The family Polygonaceae in West Africa: Taxonomic significance of leaf epidermal characters

AbstractComparative studies have been carried out on the leaf epidermal features of the species in the family Polygonaeae in West Africa. Epidermal cells are mainly isodiametric in Symmeria paniculata, irregular or more often polygonal with curved, straight and undulate to sinuate anticlinal walls. A few species e.g. Polygonum plebeium, Oxygonum sinuatum, Persicaria nepalensis and Harpagocarpus snowdenii have striations on their epidermal walls. All species except Afrobrunnichia erecta and H. snowdenii are amphistomatic and the family is characterized by a wide range of stomata types such as the anisocytic in P. plebeium, cyclocytic in S. paniculata and a few Persicaria, anomocytic, diacytic, parallelocytic and paracytic which is regarded as the basic type for the family based on its widest occurrence among the species. However, different stomata types may occur on the same leaf surface. The unicellular, or multicellular, uniseriate aggregated trichomes are significant in the recognition of taxa in the Persicaria except in P. senegalensis forma albotomentosa which has short uniseriate flagelliform trichomes. The significance of these observations is discussed in relation to the taxonomy of the family

Synthesis and Characterization of Cowry and Crab Shells Based Chitosan for Drug Delivery

This work aims to synthesize chitosan from locally available cowry and crab shells for Pharmaceutical application in drug delivery. Chitosan was synthesized from both shells using standard deacetylation technique. The synthesized chitosan, piroxicam and lactose were employed in preparing the drug loaded tablets by direct compression technique and subjected to characterization with the aid of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. Finally, the drug release rate was investigated with in vitro drug dissolution test. The results of FTIR spectra confirmed that the biopolymer extract was chitosan and it also shows that there was no interaction between chitosan and the piroxicam. The morphological properties of the samples were found to be suitable for drug delivery. The applied load and composition of tablets influenced the drug release rate

Variability studies on qualitative and quantitative characters of Mangifera indica Linn. (mango) in Oyo State, Nigeria

Mango is one of the edible tree crops cultivated globally. Therefore, this study investigated the variation among 36 accessions of mango collected from genebank and selected locations in Oyo State, Nigeria. The field experiment was conducted in a Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates. A total of 17 quantitative and 43 qualitative characters were evaluated on mango stem, leaf and fruit. Analysis of hierarchical cluster was performed on the characters scored. The results showed that the fruit length (18.18 cm), fruit weight (751.75 g) and fruit width (18.23 cm) performed best in Big Mango (BIGMCB Acc-1), while Ogbomosho 2 Mango (OGBM Acc-10) had the highest for leaf area (198.79 cm ), petiole length (6.54 cm), lamina length (32.68 cm) and stone width (6.36 cm). Moreover, leaf length had strong positive correlation with leaf width (r= 0.87), petiole length (r= 0.74), internodal length (r= 0.60), plant height (r= 0.71), lamina length (r= 0.99) and leaf area (r= 0.56) at p£0.05. However, BUTM Acc-1 (fruit ground colour), PALMER (pulp colour), BIGMCB Acc-1 (fruit weight), SHRIM Acc-2 (fruit beak), OGBM Acc-3 (stone dry weight), OGBM Acc-8 (fruit thickness) and OGBM Acc-10 (fruit stone width) accessions varied morphologically, thereby enhanced characterization which could be recommended for future breeding of mango

Phytochemical Screening and Antibacterial Activities of Aframomum melegueta (K. Schum) Seed Extracts on Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae

The phytochemical screening and antibacterial effects of Aframomum melegueta (K. Schum)on Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae was carried out. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, steroids, anthraquinones, terpenoids, glycosides  and phenols in the seed extract. The susceptibility test showedzones of inhibition (ZOI) of S. typhi (11.0mm) and K. pneumonia (13.0mm)with methanolic seed extract (MSE), while the hot aqueous seed extract (HASE) recorded 3.0mmas ZOI for both test organisms. The Minimum  inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 200mg/ml and 100mg/ml were recorded against S. typhi and K. pneumoniae respectively with MSE, while HASE indicated 400mg/ml and 200mg/ml MICs against S. typhi and K. pneumoniae respectively. The Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) obtained from MSE were 200 mg/ml and 25mg/ml for S. typhiand K. pneumoniae, while HASE had > 400mg/ml for test microbes. The effectiveness of different concentrations of the test plant extracts on the test organisms was significant (P<0.05). Further trials involving other clinical isolates and botanicals at different concentrations be conducted, to optimize theprocess. Keywords: Phytochemical, Antimicrobial, Aframomum melegueta, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia

Reliability assessments of an islanded hybrid PV-diesel-battery system for atypical rural community in Nigeria

This paper presents the use of a novel approach in assessing the generation reliability of a hybrid mini-grid system(HMS) based on the optimal design result obtained from the HOMER software. A typical Nigerian rural com-munity–Lade II in Kwara State was used as a case study where the energy demand for the residential andcommercial loads was 2.5MWh/day and 171kWh/day respectively. The optimized HMS results from HOMERcomprising of a solar photovoltaic (PV) array (1.5MW), diesel generators (350kW) and battery storage (1200units) has a combined least net present cost of $4,909,206 and a levelized electricity tariff of$0.396 per kWh.Contrasting the HMS with a diesel-only system for the community, an approximate 97% reduction in all pollutantemissions was observed. Furthermore,fluctuations in diesel fuel prices, variations in average solar insolation, andvariations in the solar PV's capital/replacement costs were utilized in conducting a sensitivity analysis for theHMS. The capacity outage probability table (COPT) was utilized in validating the reliability of the simulationresults obtained from HOMER. The HMS was observed to experience a load loss of 0.769MW, 0.594MW&0.419MW when zero, one and two diesel generator(s) respectively were operational for all of the Solar PV's andBatteries being off-line. The loss of load probability (LOLP), loss of load expectation (LOLE), and total expectedload loss (ELL) obtained from the COPT were 5.76�10�8, 5.0457�10�4hr/yr and 0.025344Watt respectively.The results show the reliability of the HMS and also depicts a highly economical and feasible hybrid energysystem

Haematinic potencies of the aqueous crude extracts of Ficus mucoso and Senna occidentalis in rabbits.

A total of 20 domestic rabbits divided into 4 groups of 5 animals per group were used in this study to assess the haematinic potencies of the aqueous crude extracts of Ficus mucoso and Senna occidentalis and this was then compared with that of a proprietary haematinic, Haematopan B12®. Group A animals (control) were not bled but those in groups B, C and D were bled to induce anaemia. Group B animals were treated with Haematopan B12®, a commercially prepared haematinic, and groups C and D were treated with the aqueous crude extracts of Senna occidentalis (Linn) Link and Ficus mucoso Welw. ex Ficalho respectively. The post-haemorrhage treatment haematologic values were obtained at given intervals (7 days) and compared with the pre-haemorrhagic values earlier obtained. The study showed that all the experimental animals showed accelerated recovery since these animals had excellent response in terms of white blood cell (WBC) and its differentials, red blood cell (RBC) count, packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration. Thus the extracts of Ficus mucoso and Senna occidentalis have comparative haematinic potencies as Haematopan B12®