• Question: What plant saves most peoples lives?

    Asked by to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      I would probably guess that the Madagascan rosy periwinkle saves most lives. The periwinkle contains lots of chemicals that can me used for treating cancer and diabetes.
      Chemicals from this plant can increase the chance of surviving some cancers from 10% to 95%, which is quite incredible. The chemicals are used in chemotherapy, which is the chemical treatment of cancers.

      Of course, don’t forget that without crops, many people would not be able to eat! So, you could say that food like rice which is eaten by poor people save a lot of lives. The plant grass-pea is grown in Africa, and can survive floods and droughts – and so may save many people from running out of food.

      There is no one right answer to this question, and many people would have lots of different answers – because lots of plants are really useful!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      In terms of keeping the most people alive I would certainly say Rice, It feeds a higher percentage of the world;’s population than any other.

      Work is still going on to make rice even better at saving lives! A company has invented “Golden Rice” which has been genetically modified by borrowing a gene from Daffodils which enriched the plant with vitamin A.

      We need to eat vitamin A because without it we can go blind, or even die :(, we get lots of vitamin A from Carrots. But in some parts of the world foods rich in vitamin A are scarce.

      For these reasons, in my opinion Rice saves the most lives and has the potential to save millions more!

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