One of the most invasive Australian weeds is being touted as a potential economic crop, with benefits for the construction, mining and forestry industries, and potentially many First Nations communities.
The prickly paddy melon weed, which costs the agricultural industry around $100 million a year in lost grain yields, cattle deaths, and control measures, could turn into an unlikely money spinner as a source of urease enzymes to create bio cement and prevent soil erosion.
In a world-first study, researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) screened 50 native plants and weeds to find a cheaper and more environmentally friendly source for bulk producing of urease enzymes to strengthen soil.
Among the weeds tested, paddy melon ticked all the boxes and was almost as effective as soybean enzymes, which are more expensive and used primarily for food. UniSA geotechnical engineer Professor Mizanur Rahman and his students collected the paddy melon weed from roadsides in Port Pirie in South Australia. After crushing the seeds and extracting enzymes in a liquid form, they freeze-dried them to create a powdered, high-concentration cementation agent.
?Using this technique, we cut down the cementation time from one week to six hours,? says Prof Rahman.
Individual plants can yield 50 or more paddy melons, each containing up to 200 viable seeds. Taking into consideration the time taken to harvest, extract the seeds and turn them into a powder, the UniSA researchers estimated a ...