Japanese researcher Mayu Yamamoto has succeeded in making vanilla out of ... cow dung!
In a world-first recycling project, a one-hour heating and pressuring process allows cow feces to produce vanillin, the main component of the vanilla-bean extract, according to researcher Mayu Yamamoto.
The vanillin extracted from the feces could be used in products such as shampoo and aromatic candles but not in food, said Yamamoto, who works for the Research Institute of the state-run International Medical Center of Japan.
Compared with usual vanilla, "this component is exactly the same but it would be difficult for people to accept it in food, given the recent rules of disclosing the origins of ingredients," she said.
Link - via Fortean Times
Pretty soon, we'll have cows that can produce vanilla ice cream all on their own.
Now if we feed them cocoa beans, we could get chocolate, too...
Still, it's disgusting. And it's all fine and good until someone gets mad vanilla disease. I wonder if it has an after-aroma of barnyard...
They're going to tell us that they had "recycling" in head when they started playing with cow dung?
Do we need to recycle our shit now?
Just more junk science at work. Must be a government grant. :)