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ANESTHETICS AN EXPERIMENTAL CONSERVATION PROJECT THAT WAS
ABANDONED AND ALMOST FORGOTTEN ABOUT, HAS ENDED UP
HAVE SAME PRODUCING AN AMAZING ECOLOGICAL WIN NEARLY TWO DECADES

EFFECTS ON AFTER IT WAS DREAMT UP.
PLANTS AS HOW 12,000 TONNES OF

ANIMALS & DUMPED ORANGE PEEL

HUMANS
GREW INTO A LANDSCAPE

NOBODY EXPECTED TO FIND

A new study published in Annals
of Botany shows that plants react
to anesthetics similarly to the way The plan, which saw a juice company peels had been converted from orange As for how the orange peels were able
animals and humans do, suggesting dump 1,000 truckloads of waste orange peels into this thick black loamy soil,” to regenerate the site so effectively
plants are ideal objects for testing peel in a barren pasture in Costa Rica Treuer told Scientific American. in just 16 years of isolation, nobody’s
anesthetics actions in the future. back in the mid 1990s, has eventually “Kind of passing through this gross entirely sure.
revitalised the desolate site into a stage in between of kind of sludgy stuff
Anesthetics were first used in the thriving, lush forest. filled with fly larvae.” “That’s the million dollar question that
19th century when it was discovered we don’t yet have the answer to,” Treuer
that inhaling ether gas stopped That’s one heck of a turnaround, Despite this promising start, the told Popular Science.
patients from feeling pain during especially since the project was forced conservation experiment wasn’t to last,
surgery. Since then, many different to close in only its second year but after a rival juice manufacturer called “I strongly suspect that it was some
chemicals have been found to despite the early cancellation, the peel TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its synergy between suppression of the
induce anesthesia. However, despite already deposited on the 3-hectare (7- competitor had “defiled a national park”. invasive grass and rejuvenation of
the fact that many anesthetics acre) site led to a 176 percent increase Costa Rica’s Supreme Court sided with heavily degraded soils.”
have been used over a 150-year in above-ground biomass. TicoFruit, and the ambitious experiment
period, little is known about how “This is one of the only instances I’ve was forced to end, which saw the site While the exact mechanisms remain
these different compounds with no ever heard of where you can have cost largely forgotten about for the next 15 something of a mystery for now, the
negative carbon sequestration,” says
researchers hope that the remarkable
structural similarities behave as ecologist Timothy Treuer from Princeton years. success of this abandoned, 16-year-old
anesthetic agents inducing loss of University. orange peel dump will inspire other
consciousness. Then, in 2013, Treuer decided to similar conservation projects.
evaluate the site while visiting Costa
“It’s not just a win-win between the
Remarkably, as found in the new company and the local park it’s a win for Rica for other research. Especially since, in addition to the
study, anesthetics also work on everyone.” double-win of dealing with waste and
plants. Researchers found that, The plan was born in 1997 when It turns out, the only problem was revitalising barren landscapes, richer
when exposed to anesthetics, a Princeton researchers Daniel Janzen actually finding the former wasteland a woodlands also sequester greater
number of plants lost both their and Winnie Hallwachs approached Costa challenge that necessitated two trips to amounts of carbon from the atmosphere
the site, given the arid landscape had
autonomous and touch-induced Rican orange juice manufacturer Del Oro been unrecognisably transformed into a meaning little plots of regenerated land
movements. Venus flytraps no with a unique opportunity. dense, vine-filled jungle. like this could ultimately help save the
longer generate electrical signals planet.
and their traps remain open when If Del Oro agreed to donate part of “It didn’t help that the six-foot-long sign
trigger hairs were touched, and its land bordering the Guanacaste with bright yellow lettering marking “It’s a shame where we live in a
growing pea tendrils stopped their Conservation Area to the national park, the site was so overgrown with vines world with nutrient-limited degraded
autonomous movements and were the company would be allowed to dump that we literally didn’t find it until years ecosystems and also nutrient-rich waste
its discarded orange peel at no cost on
streams. We’d like to see those things
immobilized in a curled shape. later,” Treuer told Marlene Cimons at
degraded land in the park. come together a little bit,” Treuer told
Popular Science, “after dozens and Scientific American.
The results of this study suggest The juice company agreed to the deal, dozens of site visits.”
that the action of anesthetic at and some 12,000 tonnes of waste “That’s not licence for any agricultural
cellular and organ levels are similar orange peel carried by a convoy of When comparing the site to a nearby company to just start dumping their
in plants and animals. This study 1,000 truckloads was unceremoniously control area that hadn’t been treated waste products on protected areas,
suggests that plants are emerging dumped on virtually lifeless soils at the with orange peels, Treuer’s team found but it does mean that we should start
as model objects to study general site. their experimental compost heap thinking about ways to do thoughtful
questions related to anesthetics, yielded richer soil, more tree biomass, experimentation to see if in their
as well as to serve as a suitable The deluge of nutrient-rich organic and a broader diversity of tree species particular system they can have similar
alternative test system for human waste had an almost instantaneous including a fig tree so huge it would take win-win-win results.”
anesthesia. effect on the fertility of the land. three people wrapping their arms around The findings are reported in Restoration
“Within about six months the orange the trunk to cover the circumference. Ecology.