November 20, 2006 03:58:15 PM PST

MONDAY,Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- The cotton plant has long been an importantsource of clothing for humans, but it may soon provide them withhigh-protein nourishment, too.

U.S. scientists say they've founda way to remove a toxic compound from cottonseed that's so farprevented the high-protein seed from being eaten by people.

"Theexciting finding is that we have been able to reduce gossypol -- whichis a very toxic compound -- from cottonseed to a level that isconsidered safe for consumption," Dr. Keerti Rathore, a plantbiotechnologist at the Texas Agricultural Experimental Station, said ina prepared statement.

"Very few people realize that for everypound of cotton fiber, the plant produces 1.6 pounds of seed. The worldproduces 44 million metric tons of cottonseed each year. Cottonseedtypically contains about 22 percent protein, and it's a veryhigh-quality protein," Rathore said.

The researchers usedspecial technology to silence the gossypol gene in the cottonseed butnot in the rest of the plant. This is important because gossypol helpsprotect the cotton plant against insects and disease.

A fewdecades ago, U.S. scientists developed cotton plants that contained nogossypol, but they failed because they were vulnerable to disease andinsects.

The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The American Medical Association has information about malnutrition in children.