Mineral composition and assessment of human ingestion risk of twelve accessions of Moringa oleifera Lam

Increasing consumption of moringa leaf powder in Ghana is boosted by popular claims that the plant contains a rich array of minerals, vitamins and other protective substances. However, the safe doses of this product among gender classes and vulnerable groups are unknown. This knowledge gap demands an analysis of the mineral composition of the product and estimation of the risk (hazard) potential associated with the ingestion of dried leaf samples of the moringa plant. Mineral composition (Na, Mg, P, K, Ca, Mn, Cr, Fe, Cu and Zn) of dried leaf samples of twelve accessions of Moringa oleifera Lam. was determined using the Atomic Absorption Spectrometry aided by a fast sequential Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. Results of the study indicate that the samples showed variation with respect to macro and micro minerals content and that dried leaf powder of moringa can serve as an excellent source of minerals. Additionally, an estimation of hazard exposure calculated as hazard index presented overall indices of 0.0866 and 0.0443 for males and females respectively. Even though the values (0.076-0.097; 0.038-0.051) obtained from the samples are within safe limits, it is essential that consumption of moringa leaf powder is done on sound advice from a nutritionist since crucial factors such as gender, age, health status and exposure time contribute to individual dose needs and influence mineral toxicity

Pathogenicity and fungicide sensitivity of the causal agent of postharvest stem end rot disease of mango in Ghana

ABSTRACTStudies were carried out on the stem end rot disease of mango in Ghana. The incidence and severity of the disease were evaluated on mango fruits collected from major mango growing areas of Ghana. The causal agent was isolated on media and identified. The pathogenicity of the fungus and its cross-infection potential were determined on mango, avocado, papaya and banana fruits. The sensitivity of the pathogen to fungicides was determined by assessing radial mycelial growth on potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with nine different fungicides (Bendazim, Funguran, Ivory, Topsin, Asuoku master, Kocide, Mirage, Sulphur 80 and Copper oxychloride). Stem end rot disease was prevalent in the major mango growing areas of Ghana. Two pathogens, Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides were isolated from the disease lesions. However, only the former was able to cause stem end rot disease symptoms on the artificially inoculated fruits, confirming it as the causal agent of the disease. It was also found to be highly susceptible to Bendazim, Ivory, Topsin, Asuoku master and Mirage, whilst it was resistant to Funguran, Kocide, Sulphur 80 and Copper oxychloride.Original sciencitic paper. Received 30 Apr 15; revised 17 Oct 14

In-Vitro Assessment of Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Methanol Extracts of Six Wound Healing Medicinal Plants

In this study, quantitative values of antioxidant activity of crude methanolic extracts of five Wound healing medicinal plants (Amaranthus spinosus, Anogeissus leiocarpus, Spondia monbin, Corchorus olitorius, and Mallotus oppositifolia) were investigated. The investigation used DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical as a substrate and Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay to determine both scavenging ability and the reducing properties. Antioxidant was further analysed quantitatively for flavonoid content, total phenolic content in the crude methanolic extracts using spectrophotometric assay. The result showed that all plants exhibited scavenging ability and strong reducing activity although the ability differed markedly among the various plant samples. The highest scavenging ability (% inhibition) was exhibited by A. leiocarpus (95.86 ± 0.1) followed by C. olitorius (94.19 ± 0.06) while the lowest was from A. spinosus (40.87±2.5). The reducing power was also highest in A. leiocarpus followed by S. monbin; while A. spinosus showed the least reducing power. In quantitative analysis, again A. leiocarpus was found to have the highest phenolic content (1294.81± 3.0 mg/g) with A. spinosus recording the least phenol and flavonoid content. The crude methanol extracts were also screened for their antimicrobial activity against four common pathogenic microorganisms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter sp.) associated with wound infection by well diffusion method. All the extracts were found to inhibit the growth of both gram (+) and gram (-) bacteria organisms tested. Keywords: Radical scavenging effect, phenolic compounds, antioxidant activit

Scaling up of CSA Platforms at the Subnational (District) Levels in Ghana: a Progressive Achievement of Theghana CCAFS Science-Policy Platform

