'Mom killers' and convents

'Mom killers' and convents

Updated 10:10pm (Mla time) Oct 25, 2004
By Juan Mercado
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the October 26, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


"Get thee to a nunnery. Go!" -- Hamlet

WITHOUT fanfare, 300 Catholic nuns in 11 convents worked with international researchers, led by a Filipino scientist, in experiments lasting over four years to produce a new rice variety that could curb the region's "serial mom killer": iron-deficiency anemia.

After screening over 1,600 varieties, scientists developed IR681440, the Asian Development Bank Review notes. It has "approximately four to five times more iron ... than most varieties currently consumed in the Philippines,"

"The new experimental rice variety [is] high in both iron and zinc," adds Chemical Weekly. "Both are normally deficient in a rice rich diet."

About six out of every 10 pregnant women in Asia, and 40 percent of schoolchildren, are iron-deficient. This reduces their immunity to disease, savaging their physical and mental capacities.

"In the Philippines, more than 35 percent of women, aged between 15 and 49, are iron deficient," the United Nations Children Fund states. "More than 500 women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year."

Commercial varieties already meet immediate needs. But most are short of iron, zinc and other essential micronutrients. They leave vast numbers worldwide vulnerable.

For years, ways to curb this "serial mom-killer" eluded scientists. Iron tablets proved costly and required complex import systems. What if rice, "extensively eaten by the poor across Asia, was naturally bred and selected for high iron content?" mused ADB health specialist Lisa Studdert.

The search for micronutrient-rich rice brought together, in the mid-1990s, scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), University of the Philippines, International Food Policy Research Institute, Cornell and Adelaide Universities.

Without notice, an iron-packed strain emerged in the late 1990s from an experiment for something else: rice able to thrive in degraded soils and cold.

"By chance, a variety designed to tolerate low temperatures inherited richness in iron and zinc from one of its parents," IRRI's Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio explained. "It had good flavor, texture and cooking qualities -- and was high-yielding."

But two typhoons flattened Los Baños fields where the first seeds were being multiplied for trials. And would IR68144's high concentrations of iron and zinc stay after the grain had been processed, cooked and digested? For that, a large human consumption trial was essential.

Quietly, 27 Catholic nuns stepped forward to test the new variety. "The sisters, who were 25 to 35 years old, were particularly suitable for this experiment, because of their disciplined lifestyles and modest diets," said Gregorio, who served as research coordinator.

For six months after their consent, their convent became a laboratory. Every grain was tracked. Cooking and blood tests were monitored.

Preliminary tests showed that the serum ferritin levels in the blood of those who ate IR68144 leaped two or three times higher. The positive results led to 300 nuns in 11 convents participating in the second phase. The trial concluded in September 2003.

Sisters who consumed high-iron rice "ingested about 20 percent more iron than those who consumed regular rice," the ADB noted. "On average, they increased their body iron by 10 percent."

"Those consuming control rice actually lost six percent of their body iron," it added. "The greatest increases in body iron were in the women who consumed the most iron from bio-fortified rice."

The conclusions validate parallel Cornell and Los Baños tests that minerals in IR68144 remained after processing and eating. "Both experiments were positive for absorption of the micro-nutrient elements."

So where does this experiment go from here, after the nuns bow out, just as quietly as when they began? Its implications ripple far beyond Los Baños fields and Manila convents. In India, severe iron deficiency causes the deaths of 50,000 pregnant women. In Afghanistan, 65 percent of children under five are anemic.

"The next step is to conduct trials in a community setting and look at the effect on children's iron status," health specialist Lisa Studdert writes. "A study is planned for Bangladesh in 2004-2005."

IR68144 seeds were developed "using traditional science," IRRI's director general, Dr. Ronald P. Cantrell, said. "No biotechnology was involved."

Seed grown in Los Baños are being shipped to research organizations in various countries for adaptability testing. The painstaking process of crossbreeding then begins. Crossbreeding could breed into the new plant pest and disease resistance and hardiness for local conditions.

The Danish International Development Agency, US Agency for International Development, and Australian Center for International Agricultural Research funded part of this project.

If there are no hitches, IR68144, or its offspring, could be released to farmers here and abroad in two or three years.

The new rice offers the prospect of decisively bringing to heel iron-deficiency anemia in the world's poorest regions.

"Despite the weight of scientific supervision, the effectiveness of the trial depended on the tireless help of the sisters themselves," IRRI notes. The "gloomy Dane's" counsel of repairing to the cloisters may yet beat this "serial mom killer."

E-mail juan_mercado@pacific.net.ph