Prof. Dan Brown ’81 knows peanut butter, and he knows nutrition. “It’s tasty, and [people] like to eat it,” he explained. “I mean, who doesn’t like peanut butter?”

Brown’s research revolutionized the production of a peanut-based treatment for malnutrition in Haiti. His research improves many aspects of agriculture and nutrition, aiding people around the world.

Brown, an expert of toxicology, nutrition and animal science, studied the negative impact of toxic compounds that harm both animals and humans. Most recently, he studied aflatoxins — poisonous substances produced by mold found in common foods like peanut butter.

Aflatoxins suppress the immune system, damage the liver, and disrupt the metabolism. Despite these potential harms, people often consume aflatoxins in many common foods, specifically peanuts. In most developing nations, like Haiti, where peanuts provide an essential amount of protein and nourishment, awareness of aflatoxins is non-existent.

Dan BrownBrown applied his research of aflatoxins to improve the quality of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RTUTF), a peanut-based substance that provides vital vitamins and calories to victims of malnutrition in developing countries around the world, like Haiti, Ethiopia, and Pakistan.

“The principle thing that we use it for is curing severe, acute malnutrition,” explained Brown. “What we’ve developed simply is a low-tech means to … ensure that those peanuts in the foods don’t have aflatoxins.”

For many years, Brown taught a Nutritional Toxicology class for graduate students where each student created a comprehensive web page regarding a specific toxin. Frequently, his students researched aflatoxins. Over the years, Brown continued to update these web pages, attracting the attention of Pat Wolf, a representative of RTUTF.

Wolf contacted Brown, and asked him to inspect the peanuts in RTUTF.

Brown analyzed the samples of peanuts, and discovered potentially harmful quantities of aflatoxins.

“Over a period of months, we tried to find ways to reduce that,” he said.

Brown and his team developed techniques to separate contaminated peanuts from the healthy peanuts. In addition, the team derived value from the contaminated, inconsumable crop, finding alternative ways to further aid the underprivileged areas of Haiti.

Brown’s research led to the toxin’s removal from peanuts, providing an essential solution to a potentially deadly problem.

“Peanuts have, for a plant, pretty good amounts of proteins, and also, peanuts don’t need a lot of effort to prepare.” According to Brown, these aspects of peanuts make it a practical food in developing nations where they can be grown in abundance. By removing aflatoxin contaminations.

RTUTF is a creamy mixture of peanut powder, milk powder, oil, sugar, and essential vitamins, packaged in a durable plastic package.

“It tastes more like “Reese’s Pieces” than peanut butter, except it tastes better … The kids really like it,” Brown admitted. “It’s a special kind of food that would keep well in the home or hut without refrigeration for several months,” Brown described. “It’s part of a new approach.”

This new approach is called “community-based corrections.” Rather than treating malnutrition by admitting a patient to a hospital, the “community-based corrections” approach provides RTUTF directly to the patients. They store the food in their homes, avoiding the consequences of malnutrition.

In addition to his research, Brown provided his service. Typically, professors research a topic, and supply information to solve a problem. Brown, however, traveled to Haiti to directly support the cause. He instructed local health officials to perform these activities. He also assisted in the construction of a laboratory in Haiti that provides medications and food to malnourished children. By instructing local officials, Brown allowed local communities to develop their own healthy food and prevent malnutrition.

“When you can have a big impact in other nations in a short period of time, that’s kind of fun.”

Brown developed techniques to utilize the inconsumable parts of crops as nourishment for livestock. Many species of plants, like corn or wheat, provide great sustenance for people around the world, but only a small amount of the plant is normally consumed. To address this, Brown developed techniques to utilize the remaining parts of the plant to produce livestock feed.

Brown has looked at many poisonous local plant species. “I’ve been looking at plants that would limit livestock growth,” he explained. For instance, maple leaves are poisonous for horses. He researched the anatomy of horses and the chemicals of maple leaves to determine causes for the poison. Brown also researched the chemical defenses of white-tailed deer, which have an immunity to the local Iew Bush, a poisonous bush found throughout Ithaca and Cornell.

Brown continues this effort by researching mold contamination in corn, which is similar to that of peanuts. This mold is a powerful estrogen, which he suspects might cause breast and ovarian cancer.

“A lot of the things we do also help people in this country,” he explained.