March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2 |
 DOUBLE WHAMMY: PAINKILLERS MAY CAUSE HEARTBURN  The next time you have a headache, think twice before you pop a painkiller. Pharmacy professor Jeff Kotzan has found that certain medicines used to relieve aches and pains may also send you to the store for antacids. Popular painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen, known in the medical world as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories or NSAIDs, allow stomach acid to creep up into the sensitive tissues of the esophagus—which can cause heartburn. And taking an antacid with a painkiller will likely impair the effect of the painkiller, says Kotzan, who presented his research at a meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Kotzan compared 12,500 Georgia Medicaid patients who regularly took prescription-strength NSAIDs with Medicaid patients who didn't. The fact that Kotzan's research focused on prescription-strength drugs doesn't change the outcome, he says. "The difference between over-the-counter and prescription NSAIDs is the strength of the products," he says. "But people are likely to consume many over-the-counter doses of NSAIDs in their lifetime. Thus, the effect of the over-the-counter products may be greater in the long run." Kotzan's results show that females and non-blacks are more likely to experience heartburn.  Stacie Sutton |
 Research coordinator Jimmy Mixon rakes hard-to-find truffles, about an inch in diameter, at the Tifton campus.  |
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For the uninitiated, truffles are a fungus. Georgia's variety—tuber texense—grows on pecan tree roots. With 150,000 acres of pecan orchards in the state, UGA plant pathologist Tim Brenneman, a researcher at the Tifton experiment station, hopes the European market will one day call on the Peach State for a different culinary treat. But that will happen only with the development of the right mechanical sniffer.
Although still theoretical, Brenneman anticipates someone inventing a device that will sense the aroma of gases specific to truffles, giving pecan farmers across the state a way to supplement their incomes. For centuries, farmers in France and Italy have relied on dogs and pigs, painstakingly trained, to sniff out this delicacy, which is known for its musky flavor.
"It would be exciting to provide such a market to Georgia growers, but I'm also interested in the machine for research," says Brenneman. "A machine is much easier to care for than a pig or a truffle dog. When you're finished with a machine, you just put it on a shelf."
Georgia truffles could sell for as much as $100 a pound, says Brenneman. Whereas, truffles from France and Italy, which grow on the roots of oaks, go for as much as $1,000 a pound. But in time—and with correct marketing and adequate rainfall—experts feel the Georgia truffle could be a regional hit.
Turf grass test is survival of fittest
Ron Duncan's method for testing new turf grass varieties sounds downright cruel—but it does the trick. "I try to kill 99 percent of the plants," says Duncan, who works at UGA's experiment station in Griffin. "The one percent that survives is the best of the best!"
Duncan, who has just designed the first tall fescue specially formulated for the Southeast, does his research in the darndest places. "I went to farmers' pastures and collected it out of ditches," he says. "If it was within inches of highway asphalt—and still growing—it was already adapted."
Duncan's research is important to Georgia's golf course industry, which in '98 ranked fifth in the U.S. in golf courses opened and eighth in number under construction.
Another variety of turf grass Duncan is excited about is Sea Shore Paspalum.
"It's the most salt-tolerant turf grass in the world," says Duncan, "which means it can be irrigated with ocean water."
Duncan has sent sprigs of Paspalum to noted golf course architect Pete Dye, who is using it on a new river course in the Dominican Republic. Duncan says Paspalum has an added bonus: "It can be grown indoors—in domed stadiums."
Crooked roots turn pines to pulpwood?
UGA forest researchers may have discovered why some pine trees grow straight and tall, while others are twisted. If they're right, it would be a boon to the saw-timber industry because pine trees with crooked trunks end up as pulpwood, while those with straight trunks can be marketed as saw-timber.
The new study, funded by the Georgia Foresty Commission and the USDA Forest Service, shows that the culprit could be a bent root. Researchers found that trees with bent taproots are more than twice as likely to exhibit above-ground deformities like wavy trunks.
"Seedlings are often planted with the taproot bent into an 'J' shape," says Tim Harrington, a researcher in UGA's Warnell School of Forest Resources. "Once planted, the root tends to grow in this same configuration for at least 10 years."
The study was published in the Southern Journal of Applied Forestry.