Space vegetables

You can be "dead" when you see a tomato weighing 9.5 kg, pumpkin weighing 95 kg, eggplant weighing 6.3 kg, 0.6 m long cucumber or 23 cm long chilli .

(Photo: DailyMail)

These exceptionally sized fruits are called 'space vegetables' because the pre-planting seeds in the greenhouse have been traveling around Earth's orbit for about 2 weeks. Chinese scientists hope these oversized vegetables can provide a solution to the food crisis that the world is facing.

China experimented with space crops in the 1980s and continues to test space fruits and vegetables. In 2006, about 2,000 vegetable seeds brought by 8 Shijian satellites to Earth orbit. After a period of planting and caring in a greenhouse, the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences harvested vegetables with a weight and size 10 times larger than normal. After harvesting, the best samples are selected for further propagation.

Scientists cannot explain why the seeds after being released to space grow faster and produce much larger fruits than normal. However, factors such as cosmic radiation, microgravity and magnetic fields are thought to contribute to the transformation of the seed.

(Photo: DailyMail)

One Institute researcher said that despite this, 'space vegetables' are not harmful to human health, because their genes are not mutated. The US National Aeronautics Agency (NASA) also confirmed this. In 2002, NASA brought 8 soy beans to the International Space Station (ISS). They found higher levels of starch and oil in the grain than normal ones, but there were no signs of genetic mutations.

Not only that, the content of some micronutrients such as vitamin C, zinc . in the fruit is many times higher than when the seeds germinate under normal conditions. China said its huge fruits and vegetables were exported to Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and are attracting the attention of European agricultural companies.