ASSAY FOR AFLATOXINS IN SOME LOCAL FOOD CONDIMENTS

Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites with toxicological properties that induce a variety of health challenges when foods contaminated with these compounds are ingested. Aflatoxins are stable under most food processing conditions and therefore persist to the final products. Fresh samples of thirty two food condiments comprising of four each of Pleurotus tuber regium (Osu), Piper guineense (Uziza), Xylopia aethiopica (Uda), Monodora mystrica (Ehuru), Citrullus vulgaris (fermented mellon), Ricinus communis (Ogiri) Brachystegia eurycoma (Achi) and Origanum syriacum (Offor) were assayed for fungi and presence of aflatoxins. The mean fungal counts range from 1.2 x 104 in Pleurotus tuber regium to 8.2 x 109 in Brachystegia eurycoma. Eight fungal spp were identified to include Aspergillus, Penicillium, Candida, Mucor, Rhizopus, Geotricum, Saccharomyces and Fusarium. Aflatoxin assay by RIDA quick aflatoxin kit detected two samples of Brachystegia eurycoma and a sample of Origanum syriacum with concentrations ≥ 20ppb. The best protection against mycotoxins is monitoring their presence in foods and feeds, therefore, regular and routine analysis of food samples for possible presence of mycotoxins is recommended. Education and training of food handlers is imperative, adoption of GMP and HACCP application in food condiment preparation will curtail fungal contamination and mycotoxin production in foods and feed product

Relationship of age, anthropometry and haemoglobin concentration with echocardiographic findings in Nigerian children with sickle cell anaemia

Background: Assessment of the structural and functional effects of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) on the heart can be done using echocardiography.There has been no agreement on which indicator of body size (weight, height, and body surface area (BSA)) or age in children should be used to relate to and correct echocardiographic measurements.Aim: To correlate the echocardiographic findings of children with SCA aged one to fifteen years in steady state with their age, anthropometryand haemoglobin concentration.Methods: A prospective study carried out at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), between May and October 2005. The subjects were 60 paediatric patients attending the LUTH SCA outpatient clinic and 60 age, sex and socioeconomic matched controls. Their height, weight, and echocardiographic parameters were measured and their BSA and haemoglobin level were determined.Results: The direct echocardiographic measurement (AO, LA, LVPW, EDD, ESD, IVS) and LVM each increased progressively with body weight, height, body surface area and age in both subjects and controls (r > 0.3, p < 0.001 in each case). Multivariate analysis showed that height correlated significantly with AO, ESD, EDD and LVPW in the subjects. All the parameters except age were significantly correlated with LVM both in univariate and multivariate analysis.Conclusion: Echocardiographic parameters in SCA patients are significantlycorrelated with anthropometric indices and age. Our data suggest best correlation with height in these subjects