Globally the picture on climate change and its effects on humanity appear quite disturbing as food systems and consumption patterns are sliding towards low against prediction values. In Ghana population expansion as a driver has quadrupled now and calls for more food and fibre needs than ten decades ago (Karbo et al, 2015). The awareness of climate change on socio-economic development among development workers, scientists and policy decision makers appears high though more attention has been given to the search for biophysical solutions than the policy institutional environment enabling their uptake. The CCAFS programme in West Africa coordinated by ICRISAT, Bamako involving Ghana, Mali and Senegal was able to set up national multi-stakeholder platforms for sharing information on climate change and related policy issues. The platforms also provide a linkage mechanism between research, policy decision makers and community level actors in order to positively influence climate change investments and project trajectory in agriculture with effective adaptive, resilient and mitigation outcomes at the farmer level. The Ghana CCAFS Science –Policy Platform formation preceded with a meeting held in Burkina Faso in 2013 where a three member team from Ghana was involved with subsequent drafting and submission of proposal in request for funding leading to its establishment. The Ghana national climate change science policy platform as a multi-stakeholder institutional innovation came into being in 2013 with the support of CCAFS West Africa, set out to bridge science-policy literacy gap at the national and sub-national levels. In 2014, Ghana through the collaborative efforts of the national Platform implemented CCAFS Flagship4 activities which sought to deepen interaction at all levels. This culminated into the establishment of platforms at Lawra, Jirapa and Nandom districts with the view to strengthen climate change discourse, attitudinal change and actions at that level while maintaining a vibrant functional linkage mechanism with the national platforms for policy influence. An assessment of climate change policy and institutional context by Essegbey 2014, in these three districts, revealed that large gap exists between the national and subnational levels in terms of policy development and dissemination. The report identified weaknesses in harnessing societal grassroots inputs for policy formulation process and lack of awareness and knowledge about the policy especially in the decentralized levels of society in these three districts (Essegbey 2014). This suggests that policy literacy is very low and could pose challenge to effective implementation of the NCCP. The establishment of these platforms were necessary to help bridge the policy literacy gap. Today, these platforms provide soft landing for research activities and projects such ASSAR project, Water and Land Ecosystem project etc. The platforms also provide inputs into the districts level development annual plans. Effective networking with other local and international bodies have also been recognised. This info note seeks to give a process description of the scaling up of district sciencepolicy platforms in Ghana, the structures, the perceptions of the actors with particular reference to the platform, perceived functions, fears and organizational leadership diversities

Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices in Ghana

The contribution of the agricultural sector to Ghana's economy has been dwindling in relative terms from a high of 39 per cent in 1990s to about 21 per cent in 2014 (ISSER, 2015). This reduction to the sector’s GDP notwithstanding, sector continues to play a major role in the country’s socio-economic growth. However, the sector is threatened by the effects of climate variability and climate change. There are already efforts being made at various levels to address this threat through the adoption and adaption of various technologies and practices. This paper profiles technologies and practices that respond to CSA principles and characteristics in the northern Guinea savannah and Forest agro-ecological zones of Ghana. Two regional workshops were held in Wa and Kumasi for the savannah and forest zones respectively. Over 200 participants consisting of farmers, NGOs, FBOs, MoFA directors and extension workers, traditional rulers, District Chief Executives, Academia and researchers were involved in the technology identification and profiling employing a matrix-ranking tool in the working groups at the various workshops. Participants identified 61 and 21 CSA technologies and practices in the Guinea Savannah and the Forest zones respectively and recommended scaling up of these technologies in the various zones. While the traditional rulers and farmers bemoaned the lack of synergy among the institutions involved in CSA and the lack of policy continuity, policy makers called for strengthening of collaboration between the stakeholders for CSA. The policy and decision makers further called on scientists to make CSA accessible at the farmer level through demonstrations and fact sheets for awareness creation and education and promised to support research and extension with the needed funds. Representatives of Academia and Research on their part pledged solutions that are sustainable and have climate change adaptation and mitigation effects for profit and the well-being of farmers

Systems and Operations of the Ghana Science-Policy Dialogue Platform on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

The threat posed by climate change and its variability within sub-Saharan Africa especially West Africa is compounded by its weak economies and high dependence on Agriculture as a major driver of economic growth. Ghana has since 2010 undertaken several initiatives towards development of comprehensive programmes (strategies) to enhance national adaptation to climate change. Diverse governmental and academic/research institutions, private sector and individuals have initiated programmes and projects aimed at delivering on CSA to enhance livelihoods, increased agricultural production and sustainable socio-economic development. However, the activities of these stakeholders in the climate change arena appeared isolated, disjointed and uncoordinated to reap desired benefits. In response, the CCAFS programme in West Africa coordinated by ICRISAT, Bamako involving Ghana, Mali and Senegal was able to set up national multi-stakeholder platforms for information sharing and learning on climate change and related policy issues. The Ghana CCAFS Science-Policy Dialogue Platform having been operational since November 2012 has wealth of experiences to share. This note is therefore designed to highlight the profile of Ghana’s platform, its structure and composition and the key achievements over the past 4-5 years of existence

