Evaluation of antioxidant potential and anti-diabetic effect of ethanol seed extract of Garcinia kola (Bitter Kola) in albino rat

The medicinal properties of plants have been investigated in the recent scientific world because of their potent antioxidant activities, mild side effects and economic viability. This study  evaluated the antioxidant property and  antidiabetic effect of ethanol seed extract of G. kola (bitter kola) on alloxan induced diabetic albino rats. The in-vitro antioxidant assay was done using standard methods. Thirty (36) albino rats were used for the in-vivo study and fasted for 16-18hours and thereafter induced diabetes with 150mg/ kg b.w. of alloxan monohydrate via intraperitoneal injection. The animals were divided into six groups of six (6) rats each. Group A was the normal control, group B was the positive control (treated with 5mg/kg b.w of glabeclamide), Group C was the negative control (untreated) and groups D through F were administered 500mg/kg, 250mg/kg and 125mg/kg of the extract respectively. The results showed 49.70% reduction in blood glucose level of the 500mg/kg extract treated group compared to the positive control (45.03 %) on the day 7. The antioxidant results showed a significant (p<0.05) dose dependent increase in its ability to scavenge free radicals. The results of this study suggested the use of G. kola seed for the treatment of free radical mediated diseases and management of diabetes

Phytochemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity Screening of Chloroform Leaves Extract of Man-To-Man (Peperomia pellucida) Harvested from Umunomo Ihitteafoukwu in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria

Peperomia pellucida commonly called man-to-man or pepper elder is a plant of immense medicinal value and used in the treatment of different ailments such as abdominal pain, abscess, acne, boils colic rhematic joint pain and also consumed as vegetable. This study was conducted to investigate the preliminary and quantitative phytochemical properties of Peperomia pellucida. The results obtained revealed the presence of alkaloids (2.49±0.02), phenols (0.05±0.01), flavonoids (0.59±0.01), saponins (0.64 ± 0.02), tannins (0.08± 0.01) with alkaloid registering the highest presence. Peperomia pellucida leaves extract exhibited significant antioxidant activity at minimum and maximum concentrations of 2.0 and 12.0mg/ml respectively (compared to the ascorbic acid used as the free scavenger). The antibacterial result also showed that P. pellucida extract inhibited the growth of the test organisms, with the highest growth inhibition against Escherichia Coli and the lowest growth inhibition against Bacillus Cereus. The antimicrobial properties indicate the potential usefulness of this plant in the treatment of various pathogenic diseases which in future can be developed as a potential antimicrobial agent used in the treatment of infectious diseases

Analyses of Use of Improved Beekeeping Equipment among Agricultural Development Programme Registered Bee Farmers in Imo State, Nigeria

The study examined improved beekeeping in Imo State, Nigeria. A sample of 30 registered bee farmers participated in the study. Data were elicited from the farmers using structured questionnaire and analysed using percentages and means. Results showed that the major sources of information on modern bee keeping equipment were farmers’ association (96%), extension agents (76%) and friends/relatives (70%). Available bee products in the area were honey (97%), bee wax (83%), bee venom (70%) and propolis (63%). Improved beekeeping equipment used in the area were foot wears (100%), gloves (100%), smokers (93%), bee veil (96%) and bee suits (87%). Constraints to improved beekeeping in the area include; lack of favourable agricultural policies (87%), lack of standard market for the products (77%), inadequate training and information on beekeeping (67%) and high cost of equipment (70%). The study therefore recommends the need for efforts aimed at promoting modern bee farming in the area, especially targeted at younger and educated farmers

The effects of singeing on the histological appearance of some visceral organs in the red Sokoto goat (Capra hirrcus)

The histology of visceral organs from singed Red Sokoto goats were assessed for reliability for use as histopathological samples from singed abattoir specimen. This becomes important as samples for histopathology and histology of goats in Nigeria have been sourced from singed carcasses, with no available literature reporting on the effect of singeing on the histological appearance of tissues from such sample. Hence, this study will fill this knowledge gap. The unfixed samples post-singeing were grouped into time periods of an hour interval up to 3 hours. They were subsequently fixed after allocated tie framed and processed for histological observation. The slides were graded on a scale of 1 to 3, where 1 referred to highly distorted, 2 referred to moderately distorted and 3 referred to mildly distorted. The samples from unsigned viscera that were fixed immediately served as control. Most of the visceral organs showed moderate distortions, except the intestines which degenerated to highly distorted architecture after 3 hours. The stomach compartments displayed normal organ structure similar to the control samples. Blood extravasations were observed in most of the organs. This project shows that samples from singed carcasses that are fixed within 2 hours post-singeing are stable for histology or histopathological studies. It also implied that abattoir samples for histopathogy should be sent to the nearest laboratory about 2 hours radius for fixation and processing to generate reliable data.Key words: Singeing, organ architecture, fixation, histology, histopathology, Nigeri

