Adequacy of mineral contents of raw and plain sticky sauce of common and bush okra

In Nigeria, common okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) and bush okra (Corchorus olitorius L.) are popular mucilage vegetables used as sticky sauce for easy consumption of starchy staples.Both raw vegetables and sticky sauce of common as well as bush okra were estimated for their potential in the provision of daily dietary allowance of important minerals. Modified methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) were used to estimate the assessed minerals.The results showed that the raw and sticky sauce of assessed common and bush okra contained appreciable levels and essential minerals, but are not adequate to meet recommended dietary allowance, except for Fe and Cu. Comparatively, the two species of okra varied significantly in their mineral content of the raw and plain sauce. There was also a negative effect of cooking on the mineral contents, which reduced significantly to an average of 30% on a dry weight basis.Therefore, the two vegetables, either as a fresh or sticky sauce, require additional sources of P, K, Na, Mg, Ca, Mn, and Zn to meet recommended dietary allowance. Furthermore, dried mucilagesauce, though, could be an appreciable post harvest management and storage but not without a loss of about one-third mineral content in the process. However, the sauce of common okra andbush okra are good sources for any of the assessed mineral restricted diets

Willingness to pay for Ecotourism in Oyan Lake, Nigeria

This study examined tourists’ willingness to pay for relaxation and factors that influence the visitors’ willingness to pay for ecotourism at Oyan Lake, Nigeria. A cross sectional survey with the use of questionnaire was done; the dichotomous choice method based on payment card method was employed to elicit some information. Three hundred and twenty tourists above 16years that visited the Lake between 2013 and 2014 were selected as respondents. The logistic regression result revealed that visit to local communities, amount to be paid within group, tourism-awareness, group tourism, and the amount that individual tourist should pay had significant effects on the tourists’ willingness to pay for tourism. The study indicated that while tourists are willing to support Oyan Lake, the introduction of additional viewing fees within groups would be acceptable; government should improve the marketing of this destination through awareness creation

Chemo-characterization and optimization of macro and micro nutrients for exopolysaccharides and mycelia growth in pleurotus tuberregium (RUMPH, EX FR)

Abstract Exoploysaccharides are potential nutraceutic, probiotic, phamarceutic and cosmesceutic natural products in fungi. Pleurotus tuberregium is an underutilized tropical fungus that is useful as food with recent reports of pharmacological activities. The present study evaluated and characterized environmental conditions and nutrients for optimal P. tuberregium mycelia growth (PtMG) and exopolysaccharides (PtEPS) production using batch culturing and diverse chemometric methods, respectively. Rank-sum analysis categorized the assessed conditions and nutrients into six stimulatory classes and most suitable nutrients and conditions for PtMG and PtEPS were co-identified with analysis of variance. Glucose, yeast, sodium chloride (NaCl) and tricalcium diphosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) were excellent stimulant (ES) for both PtEPS and PtMG under culturing condition of pH 6 at 30 °C for 15 d. The Chemo-phene trees generated by cluster analysis allowed visualization and clear-cut demarcation of the six stimulatory classes. The information embedded in the present study is useful for improving and developing culturing media for optimal PtMG and PtEPS yields, enabling maximal P. tuberregium utilization as food and medicine