Japanese Researchers Extract Vanilla From Cow Dung and win a Nobel Prize for their efforts!

[Connonym]

<snip>
Japanese researchers have succeeded in making the sweet smell of vanilla come out of the last thing people could imagine -- 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. The production cost using dung is less than a half of making vanillin out of vanilla beans, she added.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Japanese_Researchers_Extract_Vanilla_From_Cow_Dung.html Now who's up for some vanilla ice cream?

[Godhumor]

1. So when does "fall into shit and come up smelling like roses" actually happen? n/t

[Monk06]

2. Just call it Milli Vanilli Ice Cream. Sounds, Smells and Tastes like Vanilla but it's shit

[Perry Logan]

3. I hope this improves funding for dung research.

[Random_Australian]

4. What can I say? The chemistry of the modern world rules.

This rocks. Seriously, one hour of heat and pressure (and probably a catalyst) and you've made something useful out of dung. (Well, it was actually useful before, probably still is, but now it is more versatile).

Just you wait, suckers. Just you wait.

[DarkTirade]

5. Actually, dung has always been useful...

just not for direct ingestion. :P

[Random_Australian]

7. Ah, I missed that, which is why I said

"(Well, it was actually useful before, probably still is, but now it is more versatile)"

Smart-alec boosters engaged!

[supernova]

6. Vanilla. Why did it have to be vanilla?

:puke: