If you want your plants to survive a drought, give them alcohol
A study found that treating plants with a small amount of alcohol/ethanol can them survive for as long as two weeks without water. (Ethanol is neat alcohol. A small amount of the chemical is the same as a large number of normal alcoholic beverages.)
Plants are withering due to droughts and water scarcity due to sweltering heat in various parts of the world.
These findings were published in Plant and Cell Physiology.
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan performed an experiment and found out that giving alcohol/ethanol to plants may protect them to last longer during the droughts.
Dr Motoaki Seki, of the RIKEN Centre for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan, said that the discovery happened in the "process of searching for compounds that make plants resistant to stress".
Ethanol also offers a practical way to increase food production as it is widely available.
Researchers also said that the team will soon begin testing ethanol on plants in real fields.
The research also warned that ethanol needs to be used carefully as "higher concentration of ethanol inhibits plant growth".