STUDY: Bug Attacks Make Organic Fruits and Veggies Healthier

Leaf wounds from insects make organic fruits and vegetables healthier for us to eat, researchers report. When bugs eat holes in the leaves of our crops, the plants produce more antioxidants! The plants’ stress responses initiates an increase in antioxidant compounds prior to harvest, the study shows.

"We conducted studies using strawberries as a crop model and applied various levels of wounding to the leaves a few days before harvesting the fruit. We found how several genes associated with sugar translocation and phenolic compound biosynthesis were overexpressed in the distant strawberry fruit," says Facundo Ibanez, an investigator for the project from the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria in Uruguay. All plants have the ability to respond to the environment by activating the secondary metabolism as part of a defense mechanism or as part of an adaptation process. It also activates the primary metabolism, which will move the carbon source needed to produce those antioxidant compounds, explains Cisneros-Zevallos.