With a new method to synthesize a popular pain-relieving medication from plants rather than fossil fuels, biochemistry and energy researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have found a way to relieve two headaches at once.
lignin
Researchers find value in unusual type of plant material
Scientists at UW–Madison and the GLBRC with partners at the Center for Bioenergy Innovationm have shown that a recently-discovered variety of the substance, catechyl lignin, has attributes that could make it well-suited as the starting point for a range of bioproducts.
Staff scientist Rebecca Smith from Ralph Lab brings enthusiasm, ingenuity to bear on tough lignin
Rebecca Smith, a staff scientist in professor John Ralph’s lab, studies lignin.
With designer lignin, biofuels researchers reproduced evolutionary path
A new study shows that poplar trees and many other plants from all over the phylogenetic tree have actually evolved to naturally produce zip-lignin. In other words, not only can we potentially breed for degradability in plants, but humans may have been doing just that – selecting certain plants for easier processing – for thousands of years.