Pollution status and pollution source identification in the groundwater of Yar-Dalla in Wudil, Kano, Nigeria

The recent increase in population growth and industrialization has resulted in higher pollution loads in the environment including the groundwater, which is a vital freshwater resource. Water Quality Index (WQI) was used to assess the water quality of the study area, while multivariate statistical techniques, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA), were used to identify possible sources of the pollutants. The results of the descriptive statistics show that pH, Chloride, Alkalinity, Nitrate, and Cu are within the WHO standard for drinking water in all the water samples, while Cl-, Cd, Cr, and Pb exceeded the allowable standard in 20 %, 30 %, 10 %, and 40 % respectively of the water samples. CA group sample locations into three distinct clusters: C1 (A, B, E, G, F, and H), C2 (C, J, and I), and C3 (D). C1 has the highest anthropogenic influence followed by C2, while C3 has the least. WQI shows that C1 is in the extremely poor class (WQI>100), C2 is in the poor class (51<WQI<75), and C3 is in the good class (26<WQI<50). The PCA yielded 3 components which explained 72.98 % of the total variance in the data set. The first Component accounts for 38.85 %. Component 2 accounts for 19.76 % of the total variance while Component 3 accounts for 14.37 % of the total variance. The groundwater of the area is mainly impacted by anthropogenic factors such as agricultural activities, domestic waste, and vehicular/traffic inpu

Effect of solvents on the synthesis of hydroxyapatite sodium alginate nanocomposites for doxorubicin drug loading and delivery

In situ preparation of hydroxyapatite-sodium alginate nanocomposite (HASA) was carried out by the wet chemical precipitation method using water, ethanol, ethyl acetate and acetone as the dissolution medium. Drug loading was carried out at neutral pH, while in vitro drug release study was carried out in synthetic body fluid (SBF) at pH 7.4 and 37 oC.  The FTIR results show similar functional groups for precursors and synthesized nanocomposites. The nanocomposite prepared in water medium has the highest drug encapsulation efficiency of 83.67 %. Doxorubicin release profile comparison using difference factor (f1), showed that there is no significant difference between release profile of doxorubicin from nanocomposite synthesized in acetone and ethyl acetate ((f1 = 3.92), while other release profiles differed significantly. All the formulations follow first order release rate, while the n exponent in the Korsmeyer-Peppas equation indicates that the release mechanism is dominated by Fickian diffusion. The release profiles also indicate that nanocomposites synthesized from water medium is a better delivering agent for doxorubicin than the nanocomposites from the others solvents. Keywords: nanocomposites, solvents, drug loading, hydroxyapatite, release profil

Multivariate analysis of the physico-chemical properties of soils in selected locations of the floodplain of river Kaduna in Niger state, Nigeria

Multivariate statistics was used to analyse the physico-chemical properties of soil in the selected locations of the floodplain of River Kaduna in Niger State, Nigeria. Samples were collected in March and September of the same year and the levels of some important soil quality parameters analysed. The data was subjected to basic statistics, cluster analysis (CA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Correlation Analysis, and Discriminant Analysis (DA). Descriptive statistics shows that, with the exception of silt and clay other parameters analysed decreased in value after flooding, while the predominant textual class of the soil is clay-loam. The PCA for March and September sampling periods extracted three components each which explained 84.10% and 78.90% respectively of the total variance. Cluster analysis yielded five distinct clusters for March: cluster 1 (K, Ca, EA, and pH); cluster 2 (OM, CEC, TN, Silt content, Clay content, and OC); cluster 3 (Na); cluster 4 (P), and cluster 5 (Mg and Sand content); and five separate clusters for September. From DA, seven variables (pH, OC, OM, TN, P, K and Mg) were the most significant parameters which accounted for the expected spatial/temporal variations in the soil of March, while CEC, Na, Ca, silt, sand and clay become an important discriminator in September. Flood has significant influence on the soil of the study area as level and distribution of the parameters changed from March to September

Use of water quality index to assess the impact of flooding on water quality of River Kaduna, Nigeria

Flooding is increasingly becoming a yearly occurrence in Nigeria and many parts of the world and is linked to climate change. It comes with a wide range of consequences including the destruction of life and property and surface water pollution. This study used water quality index (WQI) to assess the impact of 2019 and 2020 flood events on the water quality of River Kaduna. Nine water quality parameters were selected based on Nigeria standards, while the weighted arithmetic method was applied in calculating the WQI. The result shows that electrical conductivity, TDS, Cl-, Na, sulphate, and nitrate were all below the maximum standard limits throughout the study period, while Fe and turbidity were above the limits. While other parameters showed varied responses before and after the two flood events, Fe and turbidity were consistently higher after the flood events. The water quality of the river is generally in the extremely poor class, both before and after the 2019 and 2020 floods (WQI > 100). There was a pronounced decrease in water quality at all the sampling stations after both the 2019 and 2020 flood events. The decreasing water quality should be of a public health concern as a large number of people depends on this river for domestic use

Assessment of Water Quality of Shallow Aquifer Resources of Agbabu, Ondo State, Nigeria

Groundwater, through hand dug wells, provide drinking water to an estimated 59 % of Nigerians. There is, however, a growing concern on the deterioration of groundwater quality due to anthropogenic activities. In this study, water quality index (WQI) was used to assess the groundwater quality of Agbabu, while health risk assessment was carried out by calculating the chronic daily intake (CDI), hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI) and carcinogenic risk (CR) of some heavy metals and nitrate. The WQI shows that the groundwater of the area were in the very poor water quality (76 < WQI < 100) and unsuitable for drinking class (WQI > 100). Oral ingestion is the major pathway of risk exposure, accounting for 86.54 % of total exposure to the risk, while dermal contact accounted for only 13.46%. Cd and Cr are the major contributors to non-carcinogenic risk and accounted for 51.07% and 39.51% respectively of the total risk, while Pb, Mn, Fe and NO3- showed no risk to the population (HQ < 1). There is also a life time probability of contracting cancer due to groundwater contaminated with Cr and Cd in the study area. The groundwater of the area were contaminated mainly by heavy metals, and therefore should be continuously monitored and proper legislation taken to avoid health risk associated with these toxic metals

Preparation, Characterization and In-vitro Drug Release Study of Methotrexate-Loaded Hydroxyapatite-Sodium Alginate Nanocomposite

Controlled drug delivery systems reduce dose-dependent toxicity associated with potent drugs, including anticancer drugs. In this research, hydroxyapatite (HA) and hydroxyapatite-sodium alginate nanocomposites (HASA) were successfully prepared and characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The FTIR result showed absorption peaks characteristics of pure hydroxyapatite (HA), and also confirmed chemical interaction between hydroxyapatite and sodium alginate in the formation of the composite. Image analysis revealed nanosized hydroxyapatite and hydroxyapatite-sodium alginate nanocomposites with irregular morphologies. Particles sizes increased with the formation of the nanocomposites relative to pure hydroxyapatite, with no significant change in particles morphologies. Drug loading and in-vitro drug release study was carried out using synthetic body fluid as the release medium, at pH 7.4 and 37 0C and under perfect sink conditions. The result shows that drug loading is highest for pure hydroxyapatite and decreased with increasing quantity of sodium alginate. However, the release study revealed that HASA-5%wt and HASA20%wt presented better release profiles than pure hydroxyapatite, while HASA-33%wt and HASA-50%wt have poor release profiles. This shows that Methotrexate-loaded hydroxyapatite-sodium alginate if prepared under optimal conditions is a potential carrier for effective delivery of Methotrexate

Heavy metal pollution and ecological risk assessment in the sediments of River Kaduna, Nigeria

This study evaluated the pollution level and ecological risk of Cd, Cu, Cr, Pb and, Zn in sediments of River Kaduna. The total metal concentrations were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS), while the pollution level and ecological risk of the metals were evaluated using a combination of geo-accumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), Nemerow pollution index (NPI), and potential ecological risk index. While Cd was below detection limits, the level of other heavy metals in all the sites followed the order: Zn > Cr > Cu > Pb. Heavy metals in the sediment can be classified as unpolluted to moderately polluted (Igeo < 2), with the pollution level following the order of Cr > Cu > Pb > Zn. While PLI classified the sites as polluted, NPI further subdivided the pollution level of the sites as precaution domain, slightly polluted domain, and moderately polluted domain. Pollution of the sites decreased from March to September at sites MU and JI but increased at NK. The same pattern was also observed for the ecological risk of the sites. However, none of the metals posed an ecological risk in the area as the risk factors were all below the lower threshold (Er < 40), and there was also a low risk to the local ecosystem at all the sites from the studied metals (RI < 110). The metals showed seasonal and spatial variation with levels that did not pose a serious threat in the area