A research group led by Professor Takashi Toda of the Graduate School of Advanced Sciences, Kumamoto University has succeeded in identifying pollen components from a filter that collects particles floating in the atmosphere, and obtaining information on the type of pollen and the amount of scattering. ..
Hay fever is a health hazard that plagues many Japanese, and prediction and measurement of pollen dispersal has become an important social issue.However, the methods used so far to grasp the scattering status of pollen have been to count the pollen adhering to the slide installed outdoors with a microscope and to count the scattering of laser light by the pollen.The former requires a great deal of labor, and the latter has a problem that the type of pollen cannot be known, such as counting particles other than pollen.
Therefore, the research group thought that it would be possible to carry out chemical monitoring by identifying chemical substances peculiar to pollen, and started to investigate the chemical substances contained in pollen.As a result, we succeeded in identifying the pollen components peculiar to each tree such as sugi, cypress, pine, and chestnut, and designated each component as a "pollen marker".In addition, by detecting this pollen marker from a filter that collects particles floating in the atmosphere, it has become possible to obtain information such as "what kind of pollen is scattered and how much?".
It is expected that further verification will be carried out in the future, collection and analysis will be automated, and it will be possible to provide accurate information on pollen type and amount of pollen dispersal every hour at the same time.
