Trials of Vitamin A-Enhanced ‘Super Bananas’ Aim to Tackle Deficiency in Africa

18 Jun 2014 ---The world’s first human trial of ‘super bananas’ are set to begin, with the aim of providing more nutrients to Ugandans and East Africans. The bananas, which are enriched with pro-vitamin A, aim to tackle the high levels of vitamin A deficiency in the regions.

The project, by Queensland University of Technology (QUT), is backed by a £6m investment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The scientists have been working to genetically engineer the ‘super’ bananas, which are fortified with alpha and beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. The carotene enrichment gives the bananas an orange hue on the inside.

“Good science can make a massive difference here by enriching staple crops such as Ugandan bananas with pro-vitamin A and providing poor and subsistence-farming populations with nutritionally rewarding food,” Queensland University professor James Dale, who is leading the project, said in a statement.

Legislation to enable genetically-modified crops to be commercialised in Uganda is currently in the committee stage with the Ugandan parliament.

If the trial is successful, farmers may begin growing the enhanced food by 2020, according to reports.

At present it is believed around 700,000 children across the world die from vitamin A deficiency each year, with another 300,000 going blind. Vitamin A deficiency has been linked to an impaired immune system and brain development.