Sunil P.

Bhavsar,
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University,
Surat, Gujarat.

Brinjal (Solanum melongena), is a plant of the

family Solanaceae and genus Solanum. It is used as
vegetable in cooking.
It is a delicate perennial often cultivated as an
annual. It grows 40 to 150 cm (16 to 57 in) tall, with large
coarsely lobed leaves that are 10 to 20 cm (4-8 in) long and 5
to 10 cm (2-4 in) broad. (Semi-) wild types can grow much
larger, to 225 cm (7 ft) with large leaves over 30 cm (12 in)
long and 15 cm (6 in) broad. The stem is often spiny. The
flowers are white to purple, with a five-lobed corolla and
yellow stamens.
Many pests and diseases which afflict other
solanaceous vegetables, such as tomato, pepper (capsicum),
and potato, are also troublesome to eggplants like brinjal. For
this reason, it should not be planted in areas previously
occupied by its close relatives. Four years should separate
successive crops of eggplants. Common North American
pests include the potato beetle, flea beetle, aphids, and
spider mites. Many of these can be controlled using Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt), a bacterium that attacks the soft-bodied
larvae. (Adults can be removed by hand, though flea beetles
can be especially difficult to control.) Good sanitation and
crop-rotation practices are extremely important for
controlling fungal disease, the most serious of which is
Verticillium.
Bt Brinjal is transgenic brinjal created out of
inserting a gene
Cry 1Ac (a protein) from the soil bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis into Brinjal. The insertion of the gene into the
Brinjal cell in young cotyledons has been done through an
Agrobacterium-mediated vector, along with other genes like
promoters, markers etc. This is said to give the brinjal plant
resistance against lepidopteran insects. It reported that upon
ingestion of the Bt toxin by the insect, there would be
disruption of digestive processes, ultimately resulting in the
death of the insect.
Bt Brinjal is being developed in India by M/s Mahyco
[Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company].The company wants to
take up large scale field trials with the permission of the
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in 2006-
2007.The importance of this development can be
understood from the fact that no GM Brinjal has been
released for an advanced stage of field trials in open
conditions anywhere in the world and this is the first time
that GEAC could be giving permission for large scale open
trials for a food crop in India-in a country which has
repeatedly proven itself incapable of regulating GM
technology and has allowed contamination as a routine
affair. "Though the meeting of GEAC on Bt brinjal is
scheduled Oct 14, the approval for its environmental
release will take sometime as we have to prepare the
minutes and submit it to the ministry."
In addition to Mahyco, the National Research
Center for Biotechnology at the Indian Agricultural
Research Institute (IARI) is also experimenting with Bt
Brinjal. They developed a
Bt eggplant using a Cry1Ab gene that is claimed to
control 70 percent of the fruit borer attack. In 2003 they
were permitted to conduct field trials in five locations -
Delhi, Karnal, Pune, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
and the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research. Another
company called Bejo Sheetal Company, based in Jalna,
Maharashtra, is also working on Bt Brinjal.
Health Effect:
A> Bt brinjal produces a protein in the vegetable cells,
inducing resistance towards at least kanamycin, a well
known antibiotic. This is typical of first generation GMOs,
which were engineered without consideration of the
problem. Antibiotic resistance is recognized to be a major
health problem because of the growing development of
antibiotic resistance genes. It is very inappropriate to
consider commercialising a food containing an antibiotic
resistance gene, since several modern biotechnology
companies have already developed transgenic plants
without these marker genes.
B> Bt brinjal appears to have 15 percent less calories
and different alkaloid content compared to non-GM
brinjal. Bt brinjal appears to contain 15% less kcal/100 g,
has a different alkaloid content, and 16-17 mg/kg Bt
insecticide toxin poorly characterized for side effects, and
produced by the plant genetically modified for this. In
animals fed this GMO, several parameters were affected
including blood cells or chemistry, with significant
differences according to the period of measurement
during the study or the sex of the animal. These include
prothrombin (blood clotting) time, biochemical
parameters such as total bilirubin (an indicator of liver
health).
C> Changes in lactating cows were observed in
increased weight gain, intake of more dry roughage
matter and milk production up by 10-14 percent as if they
were treated by a hormone.
D> Rats fed Bt brinjal had diarrhoea, increased water
consumption; decrease in liver weight, and liver to body
weight.
Environmental Effect:
1. - Non-target Organisms: It is a very serious matter
that studies directed at impacts on Non-Target Organisms
are perfunctory and effectively absent. Prof. Seralini
states: “it is almost impossible through measurements of
toxicity to a few species of non-target organisms to get a
sufficient view of possible harm to complicated
ecosystems, which moreover vary substantially from
place to place in India. The experiments on the potential
toxicity of GM Bt brinjal to non target organisms (such as
butterflies and moths), to beneficial insects and to long-
term soil health are woefully inadequate and give no
assurances for the environmental safety of growing GM
Bt brinjal. Indeed, in many cases the experiments were
considered irrelevant (e.g. do not take indirect effects,
such as effects up the food chain into account)”.

2. - The gene flow studies are inadequate particularly

with regard to the possibility of GM contaminations to
neighbouring brinjal crops.

3. - The studies neglect other routes of proven

contamination (e.g. seed mixing), human error etc.

Bt toxins unsafe:
“Based on these tests, Bt brinjal cannot be considered as
‘safe’. It is known anyway that natural Bt toxins have
never been authorized for mammalian consumption.
Artificial ones should not be either, before a more serious
assessment. Significant effects in comparison to controls
are also noticed with other GMOs tolerant to Roundup,
and in total with at least four GMOs for which these kinds
of tests have been done. These resemble classical side
effects of pesticides in toxicology; and these have also
been observed for MON810 maize producing a related
insecticide which is present in part in the Bt brinjal
(Cry1Ab).“The agreement for Bt brinjal release into the
environment, for food, feed or cultures, may present a
serious risk for human and animal health and the release
should be forbidden”.

Reference:

• Development of Fruit & Shoot Borer Tolerant Brinjal,

paper presented to GEAC on May 22, 2006 by M/S
Mahyco
• ABSPII – USAID and Cornell University, “Fruit and
Shoot Borer-Resistant Eggplant-Fact Sheet”, 2005
• “Background Note on Bt Cotton cultivation in India”,
MoEF website, Government of India, 2002
• Press Release of Bt Brinjal, January 9, 2009
• Mahyco's Bt brinjal unsafe for human consumption:
French Scientist. Orissadiary correspondent;
Bhubaneswar Tuesday January 13, 2009 Press
Release Bt Brinjal. January 9, 2009
• Ho. M.W. Cummins J. GM egg plant contains Bt toxin
linking to hundreds of allergy cases and thousands
of sheep deaths. ISIS Report, 13 July 2006