Viable Supersymmetry and Leptogenesis with Anomaly Mediation

The seesaw mechanism that explains the small neutrino masses comes naturally with supersymmetric (SUSY) grand unification and leptogenesis. However, the framework suffers from the SUSY flavor and CP problems, and has a severe cosmological gravitino problem. We propose anomaly mediation as a simple solution to all these problems, which is viable once supplemented by the D-terms for U(1)_Y and U(1)_{B-L}. Even though the right-handed neutrino mass explicitly breaks U(1)_{B-L} and hence reintroduces the flavor problem, we show that it lacks the logarithmic enhancement and poses no threat to the framework. The thermal leptogenesis is then made easily consistent with the gravitino constraint.Comment: 5 pages, one figure, uses Revtex4; Discussion on the upper bound on the LSP mass added. The version published in PR

An Instanton Toolbox for F-Theory Model Building

Several dimensionful parameters needed for model building can be engineered in a certain class of SU(5) F-theory GUTs by adding extra singlet fields which are localized along pairwise intersections of D7-branes. The values of these parameters, however, depend on dynamics external to the GUT which causes the singlets to acquire suitable masses or expectation values. In this note, we demonstrate that D3-instantons which wrap the same 4-cycle as one of the intersecting D7's can provide precisely the needed dynamics to generate several important scales, including the supersymmetry-breaking scale and the right-handed neutrino mass. Furthermore, these instantons seem unable to directly generate the \mu term suggesting that, at least in this class of models, it should perhaps be tied to one of the other scales in the problem. More specifically, we study the simple system consisting of a pair of D7-branes wrapping del Pezzo surfaces which intersect along a curve $\Sigma$ of genus 0 or 1 and classify all instanton configurations which can potentially contribute to the superpotential. This allows one to formulate topological conditions which must be imposed on \Sigma for various model-building applications. Along the way, we also observe that the construction of arXiv:0808.1286 which engineers a linear superpotential in fact realizes an O'Raifeartaigh model at the KK scale whose 1-loop Coleman-Weinberg potential generically leads to a metastable, long-lived SUSY-breaking vacuum.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; v2: updated to reflect corrections in v2 of 0808.128

Management of Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in Children: Clinical Practice Guidelines by the Paediatrics Association of Nigeria (PAN)

No Abstrac

The Phytochemistry, Ethnobotanical, and Pharmacological Potentials of the Medicinal Plant-Vernonia amygdalina L. (bitter Leaf)

Background Vernonia amygdalina is traditionally used to treat a variety of diseases including diarrhoea, fungal and bacterial infections, inflammation, cancer, diabetes, and its squeezed juice can be applied on wounds. Objective This study reviewed the phytochemistry, ethnopharmacological, and pharmacological potentials of Vernonia amygdalina. Methods Literature search of relevant papers (1994-2021) were performed using ScienceDirect, Springer, Wiley and PubMed databases. For this review study, only publications written in English were utilized. Results The bioactive compounds extracted from Vernonia amygdalina includes 6β,10β,14β trimethylheptadecan-15 α-olyl-15-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-1,5 β olide, glucuronolactone, 11 α-hydroxyurs-5,12-dien-28-oic acid-3 α,25-olide, 10-geranilanyl-O-β-D-xyloside, 1-heneicosenol O-β-D-glucopyranoside, apigenin, luteolin (3´,4´,5,7tetrahydroxyflavone), vernolide, hydroxyvernolide, 3′-deoxyvernodalol , vernodalol, diterpene (ingenol-3-angelate), vernomygdin, 4-methylumbelliferone, cephantharin, cryptolepine, isocryptolepine, neocryptolepine, courmarins, vernolepin, and vernoniosides. Various in vivo and in vitro studies revealed that V. amygdalina and its bioactive components possess pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, anti-diabetic, and neuroprotective activities. Conclusion This review demonstrated that V. amygdalina possess therapeutic effects against a wide variety of diseases. The efficacy of V. amygdalina in ameliorating diseases is attributed to its antioxidant activity and ability to improve the antioxidant system. Despite the vast pharmacological activities of V. amygdalina, more human clinical trials are needed to identify effective and safe doses for treatment of various diseases