Fruits and Vegetables Diet Improves Kidney Functions and Electrolyte Status in Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (N.I.D.D.M) Subjects

Kidney failure and electrolyte imbalance are some of the complications associated with diabetes mellitus, if prompt treatment is not instituted it may lead to renal disease and dietary influence has been established on the prognosis of many diseases. Thus effects of fruits and vegetables diet were investigated on kidney functions and electrolyte status of some selected Non-Insulin dependent diabetic subjects at the cardiovascular clinic of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria. The patients with mean fasting blood glucose (FBG) 7.84± 0.95 mmol dl-1 were placed on 300 g of fruits and vegetables per day in addition to their normal drugs and food intake for eight weeks. Standard laboratory methods were employed for biochemical assay; while the data were analyzed using analytic and descriptive statistics. A significant difference (p < 0.05) was noticed between baseline and eighth week’s values in the following parameters: plasma creatinine, 3.48± 0.095 to 1.79±0.57 mgdL-1; urea, 39.05±2.04-23.20±1.50 and uric acid 5.37± 0.27-2.50±0.59 mgdL-1. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in plasma electrolyte values when the    baseline value were compared with the eighth week’s values. After the eight weeks, the fruits and vegetables rations were stopped for two weeks and the parameters were measured again. Significant difference(p<0.05) were observed in all the values by comparing week eight with week ten values; plasma creatinine, 1.79±0.52 to 3.01± 0.68 mgdl-1,plasma urea, 39.05± 2.40 to 23.20± 1.50  mgdl-1 and plasma uric acid 2.50±0.59 to 3.61±0.50 mgd-1, however no significant difference (p> 0.05) was observed in serum electrolyte. Our results showed that fruits and vegetables consumption improved kidney function and did not affect plasma electrolytes adversely. KEY WORDS: Diabetes mellitus, kidney functions, creatinine, urea, uric acid fruits and vegetable

Biodegradation of Malachite Green by Extracellular Laccase Producing Bacillus thuringiensis RUN1

A bacteria strain Bacillus thuringiensis RUN1identifiedby 16s RNA gene phylogenetic analysiswas used to decolorize malachite green, a triphenylmethane dye in a simulated wastewater. The ability of the organism to produce extracellular laccase and degrade the dye were also investigated. Results showed that the organism decolorized (84.67 ± 1.19 %) malachite green at 40 mgl-1 within 6 h; and the decolorization was associated to laccase production by the organism experimentally. Laccase activity increased as the decolorization process progressed, with the highest activity value of 0.1043 ± 0.02 U/min/ mg protein recorded after 24 h of incubation using ABTS as substrate. In addition, FTIR analysis showed that the strain actually degraded the dye. It was therefore concluded that this strain of Bacillus thuringiensis will be relevant in the biotreatment of industrial effluent containing malachite green and in the production of laccase, an industrially important enzyme

Sunlight-driven photocatalytic mineralization of antibiotic chemical and selected enteric bacteria in water via zinc tungstate-imprinted kaolinite

This study reports the synthesis of sunlight-active zinc oxide-tungstate-kaolinite photocatalytic composite prepared via a green process (solvent-free mechano-thermal process) at an optimum temperature of 500°C for 1 h in a furnace. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) study suggests the presence of W5+ defect states in the prepared photocatalytic composite (ZnWK-5), which is responsible for its photoactivity in visible light. Results from further analysis show that hole (h+) and superoxide radical (.O2−) are the major contributors to the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnWK-5 photocatalytic composite. This photocatalytic composite was used to treat water containing an antibiotic chemical-ampicillin (AMP) under sunlight. Mass spectrometry analysis of the treated water suggests that the mechanism of photodegradation of AMP is via several bond and ring cleavages, including amide bond, phenyl ring, and β-lactam ring cleavages. These cleavage reactions were followed by subsequent mineralization of ca. 98% after 5 h without the formation of toxic products. The introduction of phosphate and carbonate anions had a serious negative impact on the photocatalytic activity of the composite. However, the photocatalytic composite completely disinfected water contaminated with gram-(−ve) and gram-(+ve) bacteria. Even after five re-use cycles, the photocatalytic composite maintained a 90% photodegradation efficiency of ampicillin in water