Horseradish Cleaner

(SFX: superman music)

     IT'S TANGY, IT'S TASTY, IT'S TOOTHSOME, IT'S HORSERADISH.  ABLE TO PERK UP
YOUR ROAST BEEF IN A MOMENT, ABLE TO CLEAR OUT YOUR SINUSES EVEN QUICKER,
HORSERADISH IS A PARTICULARLY POWERFUL PLANT.  IT'S SO STRONG, SAYS JEAN-MARC
BOLLAG AT PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY THAT IT COULD HELP CLEAN UP TOXIC
WASTE.  HORSERADISH CONTAINS AN ENZYME CALLED PEROXIDASE WHICH CAN
NUETRALIZE A POISONOUS CLASS OF CHEMICALS KNOWN AS PHENOLS LEFT OVER IN
WASTE WATER FROM INDUSTRIAL FACTORIES THAT MAKE ANYHING FROM  PLASTIC TO
TEXTILES. BUT GETTING THAT PEROXIDASE OUT OF THE HORSERADISH, ISN'T JUST
HORSEPLAY.  IT COSTS 2 MILLION DOLLARS TO GET A TON OF PERFECTLY PURIFIED
PEROXIDASE.  SO BOLLAG DECIDED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T PURIFY IT AT
ALL. 

     Bellog: "If you isolate the enzyme that's obviously quite an expensive process and we thought,
well, maybe it's not necessary to isolate the enzyme, but it's just poassible to tkae the plant. . . cut it
and add it to waste water. . .and that was very effective."

     CHOPPED UP HORSERADISH DIDN'T JUST DO THE SAME JOB AS THE PURIFIED
PEROXIDASE.  IT WAS BETTER.  BOLLAG SAYS THE HORSERADISH COULD BE USED OVER
AND OVER. 

     Bellog: "What we did very frequently well we took . . .the horseradish and we added waste
water and then the phenols were removed from the waaste water and we added adain waste water
and this process we repeated about thirty times and each time the phenols would disappear."

     A TON OF HORSERADISH COSTS A MERE 500 DOLLARS, A MORE REASONABLE PRICE
AS WELL AS A MORE EFFECTIVE CLEANER.   BELLOG THINKS THE HORSERADISH COULD
BE USED TO CLEAN UP WASTE WATER COMING FROM FACTORIES OR EVEN BE USED TO
PURIFY LAKES THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN CONTAMINATED.