Background and Objective: Moringa stenopetala L. is a plant called miracle plant due to its adaptability and versatility in use.However, in spite of its marvelous importance, the plant has got little attention for research based on stress physiology.Therefore, in this study, pot experiment was conducted to investigate the chlorophylls concentration, Leaf gas exchanges, stomata traits and leaf water status responses of Moringa stenopetala L. accessions seedlings to drought stress under greenhouse condition.Materials and Methods: The experiment was consisted of 3 accessions (Konso, Arba Minch Zuria and Humbo) and 4 drought stresses (daily, 5 days interval, 10 days interval and 15 days interval watering) assigned in completely randomized design with 3 replications.Results: The accession "Arbaminch Zuria" was higher in all parameters except stomata number.Regarding to water stress, the experiment shown that, increased water stress reduced all parameters except stomata number.Additionally, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and leaf relative water content were significantly influenced due to the interaction effect of accession and drought stress.Accession "Arbaminch Zuria" grown under daily watering was higher in all traits those indicated significant due to interaction.Conclusion: Therefore, Arbaminch Zuria can be taken as a better accession both under stressed and unstressed conditions for production of moringa seedling.Furthermore, study is still needed on more indigenous and exotic accession under different drought stress for longer periods of time as a perennial crop.
Background and Objective: Post-mortem treatments, the cooling regime and the cutting method have a great influence on organoleptic quality of the meat such as the color and tenderness. The aim of this study was to evaluate meat quality of burnt sheep and stripped sheep in Benin. Material and Methods: Sixty samples of Longissimus dorsi, 30 burnt and 30 stripped Sahelian ewes in Cotonou slaughterhouse were used. Animals were all aged from 2-3 years and they were weighed before and after slaughter. Meat color, pH during 48 h post-mortem, loss of juice by cooking and tenderness were also measured. A sensory analysis (flavor, juiciness, tenderness and overall rating) of the boiled samples was carried out on small identical cubes of the meat. Results: The slaughtering lively weight and the hot carcass weight didn't vary from a type of dressing to another. Longissimus dorsi of burnt ewes has a lower red index, flavor and shear force than that of stripped (p<0.05). On the other hand, the initial and final pH and tenderness were higher in these same burnt. The juiciness and the water retention capacity didn’t vary from burnt to stripped ewes. Conclusion: The study on the carcass quality and technological and organoleptic quality of the ewes slaughtered at the Cotonou slaughterhouse showed the effect of the type of dressing on the quality of the meat. The burning technique seems to influence the yield of the hot carcass.
Background and Objective: Balanites aegyptiaca fruit is a useful source of hypoglycaemic remedy for management of diabetes in some part of Northern Nigeria.This study evaluated the effects of fractionated ethanol extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca fruit-mesocarp (BAFM) in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Materials and Methods: Ethanol crude extract of BAFM was fractionated with water and ethyl acetate (1:1 v/v) then separated to obtain the specific extract-fraction.The extract-fractions were evaluated for antidiabetic activities in rats induced with diabetes.Diabetes mellitus was induced in male Wistar rats by intra-peritoneal injection of streptozotocin at a dose of 60 mg kgG 1 body weight.Results: From the results, rats induced with diabetes were characterized by low serum insulin, hyperglycemia and decrease in body weights.Treatment with the extract-fractions of BAFM elevated serum insulin, lowered fasting blood glucose levels and reversed serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, serum albumin and total protein.The aqueous fraction (AFF) was more comparable in lowering fasting blood glucose by 18.61% when compared to 24.62% by metformin.A significant increase in serum insulin levels was recorded in diabetic rats treated with AFF when compared to diabetic control rats and diabetic rats treated with ethyl acetate fraction.Conclusion: Both aqueous and ethyl acetate extract-fractions of BAFM exert hypoglycaemic, antihyperglycaemic and antilipidaemic effects.However, the aqueous fraction was more potent.This study is a step towards the isolation of bioactive components.Further research is needed to explore the bioactive component(s) responsible for the antidiabetic effects.
