Effect of Aqueous Leaf Extract of Jatropha tanjorensis on parasitaemia and haematological parameters in mice infected with Plasmodium ber ghei

Medicinal plants are proven sources of many useful drugs in our modern world. Jatropha tanjorensis, known as hospital too far, is consumed highly in Africa as herbal medicine. This research work was done to evaluate the effect of aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha tanjorensis on parasitaemia and haematological parameters in mice infected with Plasmodium ber ghei. The leaves of J. tanjorensis were extracted with distilled water and qualitative phytochemical analysis carried out. Acute toxicity studies were carried out using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guideline. The curative activity of the extract was examined using Rane’s test. A total of forty (40) mice were used for the study and they were infected with Plasmodium berghei. The infected mice were subdivided into five groups of six mice each and treated with different doses of standard drug (artemether/lumefantrine 25mg/kg) and extract (200, 400 and 800mg/kg body weight) for 4 days. After treatment, blood was collected and used for percentage parasitaemia, packed cell volume and hemoglobin concentration. The result of phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, terpe noids, cardiac glycosides and anthra quinones. The result of the acute toxicity showed the signs of neither neurological, behavioral nor mortality at concentrations of 2,000 and 5,000 mg/kg oral doses within the first 24 hours and during the 14 days study period. A dose- dependent increase was observed in Total haemoglobin (Hb) and Packed cell volume (PCV) levels which was collaborated with increase in weight as compared with negative control. The leaf extract of J. tanjorensis also revealed a significant (p<0.05) suppression activity and mean survival time at the doses of 400 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg when compared with the negative control. The extract of Jatropha tanjorensis showed reasonable levels of anti-anaemia and antimalarial activities with no signs of acute toxicity.  Therefore this study may support its use as an anti-prophylactic and blood tonic nutraceutical

Isolation and screening of α-amylase and glucoamylase producing fungi and their application in bioethanol production

Isolation of α-amylase and glucoamylase producing fungal strains was investigated. Samples (120 in number) were collected aseptically from rice mill industrial areas, cassava processing grounds, potato farms, corn processing industries and refuse dumping sites within Abakaliki metropolis in Ebonyi State of Nigeria. The samples were first grown on solid agar (PDA) and sub-cultured to get their pure cultures. The pure cultures were then grown for 3 days on PDA and screened for starch hydrolysis using Iodine-potassium iodide method. Out of the 120 cultures, 26 showed some degrees of starch hydrolysis. The 26 positive fungal isolates were further screened for enzymatic activities which were measured quantitatively with spectrophotometric methods. However, only 3 isolates (2a, 3 and 6b) were finally selected based on their high α-amylase and glucoamylase activities. Alpha-amylase production by co-cultivation of the selected isolates showed higher activities than single cultures. For instance, the co-culture of isolate 2a and 3 was higher (40.32+0.489 U/ml) than individual activities of isolate 2a (30.55+0.710 U/ml) or isolate 3 (32.44+0.442 U/ml). Bioethanol production was achieved by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) process using the selected fungal isolates and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The bioethanol concentrations were measured quantitatively with boiling/iodometric method. Isolate 3 with the yeast gave the highest concentration of the ethanol (10.913+0.874 g/L) after 96hours followed by isolate 2a and yeast (9.817+0.400 g/L) and then isolate 6b and yeast (8.540+0.308 g/L). Finally, the selected fungal isolates were identified as Aspergillus species (isolate 3), while isolates 2a and 6b were Mucor and Rhizopus species respectively