By Abraham Rabinovich
Herald correspondent
JERUSALEM - Australian and Israeli scientists have discovered that Viagra's anti-wilt qualities extend to flowers.
The anti-impotence drug can extend the life of cut flowers by about a week, they say, and double the shelf-life of fruit and vegetables.
Professor Ron Wills, of the food technology department of the
University of Newcastle, and Professor Yaacov Leshem, of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, have patented a process based on nitric oxide (NO), used in Viagra.
Professor Leshem said he had been curious to see whether Viagra worked in plants the way it worked in men.
"There definitely is a parallel," he said.
"It slows the breakdown of an energy-rich molecule called cyclic GMP. The ripening process goes hand-in-hand with a decrease in endogenous NO and an increase in endogenous ethlylene. So we decided to treat slightly red tomatoes and strawberries and somewhat green bananas with NO gas to suppress the ethylene."
The produce and flowers were fumigated with the Viagra in gas form.
Research into the medicinal properties of nitric oxide won the 1998 Nobel Prize for physiology/medicine and led to the use of Viagra for treating impotence.
The scientists also suggested that the gas was involved in blood pressure and heart function.
Professor Leshem told Israel Television the flowers he brought home on Fridays for the Sabbath usually wilted by Tuesday. By treating the flowers with Viagra, he said, they remained fresh for another week. He acknowledged that, given the cost of Viagra, it was cheaper to buy new flowers, but said that the price would doubtless come down.
