Scotland, June 19: Our favourite cold drinks to drinking water are stored in plastic bottles (made of PET- Polyethylene terephthalate). These used bottles have to be reused and recycled to reduce pollution. In a recent study, researchers used plastic bottles to make vanillin. Vanillin is a chemical that can be extracted naturally from vanilla beans or made artificially in labs. It is largely used in the food industry for making ice-creams, chocolates, and cakes.
PET when broken down we get the basic subunit, terephthalic acid. Researchers took genetically engineered (to alter the genetic makeup of an organism) bacteria called E.coli (Escherichia coli) and terephthalic acid, mixed it and kept undisturbed for a day at 37 degrees Celsius. Afterwards, it was seen that around 79% of the terephthalic acid was converted into vanillin. Both terephthalic acid and vanillin have similar chemical compositions and these engineered bacteria make only minor changes to the hydrogens and oxygens of the carbon structure.
News inputs from Shreya Agarwal.
Bottom: Vanillin Structure Image credits: Wikipedia