Neutral Effect of Coffee Senna (Senna occidentalis (L.) Link Leguminosae) Leaf Ethanol Extract on Reproductive Parameters in Male Wistar Rats

Many antimalarial remedies are known for reproductive toxicity in male. Also, several plants are known to have antifertility action in both sexes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of ethanol extract of Senna occidentalis (L.) Link Leguminosae leaf (EESO) on male reproductive parameters such as sperm count, motility, morphology and the histology of testes in Wistar rats by employing standard procedures. The extract (50% ethanol) was orally administered to male Wistar rats daily, at 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg with distilled water as control, for 20 days after which reproductive parameters were performed on the epididymal sperm and testes. The results show that all features were consistent with normal histology of the testes in the treated and untreated groups, the sperm count (SC), motility (SM) and morphology (MP) were also comparable with the control. The plant has been shown to be devoid of the traditional sperm toxicity associated with antimalarial agents

EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF BITUMINOUS ASPHALTS WASTE AS AGGREGATES IN CONCRETE

The present trend of indiscriminate dumping of waste bituminous asphalts on the highways in Nigeria calls for urgent attention. The trend all over the world now is the conservation of natural resources and reduction of waste being generated as a result of different human activities. This paper has looked at how the used bituminous asphalts material can be effectively utilized for other construction purposes. Different types of test like: slump, flow table,  fire resistance and compressive strength tests were carried out on the bituminous asphalt waste that was mixed with sand and cement to make concrete, and the result was compared with concrete made from granite of size 20mm, gravel of size 15mm and bush gravel of size less than 8mm. The flow table tests conducted showed that both granite and bituminous concrete mixes have low flow rate, while coarse and bush gravels have medium flow rate. The bituminous concrete has the highest cube strength of 25 N/mm2 after 28 days.  In conclusion, bituminous asphalts could be a very good substitute as aggregate in concrete for some marine structures that are not exposed to fire.Â

Evaluation of Pharmacognostic Characteristics of the Leaf of Ageratum houstonianum Mill. Compositae

Background: It is a well-known fact that therapeutic efficacy and safety of medicinal plants depend on the quality and quantity of chemical constituents and that the misuse of medicinal plants starts with wrong identification.Objectives: The aim of this study is to establish some pharmacognostic standards for Ageratum houstonianum Mill (Compositae) which has high medicinal values, with a view to determining the proper identification and other quality control parameters of the plant.Method: The fresh leaf and powdered leaves were subjected to macroscopy and microscopy using standard procedures. In addition, some physicochemical evaluations such as moisture content, ash and soluble extractives were carried out on the powdered leaves.Results: The result shows that the leaf is simple, pinnate, diamond shaped, serrated margin, acute apex and asymetrical base. Microscopically, the leaf is amphistomatic in nature with anomocytic and anisocytic stomata at the adaxial and anomocytic and diacytic at the abaxial surface. Non-glandular uniseriate trichomes are present on both surfaces. The transverse section across the midrib shows epidermis, collenchyma, palisade cells and a few rolls of phloem around the xylem vessels. The stomata numbers and stomata indices for the upper and lower surface, respectively are1.4 and 10.2 and 2.9 and 15.6. Moisture content, total ash, acid insoluble ash, water soluble ash, sulphated ash, water soluble and alcohol soluble extractives yields 10.3%, 15.2%, 0.8%, 20.2%, 14.4% and 5.1%, respectively.Conclusion: The findings in this study are useful for establishing standards suitable for official monographs on Ageratum houstonianum proper identification and quality control. Keywords: Pharmacognostic standards, Ageratum houstonianum, Quality contro

The associations of malaria parasite and ABO blood groups with aggressive periodontitis in Nigerians - a preliminary study

Objective: Aggressive Periodontitis (AgP) is a rare form of periodontitis which has been associated with aetiological factors including genetic predisposition, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and blood group B. It seems to have a racial predisposition being more common among blacks, particularly people of West African origin. The role of endemic factors such as malaria is yet to be investigated in AgP. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of malaria parasites and ABO blood groups with aggressive periodontitis. Method: A preliminary case-control study on localized aggressive periodontitis patients and age and gender matched controls. Microbiological and hematological tests were performed to determine the presence of malaria parasites and ABO blood groups respectively. Result: Eight LAgP patients and 9 age and gender-matched controls were seen. Six patients were positive for Plasmodium Falciparum malaria parasite, compared with 2 controls. This difference was statistically significant (p=0.044). The prevalence of malaria infection was not significantly associated with age (p = 0.44) or gender (p = 0.34) of the subjects. Conclusion: This preliminary study showed a high prevalence of malaria parasites among patients with aggressive periodontitis. Malaria infection may be associated with AgP. Studies with larger sample sizes may be needed to further investigate the relationship between aggressive periodontitis and malaria infection

Optimization and Isothermal Studies of Antibiotics Mixture Biosorption From Wastewater Using Palm Kernel, Chrysophyllum albidum, and Coconut Shells Biocomposite

The presence of persistent pharmaceutical products in water bodies is a significant problem that obstructs wastewater reuse. This study investigated the adsorption process for removing the recalcitrant antibiotics, including tetracycline (TC), ampicillin (AMP), and amoxicillin (AMOX) from an aqueous solution using a composite biosorbent made from a mixture of palm kernel shell (PKS), Chrysophyllum albidum (CAS), and coconut shell (CS). Simplex centroid design in the Design of Expert (12.0.1.0) was applied to optimize the percentage composition (20-55%) of the composite biosorbent precursor and to remove TC-AMP-AMOX mixtures from the aqueous solution in a batch study. The equilibrium data were fitted to 12 isotherm models and analyzed statistically. The maximum adsorption capacity of 9.12 mg/g, 8.66 mg/g, and 7.11 mg/g was achieved for TC, AMP, and AMOX, respectively, using the biocomposite biosorbent with an optimal mixture of 55% PKS, 20% CAS, and 25% CS. The adsorption behavior of TC, AMP, and AMOX was well-described by the Langmuir/Elovich isotherm (R2=1.000), Hill-DeBoer (R2=0.9953), and Freundlich/ Halsey (R2=0.9898) models, respectively. The obtained results showed that the biocomposite PKS-CAS-CS leverages the individual adsorptive capacity of each constituent to enhance the adsorption process. Moreover, the composite biosorbent demonstrated excellent potential for removing recalcitrant pharmaceuticals from wastewater effectively

Chemical characterization of Tecoma stans (L.) Juss. ex Kunth volatile oils

Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled with Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the essential oils from leaf, stem, seed and flower of Tecoma stans (L.) Juss exKunth (family Bignoniaceae) obtained by hydrodistillation showed the presence of 64 chemical compounds. A total of 31 compounds in the leaf, 22 in the stem, 31 in the seed and 35 in the flower were identified representing 91.5%, 81.4%, 88.5% and 95.8% of the whole volatile oil respectively. The most abundant constituents were 1-octen-3-ol (24.8%) and 2,6,10-trimethylpentadecane (10.4%) in the leaf, linalool (11.4%) and 2,6,10-trimethylpentadecane (10.7%) in the stem, α-terpineol (11.7%) and β-selinene (9.3%) in the seed and (E)-β-ionone (11.2%) and linalool (10.8%) in the flower