Nutritional supplements
AssigneesNuCycle Therapy, Inc., Rutgers University
InventorsBurt D. Ensley, Mark Elless, Michael J. Blaylock, Jianwei Huang
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Abstract
A method of producing metal-rich plants for the production of nutritional supplements. Edible plants are placed in a growth environment containing metal, and are cultivated in a fashion which enhances the uptake of metal into edible portions of the plants. The plants are then harvested, and may be eaten directly or processed into capsule or tablet form, in order to obtain the metallic nutrients so incorporated.
Claims21
A nutritional supplement comprising the edible portions of a plant which has been induced by exposure to an inducing agent during cultivation to hyperaccumulate metals in its edible portions, and which has been incorporated into any of a processed food, a capsule, a tablet, a powder, a gel, and a liquid.
An isolated, edible plant which is characterized by a hyperaccumulation of at least 400 parts per million dry weight of nutritionally valuable metal in at least some of its edible portions.
A method of producing nutritional supplements, comprising:
- identifying a growth environment containing one or more metals;
- contacting at least one edible crop plant with the growth environment;
- cultivating the plant in the growth environment with an inducing agent, under conditions and for a time sufficient for the plant to hyperaccumulate a nutritionally significant amount of at least one metal in at least some of its edible portions;
- harvesting at least some edible porions of the plant which have hyperaccumulated metal;
- and
- using the harvested portions of the plant to produce a nutritional supplement in a form selected from the group consisting of a processed food, a capsule, a tablet, a powder, a gel, and a liquid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.