Search

Background: Many of the markets in Nigeria are open, where foodstuffs are laid bare on flat trays and open baskets, direct- ly exposing them to environmental contaminants. This study aimed at determining whether some food items on sale around an industrialized area of Ogun State are contaminated with trace metals. Methods: Seven different food items – Clarias gariepinus (roasted, fresh and smoked) Bos taurus (dried and fresh beef), zobo leaf (Hibiscus sabdariffa) and crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) were sampled from three major markets, namely: Lusada, Atan and Ota in Ado-Odo/Ota LGA of Ogun State. They were analyzed for Lead, Cadmium, Nickel, Manganese and Zinc using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Results: Cd was not detected in most of the food items across the markets. Pb, Ni and Mn were detected in very high con- centrations above the maximum allowable limits by international regulatory agencies. Zn was the only metal that was gen- erally below regulatory limits in food items across the three markets. The Estimated Daily Intake (EDI) and Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) values were generally higher than values acceptable in food. Conclusion: Some of the food items consumed in this area are not entirely safe from metal toxicity and this may have se- rious health consequences. Keywords: Cadmium; food items; lead; Manganese; nickel; zinc.

Solanum tuberosum (Potato) is one of the essential economic crops with the potential to reduce hunger due to its high yield per unit area of land compared with many economic crops. However, its yield losses due to pest and disease attacks could be as high as 100%, depending on its tolerance level and pest and disease. Over the years, several disease management strategies have been researched, ranging from synthetic pesticides to the formulation of biopesticides as disease control measures. Moreso, recent breakthroughs in genetic engineering have simplified plant disease management strategies by developing techniques for conferring resistance on plants. Potato is a vital food crop worldwide, and with the struggle to suppress world food insecurity, effective disease management strategies must be employed for high production of quality and quantity potato, enough to feed the ever-increasing world population. Therefore, attention must be given to how disease-free potatoes can be produced to meet the unending demand for food by the continually increasing world population.

Diet plays an essential role in human development and growth, contributing to health and well-being. The socio-economic values, cultural perspectives, and dietary formulation in sub-Saharan Africa can influence gut health and disease prevention. The vast microbial ecosystems in the human gut frequently interrelate to maintain a healthy, well-coordinated cellular and humoral immune signalling to prevent metabolic dysfunction, pathogen dominance, and induction of systemic diseases. The diverse indigenous diets could differentially act as biotherapeutics to modulate microbial abundance and population characteristics. Such modulation could prevent stunted growth, malnutrition, induction of bowel diseases, attenuated immune responses, and mortality, particularly among infants. Understanding the associations between specific indigenous African diets and the predictability of the dynamics of gut bacteria genera promises potential biotherapeutics towards improving the prevention, control, and treatment of microbiome-associated diseases such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The dietary influence of many African diets (especially grain-base such as millet, maize, brown rice, sorghum, soya, and tapioca) promotes gut lining integrity, immune tolerance towards the microbiota, and its associated immune and inflammatory responses. A fibre-rich diet is a promising biotherapeutic candidate that could effectively modulate inflammatory mediators’ expression associated with immune cell migration, lymphoid tissue maturation, and signalling pathways. It could also modulate the stimulation of cytokines and chemokines involved in ensuring balance for long-term microbiome programming. The interplay between host and gut microbial digestion is complex; microbes using and competing for dietary and endogenous proteins are often attributable to variances in the comparative abundances of Enterobacteriaceae taxa. Many auto-inducers could initiate the process of quorum sensing and mammalian epinephrine host cell signalling system. It could also downregulate inflammatory signals with microbiota tumour taxa that could trigger colorectal cancer initiation, metabolic type 2 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel diseases. The exploitation of essential biotherapeutic molecules derived from fibre-rich indigenous diet promises food substances for the downregulation of inflammatory signalling that could be harmful to gut microbiota ecological balance and improved immune response modulation.

