herbicides kill plants. Many of them are safe to drink, the only way to die is drink enough to drown.

abakker• 7 years ago

Oh, great. More product to sterilize the soil and reduce microbiome. I've had farmers tell me that they wanted a more accurate free-carbon soil test because it was indicative of microbiome activity, and by extension indicative of healthy soil. Farmers know the importance of active microbiome in the soil and I suspect they won't want to kill it off as it will further increase the burden of farmers to overfertilize.

fredgrott• 7 years ago

no they effing do not!!

I grew up with a few....they bought the 1960s chemical company line what is good for Monsanto is good for farmers...

nubslayer• 7 years ago

If it is harmless to humans then it wouldn't seriously harm any biome relied upon by humans, it seems.

thatcat• 7 years ago

It says it targets prototrophs, which are microbes that use the same nutrients as the parent organism. In this case it appears the microbes have a similar metabolic pathway in common with plants to uptake the pseudo sugar.

troyvit• 7 years ago

The soil also has a powerful biome that we're only beginning to understand. (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/h...)

rbanffy• 7 years ago

Until this substance is a bit older, I'd refrain from claiming it's harmless.

gus_massa• 7 years ago

In spite the optimistic assertions at the beginning of the article like

a newly discovered sugar molecule synthesized from cyanobacteria that inhibits the growth of various microorganisms and plants but is harmless to humans and animals

they actually agree with you. Near the end:

However, effectiveness in the field, degradability in the soil and harmlessness to livestock and humans would have to be further investigated in comprehensive long-term studies for 7dSh.

mars4rp• 7 years ago

a life cycle of humans and microorganisms are a bit different!

Unusual sugar from cyanobacteria acts as natural herbicide

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