March 28, 2002
Scientists tout flatulence cure Gamma rays zap foul chemicals out of beans, chickpeas
Reuters LONDON - Indian scientists have come up with a cure for flatulence, by blasting guilty foodstuffs such as beans with gamma rays to knock out the offending chemicals that cause the problem, New Scientist magazine said yesterday.
Bacteria in the large intestine are responsible for the gases that cause flatulence, and when these bugs eat certain types of carbohydrate called oligosaccharides they produce a mixture of methane and smelly sulphurous gases, which cause the social embarrassment.
The finger of blame is most commonly pointed at beans and vegetables, 60% of whose carbohydrates are made up of oligosaccharides.
So Jammala Machaiah and Mrinal Pednekar in the food-science laboratory at India's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay decided to see whether small doses of radiation affected these carbohydrates in various beans common in Indian cuisine.
Using standard food-treatment technology, they irradiated samples of mung beans, chickpeas, black-eyed beans and red kidney beans with a low-intensity gamma-ray before giving the beans their standard two-day soak before cooking.
The scientists, whose research will appear in the journal Food Chemistry, found the irradiation dramatically accelerated a reduction in oligosaccharides that occurs naturally in the soaking process, the magazine said.
After two days soaking, the levels of oligosaccharides in mung beans had fallen by 70%, compared to a 35% reduction in non-irradiated, but soaked, beans.
Black-eyed beans and chickpeas also showed a marked fall, but kidney beans were found to hold stubbornly onto their oligosaccharides.
"In India, beans are a very popular and important part of the national diet, but some people can't eat a lot of beans because of the flatulence problem," Mr. Machaiah said.
"This is unfortunate as it is a very good source of essential nutrients. Irradiation would make beans less of a problem."
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