Nigerian values and contemporary popular music: a new look

Music is among the ancient art forms in Africa that has flourished as old as man since ancient African society did not separate their everyday activities from their music. Most music performances in Africa go beyond the frontiers of mere entertainment activity but are geared more towards socio-cultural dimensions due to its ability to socialize, consolidate values and other utilitarian exigencies. In the recent times, the younger generations of Africa seem not to have much enthusiasm for their cultural values due to undue foreign influences. Nigerian contemporary pop music is playing an increasingly pivotal role in shaping the continent’s music scene. This paper seeks to portray contemporary pop music as a paradigmatic approach to enliven and perpetuate positive cultural as well as moral values in the Nigerian youths. The paper argues that contemporary Nigerian music can be employed to connect the African heritage to the world and African youths in diaspora will also have the opportunity to hear, touch, feel and create the musical art even in a distant homeland. It concludes by pointing out the need for Nigerian government to turn towards the entertainment industry and indeed the music industry with the objective of identifying possible avenues for growth in the industry, and for cultural sustainability in Nigeria.Keywords: Nigerian values, Music industry, Contemporary popular music, Youths and societ

Comparative Evaluation of Three In Vitro Techniques in the Interaction of Ampicillin and Ciprofloxacin against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli

Purpose: The study was designed to evaluate the consistency of interpretation of results of interaction between ampicillin and ciprofloxacin against S. aureus and E. coli using three in vitro techniques. Methods: The interaction between ampicillin and ciprofloxacin was studied using three in vitro methods- Checkerboard technique, Overlay Inoculum Susceptibility Disc technique (OLISD) and the Decimal Assay for Additivity technique (DAA). Results: In the Checkerboard technique, fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) indices show that the ampicillin/ciprofloxacin combination is synergistic against the test organisms. In the DAA approach, a target IZD of 15 mm yielded Biological Equivalent Factors (BEF) of 1.35 &#956;g (amp/Staph), 6.74 &#956;g (cipro/Staph), 9.62 &#956;g (ampicillin/E. coli), and 5.45 &#956;g (cipro/E. coli). Statistical analyses show that all decimal combinations of ampicillin and ciprofloxacin were additive (p< 0.05). The overlay inoculum susceptibility disc method shows inhibition zone diameter increments ranging between 36 ± 8.00 % to 69.2 ± 23.08 % for S. aureus and 28.12 ± 3.13 % to 50 ± 12.50 % for E. coli. These increments are consistent with reported criteria for synergism in the OLISD method. Conclusion: The study suggests a possible clinical use for the combination of ampicillin and ciprofloxacin against infections caused by these organisms. Equally, the apparent disagreement between DAA and the other two methods raises questions as to the consistency of inferences drawn on interaction studies when different techniques are used. Keywords: Ampicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Interaction, Decimal Assay, Checkerboard, OLISD method.> Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 5 (2) 2006: pp. 605-61

Evaluation of the anti-candidal activity of methanolic leaf extract of cleistopholis patens (fam. Annonaceae) on candida species isolated from stage II HIV patients

Background: Candida species (sp) is implicated in causing opportunistic disseminated mycotic  complications in stage II HIV patients. Cleistopholis patens is a West African medicinal tree reported to have significant antifungal activity against C. albicans.Objectives: This study aimed to determine the anti-candidal activity of methanolic leaf extract of  Cleistopholis patens against Candida species isolated from stage II HIV patients.Methods: The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the extract and Nystatin®® was determined by agar dilution method. The killing rate studies of the plant extract and Nystatin® were also determined.Results: The extract had activity against all Candida isolates, with the MIC against the five isolates ranging from 6.0 - 9.8 mg/ml. Nystatin® also demonstrated plausible activity against the isolates with MICs ranging from 0.3125 – 25 mg/ml. Candida albicans strain 2 was the most sensitive to both extract and Nystatin® with MIC values of 6 and 0.3125 mg/ml respectively. Candida krusei was the least  sensitive with MIC values of 9.8 and 25 mg/ml for the extract and Nystatin® respectively. The killing rate values for the extract ranged from -0.029 to -0.091 min-1 and that of Nystatin® ranged from -0.076 to –0.11216 min-1.Conclusions: The results indicate that the methanolic extract of Cleistopholis patens is a promising clinical alternative besides Nystatin® in the treatment of infections caused by Candida species in stage II HIV patients.Keywords: Anti-candidal activity, Cleistopholis patens, Candida, HIV Patients

