New oil sources
 |
| David Oliver, professor of genetics, development and cell biology, is researching plant leaves as a new oil source. |
One Iowa State scientist is hoping to strike oil—but not by drilling wells. David Oliver, a member of the
Center for Designer Crops, is researching an untapped source in plant leaves.
"Any good plant biologist will tell you that plants produce oils primarily in the seeds," said Oliver. "Some oil is also produced in the pollen and in the meat around the seed." But, he added, tell a plant scientist there is oil in the leaves and they'll likely disagree. Oliver, disagreed, too, at first, with Nels Lersten, professor emeritus of botany. Lersten discovered early references to oil bodies in leaves and had also observed leaf oils in hundreds of plants himself, the old fashioned way—a slice of plant in a drop of water on a slide, under the microscope.
Lersten believed a change in lab procedure caused a shift away from leaf oil observations. Around 1920, botanists started to embed plant samples in wax, first treating them with alcohol fixatives, which dissolve plant oils. Oliver's first objective of the research, which is funded by a Plant Sciences Institute Innovative grant, is to prove conclusively that oils exist in the leaves of the boxwood plant. Preliminary data using three different methods shows biochemical evidence of oil in boxwood leaves. To back that data up, leaf samples will be tested with high-performance liquid chromatography—mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), at the Iowa State W. M. Keck Metabolomics Laboratory. Tests will also be confirmed in other laboratories.
If the tests prove oils exist in the leaves of the boxwood, the next step is to find out how much. Oliver will also test the leaves of different species to see if some plants might produce more leaf oils than others.
If it all proves true, Oliver said, the results could lead to a whole new field of research.
