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UV-irradiated red perilla demonstrated promising protective effects against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in mice. UV exposure significantly enhanced the accumulation of rosmarinic acid, malonylshisonin, and shisonin in red perilla, and increased 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging capacity. The hepatoprotective effect of UV-irradiated red perilla may be attributed to the high level of its polyphenolic compounds, which exhibit antioxidant activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we proposed a framework of the intelligent indoor plant factory system. In the proposed system, we will plant with the natural agricultural cultivation, that is, no fertilizers and pesticides in our system. The proposed system includes four modules. They are the setting up system, the collecting data system, the transmitting data system, and the analysis of data systems. We introduce the big data and artificial intelligence technologies to achieve the best plant growth environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant bioelectric potential response changes corresponding to the plant physiological activities. The activities and the growth of plant are influenced by the light irradiation conditions. In this study, we aim to obtain the relationship between the light irradiation conditions and the plant activity using plant bioelectric potential. We compared the characteristics of the bioelectric potential response and CO 2 consumption rates at various light intensity rate of blue (470 nm), green (525 nm) and red lights (660 nm). These results showed that the difference in potential response has a similar trend with the change of CO 2 consumption rate, and the trend depended on the light intensity rate of plural wavelengths. Strawberry is adopted as the sample plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic hydrocarbon fuel, derived from renewable energy and captured carbon dioxide from ambient air, can thoroughly close its carbon cycle and is a promising option for CCU and an important approach to sustainable energy. We investigate the Yongxing island in south China sea, which offers steady wind resources to provide continuous energy supply for plant factory and fuel synthesis. The energy consumption of MSAC and TSAC is compared and conversion of the captured CO 2 to food and fuel are calculated. Powered by wind energy, 200 ton vegetables and 5.2*10 3 ton diesel will be produced per year, so self-sufficiency of vegetable and fuel demand can be achieved on Yongxing island. Our methodology could provide a new utilization mode for islands like Yongxing island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic hydrocarbon fuel, derived from renewable energy and captured carbon dioxide from ambient air, can thoroughly close its carbon cycle and is a promising option for CCU and an important approach to sustainable energy. We investigate the Yongxing island in south China sea, which offers steady wind resources to provide continuous energy supply for plant factory and fuel synthesis. The energy consumption of MSAC and TSAC is compared and conversion of the captured CO 2 to food and fuel are calculated. Powered by wind energy, 200 ton vegetables and 5.2*10 3 ton diesel will be produced per year, so self-sufficiency of vegetable and fuel demand can be achieved on Yongxing island. Our methodology could provide a new utilization mode for islands like Yongxing island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Essential resource elements in crop production are light, water, carbon dioxide and fertilizer. Optimum design for air-conditioning and lightings in plant factory system is required to realize the economical operation of plant factory because most energy consuming elements of plant factory system are air-conditioning and lightings. In this sense application of solid state lighting sources such as LED in plant factory system have been promoted to expect some reduction of running cost in lighting. Research work of solid state laser application in plant factory has just started recently at Osaka Prefecture University Plant Factory Research Center. The latest development of laser application research in plant factory will be reported in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fully automated “factory” was developed that uses tobacco plants to produce large quantities of vaccines and other therapeutic biologics within weeks. This first-of-a-kind factory takes advantage of a plant viral vector technology to produce specific proteins within the leaves of rapidly growing plant biomass. The factory’s custom-designed robotic machines plant seeds, nurture the growing plants, introduce a viral vector that directs the plant to produce a target protein, and harvest the biomass once the target protein has accumulated in the plants—all in compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines (e.g., current Good Manufacturing Practices). The factory was designed to be time, cost, and space efficient. The plants are grown in custom multiplant trays. Robots ride up and down a track, servicing the plants and delivering the trays from the lighted, irrigated growth modules to each processing station as needed. Using preprogrammed robots and processing equipment eliminates the need for human contact, preventing potential contamination of the process and economizing the operation. To quickly produce large quantities of protein-based medicines, we transformed a laboratory-based biological process and scaled it into an industrial process. This enables quick, safe, and cost-effective vaccine production that would be required in case of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bacterial polyesters that can be an alternative to petroleum-derived plastics. Transgenic plants harboring PHA biosynthetic genes are capable of producing PHAs directly from atmospheric CO2. The properties of PHAs greatly depend on their monomer composition. Therefore, fine regulation of monomer composition is essential to the production of PHAs with the desired properties. In order to synthesize PHA copolymer in plants, the supply of monomers and the expression of PHA synthase (polymerizing enzyme) having a broad polymerizing capacity are required. We found that the engineered enzymes with enhanced activity and/or altered substrate specificity are functional in plant cells. This finding enabled us to produce PHA copolymer in transgenic plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]