Researcher boosts vegetable oil production in plant leaves

Since antiquity, cultures around the world have been extracting vegetable oil from plants to use as food and fuel. Some vegetable oils have important health benefits, including lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing the ...

Biodiesel made from discarded cardboard boxes

Automobile exhaust emitted by fossil-fuel-based vehicles, especially those operating on diesel, is known to be a major source of fine dust and greenhouse gases. Using biodiesel instead of diesel is an effective way of coping ...

The genome of jojoba: The only plant to store wax in its seeds

The seeds of jojoba are one of the only known sustainable sources of liquid wax esters. They have been used as an eco-friendly replacement for similar oils that were once harvested from the spermaceti organ of the sperm whale ...

Preparing land for palm oil causes most climate damage

New research has found preparing land for palm oil plantations and the growth of young plants causes significantly more damage to the environment, emitting double the amount of greenhouse gases than mature plantations.

How rat-eating monkeys help keep palm oil plants alive

Found as an ingredient in many processed and packaged foods, palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on October 21 have discovered an unlikely ally for palm oil production: ...

Making infant formula more like human breast milk

U.K.-based scientists have engineered plants to produce an oil that mimics the chemical structure of human milk fat, a major component of breast milk. Previous studies suggest the human form of this molecule, triacylglycerol, ...

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