Rust Removing Plant is Found

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 20, 16 October 1937, Page 16

Rust Removing Plant is Found

NEW OBLEANS.—A plant, the juice of which will preserve meat, and another said to have the property of removing rust, are among the trophies brought baek ;from the tropics by Commander . J. . Mortiiner Sheppard, of the Pan- American. Society of Tropieal Research. He is' now trying to raise them on a fa"rm on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, at Long Beach, Miss. He recently returned from his sixth expedition to the tr.opics in the 57ton yacht Gelia, with flora and fauna for diff erent' museums and colleges. The meat-preserving plsDnt is called by the natives planta da la carne (plant of the. meat). Sheppard first saw it used in the Orinoco country of South America severn! years ago, but could not learn from the witcli doctors what plant it was. Those witeh doctors had the job of preserving the meats, among other "magic," and would not surrender their seeret. Erorn tho Indians of the mosquito coast of Central America, Mr. Sheppard identified the plant- this year, and brought growing specimens north with him. # "When the stalk and leaves are ground up, there' results a liquid. which kills developing , baeteria, without imparting any-flavour to the meat," he said. "It- keeps meat . fresh in the tropics for from • f our to six weeks. 1 ' On the same mosquito coast, he said, Indians showgd'him 'tho vine" which removes mst from steel, "does it with one xubbing with .the vine 's juice," he said. The commander brought baek growing plants and seed.