
New Uses for MilkweedBy Linda McGraw October 1, 1999Milkweed is a nasty perennial weed, but its chances of growing into a new
cultivated crop are getting better, thanks to
Agricultural Research Service scientists
who are finding several uses for milkweeds many parts. Wild milkweed grows along roadsides and in fields in the eastern U.S. as far
south as Georgia. Industry has known the value of its fiber, but is now
learning the value of its meal and oil. Milkweed fiber has become the mainstay of a small company, Natural Fibers
Corp. of Ogallala, Neb., which began marketing milkweed floss as a filler for
comforters in 1989. ARS textile engineers in New Orleans, La., aided the
entrepreneurs in blending the floss with cotton to produce a non-woven product.
The problem: what to do with the leftover seedmeal? It contains compounds
called cardenolides that produce heart palpitations in people and animals. So
the meal can't be used in animal feed. But ARS chemists at the
National Center for Agricultural
Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill., have found that the seedmeal kills
nematodes and fall armyworms. These pests destroy potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans,
sorghum, peanuts, corn and alfalfa. In field studies with Washington State University researchers in Prosser,
Wash., milkweed seedmeal killed 97 percent of nematodes on potatoes.
Incorporating the seedmeal into the soil might be an alternative to methyl
bromide, now severely restricted in the U.S. and other countries. More good news: Peoria chemist Rogers E. Harry-O'kuru found that milkweed
oil--rich in Vitamin E--is free of cardenolides. This knowledge may help
establish another market for milkweeds parts: skin moisturizers. Milkweed
oil, modified with lipase enzyme, can hold 18 percent more moisture than
unmodified oil, making it an ideal moisturizer ingredient. ARS' research success on milkweed is just one example of developing
value-added products from nontraditional crops: rapeseed, crambe, jojoba,
meadowfoam, kenaf, milkweed, lesquerella, cuphea, vernonia and euphorbia
lagascae. ARS is USDA's chief scientific
agency. Scientific contact: Rogers E. Harry-Okuru,
New Crops Research Unit,
ARS National Center for Agricultural
Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill., phone (309) 681-6341, fax (309)
681-6524, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |