Re: Food Irradiationn Question

["Melissa Woo" <melissa@zelda.ehs.uiuc.edu>]

On Thu, 5 Nov 1998 09:54:39 -0600 (CST), H. G Claycamp wrote:

>THere are very few radical species that could remain trapped for an
>extended period of time unless wheat has bones or teeth!!

I've been out of the seed irradiation field for a number of years,
but I recall a number of papers which found that dessicated seeds can
trap free radicals for very long periods of time.  Upon rehydration,
recombination of the free radicals can occur at a much faster rate.

There was a period in my thesis work during which I toyed with the
idea of trying to find a seed of interest which was small enough to
get an ESR signal (there were physical constraints imposed by the
equipment at the time) from irradiated versus non-irradiated seeds in
the presence and absence of free radical scavengers.  Unfortunately,
it never panned out.

-- 
Melissa Woo, Health Physicist			|<mailto:m-woo@uiuc.edu>
Div. of Environmental Health & Safety		|office	217.244-7233
101 S. Gregory St., MC-225, Urbana, IL 61801	|fax	217.244.6594
<www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo/>		|


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