Determination of the Phytochemical Constituents and Antifungal Properties of Annona senegalensis Leaves (African Custard Apple)

Phytochemical screening of Annona senegalensis leaves was carried out in order to identify and to quantify the bioactive compounds that are present in the plant. Methanol extracts and aqueous extracts of the plant leaves were screened for the presence of ten metabolites. The qualitative study indicated the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, steroids, cardiac glycoside and carbohydrates for both the aqueous extracts and the methanol leaves extract. Tannins and terpenoids were only present in the aqueous extract and saponins were only present in the methanol extract. Anthraquinones were absent in both of the extracts. Quantitative analysis showed the amount of alkaloid that was present in both the leaves extract of Annona senegalensis. Antifungal activities of the methanol extracts and the aqueous extracts of Annona senegalensis were investigated and assessed against cultured Trichoderma spp fungus. The susceptibility of the tested fungus on the extracts was determined by measuring the diameter of the inhibition zones formed around the well. The highest anti-fungal activity was observed in the aqueous extracts of the leaf. This gave an inhibition zone of 14.5mm. The methanol extract of the leaf gave the lowest inhibition zone of 8.3mm. Keywords: Annona senegalensis, bioactive, extracts, metabolites, leaves, phytochemical, antifunga

Nutritional and Antinutritional Profile of Borassus aethiopum Mart (African Palmyra Palm) Shoots

Borassus aethiopum (African palmyrah palm) shoots was analysed for its nutritional and antinutritional compositions. The proximate composition showed 56.33%w/w moisture, 11.2%DW crude fibre, 6.9%DW crude protein and 81%DW available carbohydrate. Mineral content (per 100g dried sample) indicates the presence Mg (640mg), Ca (433.3mg), K (236.7mg), Mn (12.85mg), Zn (12.74) and Fe (11.5mg/100gDW) as the most abundant. The level of toxic Pb and Cd in the shoot is of great concern considering their health effect. Amino acids analyses showed that the shoot is not a good protein source when compared to WHO/FAO/UNU reference standard for school children. Nevertheless, the shoot contains an appreciable amount of essential amino acids (lysine, threonine, phenylalanine and tyrosine) above the reference standard for adult. The concentrations of hydrocyanic acid, nitrate, oxalate and phytate were lower than the reference toxic standard level. The results indicate that the B. aethiopum shoot is a food stuff with appreciable levels of both macro and micro nutrients as well as safe levels of antinutritional factors

Optimal Fiscal and Price Stability in Germany: Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) Cointegration Relationship

The impact of fiscal policy measures in a managed fixed exchange rate system were questioned in this study, to evaluate the extent of Fiscal Policies measure using quarterly time series data for Germany,for the period ranged between1991q1 to 2017q4. The study shows that, utilization of fiscalstrategies for economic growth by examining tax revenue, public debt and consumer price index. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and OLS model were employed to establish co-integration and causal relationship among the variables respectively. The choice of ARDL is considered due to thefact that the parameters are not at uniform stationarity; Three of the variables are I(1) and one is I(0) from both ADF and PP. Numerous tests were employed to identify the stability, homoscedasticity andLM Test for the variables. Breusch Godfrey LM test and heteroskedasticity test are applied, respectively. The results shows that, there is existence of positive and negative causality amongst real GDP and tax revenue to CPI and tax revenue cause total public debt positively in Germany similarly, total public debt positively cause real GDP in short-run. Only one bidirectional exist between CPI and Total Public Debt, three unidirectional occurred between Tax revenue and real GDP, Total public debt and real GDP and CPI and Total public debt.This shows the evidence of higher tax rate leading to inflation and more public debt in the country. The researchers suggest that, there is need for the Germany's expansionary fiscal policy stance with combination of monetary policy which wills helps to contribute to the rapid growth of the economy