Difference between revisions of "Fostering Duckweed"

Revision as of 20:19, 14 February 2016

The great promises

Duckweed might be the food of the future?

Grown under ideal conditions, duckweed ranges between 25% and 45% protein and doubles its growth every 36 hours. Duckweed produces biomass faster than any other flowering plant. This tiny aquatic plant has tremendous potential for cleaning up pollution, combating global warming and feeding the world. (this is a very optimistic view I have to say)

• Bioful: It has potential as an alternative for biofuel production. (Methanol und Ethanol)
• Bioremediation: Living Machines for cleaning wastewater.
• Biomining: of phosphorus and other minerals/nutrients from wastewater.
• Bio-sensors: Duckweeds are used for the detection of heavy metals and organic contaminants.
• Animal food: food for fish (tilapia), chickens, pigs and of course ducks! Duckweed integrates very nicely into aquaponics. It can provide all the protein needs for some breeds.
• Human food: Depending on strain and growing conditions, duckweeds can have very high protein content of up to 50% of dry mass.
• In Space: food production in bioregenerative life support systems in space.

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Features of Duckweed

• Duckweed belong to the smallest flowering plants in the world and spread primarily by vegetative growth. Daughter fronds bud from reproductive pockets on the side of a mature frond. An individual frond may produce as many as 10 generations of progeny over a period of 10 days to several weeks before dying. As the frond ages its fiber and mineral content increases, and it reproduces at a slower rate.

• In fall, they decay and completely disappear from the surface. Beforehand the plant produces small buds, sinking to the bottom and overwintering.

--> source: Swiss Plant Life / Ewald Weber 2009

• Die Wasserlinse existiert unter Wasser und steigt zur explosionsartigen Vermehrung an die Wasseroberfläche auf. Sie stellt damit ein Wesen der mystischen „Anderswelt“ dar, des Reiches der Ahnen und Geister.
• Eine Wasserfläche von 10m2 deckt den Proteinbedarf eines Menschen, selbst wenn der Umweg über Nutzvieh gewählt wird.
• Inhaltsstoffe: Calcium, Carotinoide, Flavonoide, Fette, Magnesium, Oxalate, Phosphor, Proteine mit allen essentiellen Aminosäuren, Schleimstoffe, Spurenelemente, Vitamine und Xanthophyll.

--> source: Wilde Genüsse / Margot Fischer 2014

• Wasserlinsen gedeihen ausgezeichnet in überdüngten Gewässer. Auch durch Schwermetalle verschmutztes Wasser kann sie nicht beeinträchtigen. Sie vermögen Schwermetalle aufzunehmen und haben so wasserreinigende Wirkung.

• Compared with most plants, duckweed fronds have little fiber -- as little as 5 percent in cultured plants -- because they do not need structural tissue to support leaves or stems. As a result virtually all tissue is metabolically active and useful as a feed or food product.
• They are growing extremely rapidly.

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• Duckweed protein has higher concentrations of the essential amino acids, lysine and methionine, than most plant proteins and more closely resembles animal protein in that respect. " Figure 3 compares the lysine and methionine concentrations of proteins from several sources with the FAO standard recommended for human nutrition. The protein content of duckweed is compared with several animal feed ingredients in Figure 5

• Cultured duckweed also has high concentrations of trace minerals and pigments, particularly beta carotene and xanthophyll, that make duckweed meal an especially valuable supplement for poultry and other animal feeds. The total content of carotenoids in duckweed meal is 10 times higher than that in terrestrial plants;

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Classification

• Family: Araceae
• Subfamily: Lemnoideae
• Genus:

Lemna: Lemna minor, Lemna minuta, Lemna gibba, Lemna trisulca, Lemna turionifera, etc. Landoltia: Landoltia Punctata Spirodela Wolffia Wolffiella

• Trivial names: Duckweed, water lentils (E)

Entengrütze, Entenflott, Entengrün ( D)