Scenario-Guided Review of the Ghana Livestock Policy

Climate change impacts are manifesting throughout the world and they are especially significant in developing countries, including Ghana, that are particularly vulnerable. The impacts of climate change are complex and uncertain in nature that the usual conventional planning often falls short to address. In agriculture in particular, planning should be purposively done to effectively address climate change impacts especially for the livestock sub-sector that always seem to be insufficiently catered for. To address the uncertainty of future developments in an adequate way, a methodology that acknowledges the uncertainty and complexity is essential. Scenario-building methodology is a tried-and-tested approach in that regard. It is based on systems science and seeks to recognize and explore uncertainty and complexity in the decision-makers’ context. In multi-stakeholder contexts, exploratory scenarios engage multiple legitimate perspectives involved in framing and addressing unclear challenges related to food security and the environment. This leads to an extensive overview of plausible futures, articulating complex interactions between socio-economic factors, political developments, climate change, and the global context. Policy making needs a methodology that appropriately delivers visionary options. For Ghana’s livestock sub-sector such visionary options are vital. And in order to produce a new and robust version of Ghana’s livestock policy, currently being finalized by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), MoFA in collaboration with the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has successfully organized a Three-Day Workshop from 13th to 15th July, 2016 at the Forest Hotel. The scenario-guided review workshop was conducted through a participatory approach which brought relevant stakeholders from the Government (MoFA, etc), academia, civil society and the private sector together to review the livestock policy. The CCAFS West Africa scenarios workshops informed the process in Ghana. In order to address specific issues in Ghana, these West Africa scenarios were downscaled and adapted to the level of Ghana by the Ghanaian stakeholders. These downscaled Ghana scenarios were then used for reviewing the livestock policy with the objective to produce a new, robust version in the face of future uncertainty. Dignitaries in attendance were Dr. Kwame Oppong-Anane, the Consultant for the Drafting of the Livestock Policy, who was the chairman for the workshop, Dr. E .K. Adu (Director, CSIR- ARI) who delivered the welcome address, Dr. Victor Agyeman (Director General, CSIR, Ghana), Dr. Robert Zougmore (CCAFS West Africa), and Mr. Kwamena Akorful (Director, APD , MoFA) who each delivered statements. Facilitators for the workshop included Dr. Samuel Partey, Dr. Karbo Naaminong, Dr.George Owusu Essegbey, Mr. Delali Nutsukpo, Mr. Vincent Ansah Botchway, Ms. Mavis Akuffobea and Kingsley Odum Sam who worked under the guidance of CCAFS’ Scenarios technical expert, Dr. Lucas Rutting, based at the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, UK

Antithrombin-III Mitigates Thrombin-Mediated Endothelial Cell Contraction and Sickle Red Blood Cell Adhesion in Microscale Flow

Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) have persistently elevated thrombin generation that results in a state of systemic hypercoagulability. Antithrombin-III (ATIII), an endogenous serine protease inhibitor, inhibits several enzymes in the coagulation cascade, including thrombin. Here, we utilize a biomimetic microfluidic device to model the morphology and adhesive properties of endothelial cells (ECs) activated by thrombin and examine the efficacy of ATIII in mitigating the adhesion of SCD patient-derived red blood cells (RBCs) and EC retraction. Microfluidic devices were fabricated, seeded with ECs, and incubated under physiological shear stress. Cells were then activated with thrombin with or without an ATIII pretreatment. Blood samples from subjects with normal haemoglobin (HbAA) and subjects with homozygous SCD (HbSS) were used to examine RBC adhesion to ECs. Endothelial cell surface adhesion molecule expression and confluency in response to thrombin and ATIII treatments were also evaluated. We found that ATIII pretreatment of ECs reduced HbSS RBC adhesion to thrombin-activated endothelium. Furthermore, ATIII mitigated cellular contraction and reduced surface expression of von Willebrand factor and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) mediated by thrombin. Our findings suggest that, by attenuating thrombin-mediated EC damage and RBC adhesion to endothelium, ATIII may alleviate the thromboinflammatory manifestations of SCD

Evaluating the implementation of community volunteer assessment and referral of sick babies: lessons learned from the Ghana Newhints home visits cluster randomized controlled trial.

A World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (2009) joint statement recommended home visits by community-based agents as a strategy to improve newborn survival, based on promising results from Asia. This article presents detailed evaluation of community volunteer assessment and referral implemented within the Ghana Newhints home visits cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). It highlights the lessons learned to inform implementation/scale-up of this model in similar settings. The evaluation used a conceptual framework adopted for increasing access to care for sick newborns and involves three main steps, each with a specific goal and key requirements to achieving this. These steps are: sick newborns are identified within communities and referred; families comply with referrals and referred babies receive appropriate management at health facilities. Evaluation data included interviews with 4006 recently delivered mothers; records on 759 directly observed volunteer assessments and 52 validation of supervisors' assessments; newborn care quality assessment in 86 health facilities and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with 55 mothers, 21 volunteers and 15 health professionals. Assessment accuracy of volunteers against supervisors and physician was assessed using Kappa (agreement coefficient). IDIs were analysed by generating and indexing into themes, and exploring relationships between themes and their contextual interpretations. This evaluation demonstrated that identifying, understanding and implementing the key requirements for success in each step of volunteer assessment and referrals was pivotal to success. In Newhints, volunteers (CBSVs) were trusted by families, their visits were acceptable and they engaged mothers/families in decisions, resulting in unprecedented 86% referral compliance and increased (55-77%) care seeking for sick newborns. Poor facility care quality, characterized by poor health worker attitudes, limited the mortality reduction. The important implication for future implementation of home visits in similar settings is that, with 100% specificity but 80% sensitivity of referral decisions, volunteers might miss some danger signs but if successful implementation must translate into mortality reductions, concurrent improvement in facility newborn care quality is imperative