Scientists have found a good use for snuff after the development of genetically modified plants which contain a drug that could halt type 1 diabetes.

The move marks the latest advance in the emerging field of molecular farming, which may offer a way to make cheaper biotech drugs and vaccines those traditional factory systems.

European researchers said they had produced plants of snuff, which contains a potent anti-inflammatory protein called interleukin-10 (IL-10) that could help patients with insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.

A series of agrochemical companies, including Bayer and Syngenta, have been seeking ways to make vegetable protein complexes that act with drugs while progress has been slow.

For now, drugs and vaccines of antibodies are produced in cell cultures in stainless steel fermenters.

However, Mario Pezzotti of the University of Verona, who led the study of snuff in the journal BMC Biotechnology, believes could be grown more efficiently in the fields, since plants are the most profitable produce proteins.

Different plants have been studied by research groups around the world, but snuff is a firm favorite.

“The snuff is a fantastic plant because it is easy to transform genetically and can regenerate an entire floor of a single cell,” said Pezzotti.

Pezzotti and colleagues have received funding for his research of the European Union and now the plan is to feed plants to mice with autoimmune diseases to see how they respond.