I carried a watermelon

Baby may have carried a watermelon to fuel her crush on Johnny in Dirty Dancing, but now it seems watermelons will be able to fuel our cars.

The sweet juice of watermelons has been found to readily ferment to produce ethanol.

Each year around 20% of the watermelon crop goes to waste due to surface blemishes or being misshapen. Instead of just ploughing these left overs back into the field the researches from the Agricultural Research Service in Oklahoma, USA, say that they could be used to produce 220 litres of ethanol per hectare of farm.

But wait - There's more. Just when you thought that producing vast amounts of bio fuel from a waste product was great, it turns out that watermelons are also a source of the 'nutraeuticals' Lycopene and L-citrulline. (Nutraeuticals are compounds found in foods that are thought to have medical benefits). In fact the research team suggest that there is enough demand for these chemicals that extracting them is economically worthwhile. Then after you have extracted the chemicals you can still use the juice to make ethanol.

Watermelons may not have made super-food status but perhaps we could start a new list of Superior-foods, where their benefits are more than just nutritional.

Are there any other foods that should be given Superior-Food status?

Image courtesy of Jamelah