Different types of explant (leaf, nodal and petiole explant) from in vitro grown plant maintained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid(2, 4-D) (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/l) in dark condition. Data on callus formation was recorded on 10 days after culture. Number of explants forming callus, callus colour and type were recorded. The plant growth regulator-free media which served as the control induced etiolation resulting in long hypocotyls from the nodal explants.

Background and Objective: A comparative study was carried out on the effect of phytohormone on seed germination, seedling vigour and the phytochemical content of three cucurbits, which are Cucumis melo (L.), Lagenaria breviflora (Benth) and Citrullus lanatus (Thunb). Phytochemical analysis of air-dried, powdered epicarp, mesocarp and seeds of the mature fruits were carried out, also the effects of varying concentrations of indole acetic acid (IAA), naphthal ene acetic acid (NAA) and gibberellic acid (GA 3) on germination and seedling vigour of these 3 cucurbits were investigated. The study is designed to obtain the inhibitory and the stimulatory effects of the 3 cucurbits used in this research. Materials and Methods: Treatments were arranged in 5 replicates and monitored for 16 days.Experiments were carried out in 9 cm petri dishes in the laboratory. Data were subjected to two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at p0.05). Tannin was not detected in the epicarp, mesocarp and seeds of the three cucurbits. Flavonoid was also significantly higher (p

Aim: The aim of this study is to develop a protocol for in vitro regeneration of a Nigerian indigenous pumpkin (C. pepo L.) via seedling-derived cotelydon, cotyledonary node and hypocotyl explants. Study Design: A combination of 0.00, 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00 mgl-1 of 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.00 or 0.05 mgl-1 of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) for each explant type were set up in three replicates making a total of 36 culture vessels in the entire experimental set up. Five explants were cultured per combination. Place and Duration of Study: The work was conducted in the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory of the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, between January 2017 and July 2017. Methodology: Hypocotyl, cotyledonary node and cotyledon explants derived from 4-week old

Background: Launaea taraxacifolia (Willd) Amin Ex.C Jeffrey is an undervalued traditional leafy vegetable, which is economically important as food and medicine. It also has several therapeutic and nutritive values. The cultivation is hampered by low seed viability, seed dormancy and poor vegetative propagation. Aim: The study aimed to develop an efficient protocol for micropropagation of L. taraxacifolia. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the tissue culture laboratory of National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Moor Plantation, Ibadan. Nigeria. Methodology: One centimetre (1.00 cm) double-sterilized single-node explants of L. taraxacifolia cultured on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium amended with a constant concentration (0.5 mg/l) of 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) in combination with varying concentration (0.5 mg/l, 1.0 mg/l, 1.5 mg/l, 2.0 mg/l and 2.5 mg/l) of two cytokinins, 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and kinetin were investigated for their effects on shoot proliferation, multiplication and rooting. Growth parameters were observed and recorded and the data subjected to statistical analysis. Results: Among the cytokinin treatments, significant increase in means was observed with increase in the concentration of BAP. There was no significant difference among the treatments with kinetin. BAP treatments at 2.5 mg/l gave significantly highest number of shoots (3.33 and 4.67) and number of leaves (16.70 and 30.00) at 4 and 8 weeks of culture, respectively as compared to the control. Shoot length was highest in treatment with MS+2 mg/l BAP+0.5 mg/l NAA and MS+1 mg/l KIN+0.5 mg/l NAA (2.33 and 0.30) and these were higher than that of control at 4 weeks and equal at 8 weeks. Residual effect of the Plant growth regulators (PGRs) was observed in treatment with MS+0.5 mg/l KIN+0.5 mg/l NAA alone. Conclusion: The results from the study revealed that L. taraxacifolia nodal explants resulted in multiple shoots in BAP treatments than in kinetin treatments. Double disinfection with treatment with MS+2.5 mg/l BAP+0.5 mg/l NAA which produced the highest number of clean multiple shoots and leaves is thereby proposed as shoot multiplication medium for this species.

