Researchers Use a Weird Ingredient to Produce Vegetables: Human Hair

Would you eat a vegetable grown from hair?

While this may sound literally hair-raising, one can actually use our hair to produce vegetables. This is the case for researchers who have found a new technique to use such biowaste as a soil substitute.

Professors Ng Kee Woei and Hu Xiao of Nanyang Technological University, along with seven other researchers from Harvard University and NTU, developed a sustainable alternative to the growth mediums used in urban farming using keratin collected from hair, as reported first by Today Online.

Using Hair to Grow Veggies

A particular class of protein known as keratin is present in the hair, skin, nails, animal wool, and feathers.

As keratin is abundantly present in wool, horns, hooves, and feathers, Prof. Ng, associate chair of research at NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering, noted that livestock farming also creates significant amounts of keratin as biowastes.

Hence, the researchers grow crops without soil, called hydroponic farming. A substrate is then used to serve as a support structure and a storage area for nutrients and water.

Hydroponic substrates are solely utilized in urban farming to keep the plant rooted in place and absorb the water that carries nutrients to the plants underneath the substrate.

Nanyang Technological University researchers in Singapore began by acquiring cut-off hair from salons, extracting the keratin from it, and then combining the keratin with cellulose fibers made from wood pulp to reinforce it. The combination created a spongy substance after drying.

Following that, arugula and bok choy plants were grown using that substance as a hydroponic growth medium.

What the Team Discovered

The team discovered that this material was particularly successful at soaking in and holding the water-based nutrient solution employed in the hydroponic arrangement and supporting the plants and their growth.

More specifically, it had a water holding capacity of 40 times its own weight, which is comparable to that of current commercial growth mediums, according to New Atlas.

In contrast to other mediums, the keratin-based substance fully dissolves within four to eight weeks, turning into a plant fertilizer in the process. Although this would be replaced more often, New Atlas noted that it would not pollute the environment after being discarded.

Furthermore, compared to plants grown in conventional mediums, those planted in the keratin medium grew longer roots, enabling them to absorb more water and nutrients. Other sources could also be employed if there isn't enough hair to generate the medium on a commercial scale.

"Since keratin can be extracted from many types of farm wastes, developing keratin-based hydroponic substrates could be an important strategy for recycling farm wastes as part of sustainable agriculture," Prof. Ng Kee Woei said in a statement.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla