Bacteria, this spud's for you.To stop bacteria from making you ill, you may not have to kill them. Just don't let them stick around, suggest Marjorie M. Cowan of Miami University Miami University, main campus at Oxford, Ohio; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1809, opened 1824. The library has extensive collections in literature and American history, including the William Holmes McGuffey Library and Museum and the Edgar W. in Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a college town located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio in northwestern Butler County in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census (approximately 16,000 students are included in this figure). , and her colleagues. They've been studying the common potato, which people have used for centuries to combat skin infections. Other scientists have found potato compounds that kill bacteria, but Cowan's group wondered whether tubers also contain substances that prevent microbes from adhering to cells. Indeed, the team found that extracts of material from just under the potato skin block bacterial adhesion. A compound called polyphenol oxidase  This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.Please help [ improve this article] by adding more general information. (PPO PPO abbr. preferred provider organization PPO Managed care Preferred provider organization, see there Infectious disease Pleuropneumonia-like organism, see there ), prevalent in potatoes and other plants, may be responsible. "It's a plant defense mechanism against fungi and insects," says Cowan. She calls for pharmaceutical companies, which often screen plants for bacteria-killing agents, to also look for compounds that inhibit bacterial adhesion. |
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