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Virtually, all parts of the calabash ( Crescentia cujete ) tree have been found to be useful; the wood for tool handles, ribs in boat building, cattle yokes, and the gourd is used for cups, containers and musical instruments. The calabash ( C. cujete ) fruit was studied for its chemical constituents- proximate and mineral composition as well as phytochemical properties. The sugar content, energy content, electrical conductivity and pH of the fruit were also determined. The value of the fat, protein, nitrogen, crude fibre, moisture content, sucrose, fructose, galactose and energy content are quite high viz; 1.13, 8.35, 1.34, 4.28, 84.92, 59.86, 25.09, 18.24 and 88.69%, respectively. The pH of the fruit falls within the acidic range (4.80) and the mean value recorded for the electrical conductivity was 163.24 μS/cm. The results obtained for the mineral elements show that sodium and phosphorus have high mean concentrations, while low mean concentrations were recorded for others. Also, the results show relatively low mean concentrations for the heavy metals; but high mean concentrations for manganese, iron, zinc and copper. The presence of phytochemicals like saponins, flavonoid, cardenolides, tannins and phenol as well as the presence of hydrogen cyanide were observed in the fruit sample. The findings on the phytochemical constituents, mineral composition and proximate composition of the C. cujete suggest that the fruit can make useful contribution to both human and animal nutrition and possesses medicinal values. Key words : Crescentia cujete , chemical constituents, like saponins, flavonoid, cardenolides, tannins.

Diabetes and malaria are prevalent diseases in the tropics. In spite of the availability of various independent therapies for each of these diseases, treatments of patients with both diseases have been quite challenging. Mormodiaca charantia is used in Nigeria separately to treat malaria and diabetes. This present study was aimed at investigating the effects of the methanolic extract of Mormodiaca charantia leaves (100 mg/kg body weight) on diabetic mice infected with malaria. Animals were infected with malaria and induced with diabetes by intraperitoneal injection of 1 x 107 Plasmodium berghei and 100 mg/kg body weight alloxan monohydrate respectively. Animal subjects were treated with 5 mg/kg body weight of chloroquine phosphate, 10mg/kg body weight of glibenclamide and 100 mg/kg body weight of the extract daily for five days. Parasitemia, packed cell volume (PCV) and blood glucose level were monitored in the course of the treatment: Antioxidant status, kidney function test and histology of the kidney and pancreas section were examined. There was a decrease in the parasitemia level with a concomitant increase in the PCV, heamoglobin (Hb) and red blood cell count (RBC) level in groups treated with M. charantia and chloroquine. Blood glucose of all the treated groups decreased significantly (p

The effects of different concentration of copper and lead on feeding and growth response of Limicolaria flammea were studied. Low dose (1mg) of copper does not affect feeding activity in Limicolaria flammea whereasconcentrations of 5mg and 6mg evoked a slow feeding rate. At low metal dosages there was no clear relationship between the deaths recorded in correlation with metal dosages, but at high Lead dosages there was a significant correlation between metal dosages, length of exposure and number of mortalities recorded (0.965; p < 0.01).