Prevalence and Susceptibility Patterns of Clinical Isolates of Escherichia coli to Various Antimicrobials in A Clinical Microbiology Laboratory in South-South Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of Escherichia coli as an aetiologic agent in bacterial infections and its antimicrobial susceptibility patterns to ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, norfloxacin, perfloxacin, gentamycin and cotrimoxazole as a guide for empiric therapy. A retrospective study was carried out using a clinical microbiology laboratory in Nigeria. Data retrieved include number of E. coli isolates, sources of the isolates and their antimicrobial susceptibility to various fluoroquinolones, gentamycin and cotrimoxazole between 2005 and 2009. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 14, Chicago IL. Out of a total of 906 bacterial isolates, E. coli accounted for 23 % (211) of the isolates. Thirty-eight percent (38.39 %) was isolated from urine samples, 27.96 % from high vaginal swab samples, 24.17 % from stool samples, 0.95% from urethra swabs, 1.9% from wound swabs and 6.6% from semen samples. There was poor level of susceptibility to norfloxacin (2.2%) and cotrimoxazole (23.7%), susceptibility to ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin were 51.1%, 54.7% and 52.5% respectively, that of gentamycin was 51.8%. The trends across the years showed a significant increase in susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin and ofloxacin in 2007 after which it started reducing, while norfloxacin’s susceptibility was low across the five years with maximum susceptibility at 9.1% in 2006. There was an increase in susceptibility to gentamycin as the susceptibility levels of the  fluoroquinolones were reducing. There should be continuous surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and empiric treatment with fluoroquinolones discouraged, especially for non urinary tract infections.KEYWORDS: Antimicrobial susceptibility, Nigeria, Escherichia coli, fluoroquinolones, gentamyci

Music as an aid to story telling in Nollywood: Interrogating hybridization in selected films

No Abstract

Antibacterial Interaction of Crude Methanol Extract of Garcinia kola Seed with Gatifloxacin

Purpose: Concurrent use of orthodox and herbal medicines is likely to precipitate an overall effect which may or may not be beneficial to the patient. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial interaction between the methanol extract of Garcinia kola seed (GKS) which is chewed habitually as a masticatory in many rural communities in Africa and gatifloxacin (GAT), a fourth generation fluoroquinolone. Method: The antimicrobial interaction between these two agents was evaluated by a modification of the checkerboard technique using Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus as the test organisms. Result: Results obtained showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of gatifloxacin against both organisms was 1.0 &#956;g/ml while the MICs of the G. kola seed extract were evaluated to be 1.562 mg/ml and 3.125 mg/ml respectively against B. subtilis and S. aureus. Upon combination, synergism was manifested serially against B. subtilis in ratios of 9(GAT):1(GKS) down to 6(GAT) :4(GKS) after which additivity, indifference and antagonism, in that order, were manifested as the ratio of GKS increased in the combination. Against S. aureus, the combined interaction showed a somewhat irregular pattern of effect, including synergism at GAT:GKS ratios of 9:1, 2:8 and 1:9 , antagonism at ratios of 8:2, 5:5 and 4:6 and indifference at GAT:GKS ratios of 7:3, 6:4 and 3:7. Conclusion: The results from this study suggest that the effect of combination of the methanol extract of GKS with gatifloxacin was dependent not only on the ratio of combination but also on the test organism employed for the evaluation. Overall, the combined antimicrobial effect of the interaction between GKS and gatifloxacin was predominantly synergistic against B.subtilis. Keywords: Garcinia kola seed, antibacterial interaction, checkerboard technique, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, gatifloxacinTropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 7(4) 2008: pp. 1159-116

Extracts of Moringa oleifera Lam. showing inhibitory activity against early steps in the infectivity of HIV-1 lentiviral particles in a viral vector-based screening

Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) is one of the many medicinal plants employed by herbalist to treat or manage people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in African Traditional Medicine (ATM) and there are many claims to the fact that it improves quality of life and reverses the course of the HIV/AIDS disease progression. This practice and the claims of efficacy spurred the present study in which the inhibitory activities of three different extracts of M. oleifera on lentiviral vector infectivity were studied on HeLA cells by measuring the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene in the vector using flow cytometry. An infectious VSV-G-pseudotyped, human immunodeficiency virus type 1-based, selfinactivating lentiviral vector particles were generated by transient co-transfection of the vector plasmid (pHIV-1 CSCG) with packaging plasmids encoding tat, rev, gag-pol (pCMVΔR8.2), a VSV-G expression plasmid (pHIT-G), a secretory alkaline phosphate expression plasmid (pSEAP) which are all necessary for viral infectivity. The extracts studied were obtained by solvent extraction of the leaf powder of M. oleifera with ethyl ether (EM), methanol (MM) and water (AM). All the extracts (EM, MM, and AM) were active against the HIV-1 lentiviral vector and inhibited the early events of the viral replication cycle on HeLa cells in a concentration-dependent manner with IC50 of 7.59 μg EM/ml, 7.72 μg MM/ml and 7.17 μg AM/ml, respectively. Cytotoxicity of the extracts evaluated in parallel on HeLA cells by the MTT assay method showed TC50 values of 32.33 μg EM/ml, 38.88 μg MM/ml and 41.58 μg AM/ml with selectivity indices (SI) of 4.26, 5.04 and 5.8, respectively. In this study, M. oleifera leaf extracts showed potent and selective inhibition of early steps in HIV-1 infectivity and could serve as source of antiretroviral lead molecules. The outcome of this investigation could partly explain the benefits and improvement in quality of life claimed by PLWHA in the use of this medicinal plant as supplement.Keywords: Antiviral activity, antiviral screening, lentiviral vector particles, Moringa oleifera, HIV-1, viral vectorbased assay.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(30), pp. 4866-487