Direct and indirect contamination of the aquatic environment by pesticides results in a decrease in fish productivity and may elevate concentrations of undesirable chemicals in edible fish tissues. The effects of long-term exposure of Clarias gariepinus juveniles to sublethal concentrations of glyphosate and paraquat, two commonly used herbicides, for eight weeks were investigated using three concentrations of the 96 h LC50 of each herbicide: 3.5, 7 and 14 µg l−1 for paraquat, and 26.5, 53 and 106 µg l−1 for glyphosate. Enzyme assay and histological analysis were conducted every fortnight. Significant increases in the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and hepatocyte vacuolation in the livers of the exposed fish confirms the toxicity of the herbicides, and thus could be useful tools in environmental monitoring.

Surface sterilization of plant materials is a very problematic step in establishing plant tissue culture protocol. Prior to introduction into sterile Murashige and Skoog (MS) media, nodal explants obtained from potted plants of Solanecio biafrae grown in the screenhouse were given various surface sterilization treatments. A total of 16 treatments with varying time of immersion in two sterilant successions, 70% (v/v) ethanol (20 s, 1 min, 3 min and 5 min) and 10% (w/v) calcium hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2) granules (5, 10, 15 and 20 min) at varying times and then rinsed three times with sterile distilled water. 100% clean culture was obtained from treatments containing 70% ethanol (20 s)+10% Ca(ClO)2 (15 min) and 70% ethanol (3 min)+10% Ca(ClO)2 (20 min) after 4 weeks in culture. 70% ethanol (20 s)+10% Ca(ClO)2 (15 min) is proposed as the best surface sterilization protocol as it gave 90% growth compared to 60% growth recorded in 70% ethanol (3 min)+10% Ca(ClO)2 (20 min). This is a preliminary study as more research is ongoing to establish an efficient, effective and reproducible protocol for the surface sterilization of different explants used for the tissue culture of S. biafrae obtained from open field

Globally, there has been a growing interest in medicinal plants by researchers. Telfairia occidentalis Hook F. (Fluted pumpkin) is cucurbitaceous vegetable grown in West Africa, particularly in Nigeria for its leaves and seeds. The curative properties of fluted pumpkin are popular in Nigerian folklore medicine, and several investigators have validated these therapeutic effects using animal models. The aim of this work therefore, was to review publicly available literature on the pharmacotherapeutic activities of T. occidentalis. Searches were performed on PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar for related studies, with search dates set between 1990 and 2018. A total of 499 articles were retrieved and analyzed, with 38 studies ultimately retained. Studies contained in this review were carried out in Nigeria, across different locations. 13 categories of pharmacological activities for fluted pumpkin were documented after analyzing full texts of the articles retained. T. occidentalis offers myriad of healing properties that can be explored by pharmaceutical industries. As the search for potent drugs from botanical sources continues, there is need for future investigations to isolate and characterize pharmacologically active agents that confer medicinal properties on fluted pumpkin, as well as elucidate the structures of these agents and pathways by which they exert their healing properties.

Solanecio biafrae (Olive and Hierne) C. Jeffrey (1986) (Family: Asteraceae), has synonyms Senecio biafrae Olive and Hierne (1877) and Crassocephalum biafrae (Olive and Hierne) S. Moore (1912). It is a perennial standent, underutilized African indigenous medicinal vegetable. It was first reported and published in Flora of Tropical Africa. Its common names varied from Gnanvule in Cote d’Ivoire to Worowo/bologi in Nigeria. It has alternate, simple, succulent, petiolated, and exauriculate leaves. Its propagation is vegetative by rooting of cuttings. However, there is no report on its propagation by seed. It is ubiquitous in cocoa plots in Nigeria, especially southwest; due to deliberate protection for economic revenue, but this has little‑uncoordinated cultivation indication. These deliberately protected few are exposed to contamination by a chemical used for protecting cocoa plants. It is highly nutritive and rich in protein. It is also medicinally important as a galactagogue and for treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure, and infertility. It has biological activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. It also has traditional and cultural claims for initiation and rituals. Personal interviews and search of the available literature on S. biafrae in electronic peer‑reviewed English journals using scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was employed.