If you are sick, you may not have to take an injection or take medicine. Just sip a few fruits as you please. Yesterday, the reporter learned from the State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering at Fudan University that researchers are doing a variety of “genetic surgery†for tomatoes. In another two to three years, the sweet and sour tomato will be officially upgraded to a cute “natural medicineâ€. For patients, taking medicine will become a delicious treat. Where does the genetic medicine that grows in the field can be eaten as tomatoes? Similar to the production process of various genetically modified foods, researchers first have to implant a particular protein into ordinary tomatoes and reproduce it through multiple generations to gradually stabilize the transferred gene and eventually become an independent tomato strain. At this time, these new members of the Tomato family can walk from the lab to the field and reproduce under the care of the farmer's uncle. According to the project leader Professor Tang Kexuan of the National 863 Program’s bioengineering technology subject matter experts, the first batch of pharmaceutical tomatoes that came out of Shanghai will be used to treat hypertension, hemophilia and osteoporosis, respectively. Tang Kexuan said that for some critically ill patients, tomato therapy may not be a complete substitute for traditional drug treatment, but they can at least provide "miraculous" adjuvant effects. Food safety can be rest assured that because of genetically modified foods, consumers are particularly concerned about their safety. In this regard, Tang Kexuan said that this need not worry. First, the drug tomatoes are absolutely safe for the patient. In the final product, no selection markers will be included, and the target genes transferred are all state-approved commercialized exogenous genes. Secondly, the tomatoes will be cultivated in a greenhouse that is completely isolated from the outside world. It will not cause adverse gene drift to other species, nor will it cause pollution to surrounding farmland and the environment. Moreover, before the market, drug tomatoes will also undergo four stages of the listing of genetically modified foods: the pilot phase, the environmental release phase, the production trial phase, and the production certification application phase. At the time of listing, these special tomatoes will “wear†a uniform genetically modified logo and attach a detailed food instruction to the consumer. Not all of them are better. Besides tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, bananas and other vegetables and fruits that can be eaten raw have been included in the list of functional food carriers for scientists. In the future, most of them will appear on the shelves of supermarkets as drugs, and the prices will not be too expensive. Because they have the same attractive color and texture as the original species, plus their therapeutic or health-care functions, some gluttonous people will inevitably appetite. To this end, the experts specifically reminded that since it is a medicine, it is not all better. Taking blood pressure lowering tomatoes as an example, if you eat too much, hypertensive patients may become hypotension; and if you are treating osteoporosis, the more you eat, the more calcitonin supplements, and the stronger your bones become. In addition, these medicinal vegetables and fruits will be squeezed into juice or made into sauces to suit a variety of tastes. In either form, one thing is very certain: it must be eaten raw, otherwise the effective protein in it will be thermally decomposed and its drug power will be ineffective. News links A few days ago, a tomato called anti-hepatitis B was successfully cultivated at the Biotechnology Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and is currently in the stage of environmental release. Although it does not cure hepatitis B, as long as you eat a few a year, you can completely replace the hepatitis B vaccine injection. It is expected that by the end of 2004, this kind of “Vaccine Fruit†will first appear in supermarkets in 20 big cities across the country, and the price of each tomato is about 2 yuan.