A Survey of Major Ethno Medicinal Plants of Kano North, Nigeria, Their Knowledge and Uses by Traditional Healers

An ethno botanical survey of major ethnomedicinal plants was carried out in the study area (Kano north senatorial district, Nigeria), their knowledge and uses by the local healers was determined. Data was obtained through the use of interviewer administered questionnaires, distributed at random to the traditional healers as the target respondents. Research shows that various plant species from 25 families were reported to be used in the treatment of various human ailments. Majority of these plants (73.2%) were wild, and 40% were harvested mainly for their leaves. Most of the plants were trees (44%). About 45.2% have been reported to be used in dry form. Concoction was the major method of preparation of the medicinal plants (46%). The most reported threat to the availability of medicinal plants was deforestation (43.6%). Many additives like edible oil, honey, butter, porridge, garlic were used in almost 58% of the remedy preparations. In addition, more than one medicinal plant species were used more frequently than the use of single species for medicinal preparations.Keywords: Ethnobotany, Senatorial zone, Knowledge, Use

Balance Scorecard: A Strategic Control Model for Increased Performance in Masara Flour Mills Kano

Balance scorecard is a management control system that enables companies to clarify their strategies, translate them into action, and provide quantitative feedback as to whether the strategy is creating value, leveraging core competencies, satisfying the company’s customers, and generating a financial reward to its shareholders. With a set of four measures directly linked to a company’s strategy: financial performance, customer’s related issues, internal business processes and learning and growth. The aim of the paper was to ascertain the level of awareness of KPI tool, balance scorecard among staff of masara flour mills Kano, also to determine the relationship between adaption of balance scorecard and return on investment at masara flour mills Kano. The study is empirical and adopted the survey design research methodology. Sample size was determined using Taro Yamanes statistical formula. Copies of the designed questionnaire were distributed to the selected respondents in the company. Our findings report that, staff at masara flour mills Kano have adequate knowledge of balance scorecard, positive relationship exist between return on investment and the adoption of balance scorecard at masara flour mills Kano. Conclusively balance scorecard is a good a strategic control tool. It is recommended that organization should fully educate their staff about balance scorecard and its purpose; balance scorecard should be adopted by all organizations private or public because of its relationship on return on investment, any company that wants to adopt balance scorecard should start implementing gradually. Keywords: balance scorecards, performance, key performance indicator

The Development of a Web-based Decision Support System for the Sustainable Management of Contaminated Land

Land is a finite natural resource that is increasingly getting exhausted as a result of land contamination. Land is made up of soil and groundwater, both of which have many functions for which we depend on, including provision of food and water, supporting shelter, natural flood defence, carbon sequestration, etc. Contaminants in land also pose a number of threats to public health and the environment; other natural resources; and have detrimental effects on property such as buildings, crops and livestock. The most effective method of dealing with these contaminants is to cleanup and return the sites to beneficial use. The cleanup process involves making a choice from amongst competing remediation technologies, where the wrong choice may have disastrous economic, environmental and/or social impacts. Contaminated land management is therefore much broader than the selection and implementation of remedial solutions, and requires extensive data collection and analysis at huge costs and effort. The need for decision support in contaminated land management decision-making has long been widely recognised, and in recent years a large number of Decision Support Systems (DSS) have been developed. This thesis presents the development of a Web-based knowledge-based DSS as an integrated management framework for the risk assessment of human health from, and sustainable management of, contaminated land. The developed DSS is based on the current UK contaminated land regime, published guidelines and technical reports from the UK Environment Agency (EA) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and other Government agencies and departments. The decision-making process of the developed DSS comprises of key stages in the risk assessment and management of contaminated land: (i) preliminary qualitative risk assessment; (ii) generic quantitative risk assessment; and (iii) options appraisal of remediation technologies and remediation design. The developed DSS requires site specific details and measured contaminant concentrations from site samples as input and produces a site specific report as output. The DSS output is intended to be used as information to support with contaminated land management decision-making.Great Western Researc

Role of Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture in Kano State, Nigeria

This review examines the participation and roles of women within the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Kano state, looking at their direct involvement in fishing and fish production as well as their indirect association with related activities (Marketing and distribution, processing, administration, management and public sectorial work, research, education and training).Women represent approximately 20% of Kano state population and 40% of the labor force. More than, 1000, people were fully engaged in fisheries activities in 2010. Studies have shown that of all the various fishing a sector, participation of women was highest in fish processing (approximately 30%) followed by inland aquaculture. Although there is limited data on women’s roles in the Kano fisheries sector as a whole, women are known to play only a very minor role in fish capture in southern part of Nigeria. This participation is usually in the form of small scale activities on lakes or as support to sea going spouses. Where women are employed in the aquaculture sector (5%), they are mainly involved in hatchery and live food units. Women also play an important role in administration, fisheries research, education and training as reflected by the numbers of female graduates employed in such fields. The marketing of fresh products for local markets was found to be predominantly carried out by men. Women are also temporarily and permanently involved in activities such as fish vaccination and the construction and manufacture of nets. Women play a key and vital role in the Fisheries value chain in Nigeria especially when we look at their involvement in the marine, artisanal and Aquaculture sub-sector of the Fisheries. The women who constitute the greater percentage of the fish mongers/ processors represent the first segment of the fish market chain; buying fresh fish directly from the fishermen; the fish is either sold fresh by the women, or processed by smoking. Keywords: Women, Aquaculture, Fisheries, Kano State, Nigeria

Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Properties of Commiphora Pedunculata (ENGL) Stem Extracts

The extracts from the stem bark of Commiphora pedunculata, a plant used in Northern Nigeria for the treatment of infectious diseases, were subjected to phytochemical as well as antimicrobial screening using standard procedures. The antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, B. cereus, S. typhii, E. coli and C. albicans was carried out using the disc diffusion and broth micro dilution methods as outlined by the NCCLS. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts revealed the presence of cardiac glycosides, anthraquinones, saponins, triterpenes, steroids, flavonoids, tannins and alkaloids. The results of the antimicrobial activity as indicated by the zone of inhibition of growth of the test microorganisms ranged from 17 to 28 mm, the MIC results ranged from 3.125 to 12.5 mg/mL and the MBC results ranged from 6.25 to 25.0 mg/mL for the petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. The MIC of 12.50 mg/mL exhibited by the petroleum ether extract against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria indicates broad spectrum activity of Commiphora pedunculata. The results from this study showed that the extracts from the stem bark of the plant contain antimicrobial components worthy of further investigation and lends credence to the use of the plant for the treatment of infectious diseases.Keywords: Phytochemistry, Commiphora pedunculata extracts, antibacterial activity, MIC, MBC

Isolation and characterization of some flavonoids from the leaf of Tapinanthus globiferus growing on Acacia nilotica

Tapinanthus globiferus is used ethnomedicinally for the treatment of bacterial infections, inflammation, stomach pain, ulcers among others. The aim of the study was to isolate bioactive compounds from the leaf of T. globiferus growing on Acacia nilotica. The powdered plant material was extracted with 90 % methanol using cold maceration and the resulting crude methanol leaf extract was partitioned into n-hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and n-butanol fractions. The ethylacetate fraction was chromatographed on a silica gel, sephadex LH-20 column and preparative thin-layer chromatography. (-)-Epicatechin and Quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside were isolated and characterized by means of physiochemical and spectroscopic (1D and 2D-NMR) analyses for the first time from T. globiferus growing on A. nilotica. Keywords:  Tapinanthus globiferus; Flavonoids; Isolation; NM

Grey Based Taguchi Optimization Method for Abrasive Wear Appraisal of Fibre-Reinforced PTFE Composites

 The current study is aimed at optimizing the abrasive wear property of fibre reinforced polytetraflouroethylene (PTFE) composites. The test was contrived based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array for the optimization of test trials. To appraise the abrasive wear trend of the PTFE based composites satisfying multi-objective criteria, Taguchi method combined with grey relational analysis (GRA) has been used. Abrasive wear test was performed using pin-on-disc configuration as per ASTM G99 standard involving four process parameters. Analysis of variance was used to establish significant parameters which influence the abrasive wear of PTFE composites. Observation revealed that grit size has the most significant effect on abrasive wear of reinforced PTFE composites. After exhaustive investigation of parameters, optimum combination of parameters was established. Linear regression model was built to predict the optimized conditions. The model as well as the optimum parameter values could be used by the abrasion industries for reduction in the time and cost expanded on wear test thus increasing productivity

Reference values of somatometric and sonographic renal parameters of apparently healthy Hausa children in Kano metropolis, Nigeria

Accurate measurement of organ size is important in children to estimate adequate growth. Among various growth parameters, kidney size is an important parameter used for the clinical evaluation of renal growth and renal abnormalities. The study is aimed at evaluating the renal volume using ultrasound scan in normal Hausa primary school children in Kano aged 2 to 13 years. The study design was prospective cross sectional conducted among healthy Hausa children, aged 2 to 13 in Kano metropolis from October 2017 to October 2019. Approval to carry out the study was obtained from the State Universal Basic Education, Kano, Ministry of Health, Kano. Informed oral and written consent were obtained from the child’s parents or caregiver. A simple random sampling was employed in the study and a total of 457 subjects were recruited. The instrument used was MindrayDigiprince DP4900 ultrasound machines with 3.5 – 5.0MHz curvilinear transducer. Renal ultrasound scan was performed on all the selected subjects. SPSS version 22.0 was used for the data analysis. The mean heights, weights and BMI of the subjects were 1.21±0.11m, 20.46±4.92kg and 13.93kg/m2. The mean renal length, thickness, width and renal volume were 7.69±0.71cm, 3.31 ± 0.42cm, 4.80 ± 0.49cm and 64.79±16.13cm3 respectively. This study provides data for normal sonographic renal volume and length in Kano metropolis, a Hausa dominated Nigerian population

Grey Based Taguchi Optimization Method for Abrasive Wear Appraisal of Fibre-Reinforced PTFE Composites

 The current study is aimed at optimizing the abrasive wear property of fibre reinforced polytetraflouroethylene (PTFE) composites. The test was contrived based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array for the optimization of test trials. To appraise the abrasive wear trend of the PTFE based composites satisfying multi-objective criteria, Taguchi method combined with grey relational analysis (GRA) has been used. Abrasive wear test was performed using pin-on-disc configuration as per ASTM G99 standard involving four process parameters. Analysis of variance was used to establish significant parameters which influence the abrasive wear of PTFE composites. Observation revealed that grit size has the most significant effect on abrasive wear of reinforced PTFE composites. After exhaustive investigation of parameters, optimum combination of parameters was established. Linear regression model was built to predict the optimized conditions. The model as well as the optimum parameter values could be used by the abrasion industries for reduction in the time and cost expanded on wear test thus increasing productivity