Background and Objective: The developing trend of resistance in bed bugs toward synthetic insecticidal agents makes their management extremely difficult.So, there is an urgent need to develop new approach in the protection of bedbugs consist of using native plants with insecticidal value.The present experiment was conducted to protect bed bugs through the use of Capsicum baccatum (chilli pepper) extract.Materials and Methods: The experiment was conducted to extract toxin from Capsicum baccatum for bedbug protection.The extract was prepared in 3 different concentrations in liquid form viz. 14.2, 16 and 18.8% as a direct admixture of salt.Adult bedbugs were collected from studentʼs dormitory The collected insects were allowed to mate for 3 days and eggs from ovipositor site were collected.The extract was sprayed on adult bedbugs designed in experimental block with 3 treatment groups.The efficiency of acute toxicity of the extract was checked on the percentage of adults mortality in control with percentage control and inhibition of adult emergence was checked by percentage of adult emergence inhibition in control [IE %].Bonferroni correction test was used to adjust for multiple comparisons of the blocks at 95% confidence interval [CI].The experimental design for mortality and emergence test was randomized block design.Results: The result revealed that the extract was 100% effective at killing bedbugs and inhibiting adult emergence in all levels of concentration [CL] compared to treatments under control with significant mean difference (p<0.05).Conclusion: Generally, the study confirmed that the extract pose talented potential in protecting bedbugs and adult emergence inhibition only in small scale applications based on the demonstrated efficacy and reduced risk potential on non-target organisms and ecology.
Background and Objective: High fructose intake has been reported to alter metabolisms leading to hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia.This study investigated the effect of Balanites aegyptiaca fruit-pericarp extract on high fructose fed rats.Materials and Methods: Balanites aegyptiaca fruits after collection were dehulled to obtain pericarps, air-dried and pulverized into powdered then extracted with ethanol.Phytochemical content and acute toxicity of the extract were ascertained.The study was conducted on rats divided into 7 groups of 5 each, namely; normal control, extract control (received 600 mg kgG 1 b.wt., extract), fructose control (received 30% fructose solution), standard drug control (fructose fed rats treated with simvastatin 25 mg kgG 1 ) while group 4-6 were fructose fed rats treated with extract at 200, 400 and 800 mg kgG 1 b.wt..After 21 days of extract administration, rats were sacrificed, blood collected and serum separated which was used for the biochemical analysis.Results: The study showed pericarp extract possess variety of phytochemical (phenols, flavonoids, saponins, tannins) and is safe with lethal median dose (LD 50 ) assumed at 4000 mg kgG 1 b.wt., of rats.Lipid profile varies significantly (p<0.05) between rats fed fructose untreated and treated whereas, fasting blood glucose and insulin are insignificantly (p>0.05)different among all groups.Fructose untreated rats had the highest weight increase at 17% compare to the treated rats.Conclusion: The study found pericarp extract of Balanites aegyptiaca safe, possess important phytochemicals and able to prevent fructose induced hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia in rats.It may be a good source for the management of metabolic disorders.
Background and Objective: Anti-bacterial activity was evaluated in the whole body crude extracts of the 3 edible marine bivalves, namely Perna perna (brown mussel), Perna viridis (green mussel) and the parrot mussel collected from the coastal villages of Kanyakumari district.Materials and Methods: Six different solvents, namely ethanol, methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, hexane and butanol were used to prepare the extracts.The efficacies of the whole body extract of different solvents were assessed for the antimicrobial activity against 13 different pathogenic bacteria viz., Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus epidermis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella paratyphi, Streptococcus pyogenes, Vibrio sp., Shigella sp. and Haemophilus influenza.Results: Of the 6 different solvents methanol exhibits the highest activity followed by ethanol and acetone.The methanolic extracts of P. viridis exhibit the highest activity against E. coli, S. typhi and P. aeruginosa.The ethanolic extract of P. viridis shows the highest activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, K. pneumoniae and acetone extract showed good activity against E. coli.The methanolic extracts of P. perna exhibit the highest activity against E. coli, S. aureus, S. typhi, P. vulgaris.The ethanolic extract of P. perna is active against P. vulgaris and B. subtilis and the ethanolic extract showed good activity against P. aeruginosa and Shigella species.The methanolic extracts of the parrot mussel exhibit the highest activity against E. coli and Streptococcus pyogenes, ethanol extract shows good activity against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus and the acetone extract shows maximum antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa.Conclusion: The findings of the present study confirm that the mussel species have antimicrobial activity and that this activity appears to be dependent on the solvent used for the extraction process.FTIR analysis reveals the presence of bioactive compounds signals at different ranges.
Background and Objective: The relatively inexpensive, widely available poultry meat and eggs can be of central importance to meet shortfalls in essential nutrients, particularly to impoverished people.Contamination of foods by pathogenic microbes causes consumer illness.In this study, antibacterial activity of spice extracts against isolated foodborne pathogenic bacterial strains were evaluated.Materials and Methods: Egg and meat samples were collected from poultry egg and meat retailers of local market and screened on MacConkey and Mannitol salt agar media, respectively.The isolates were identified by morphological, biochemical and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis.Anti-bacterial activity of different spice extracts against isolated bacteria was tested through disc diffusion method.Cytotoxicity was evaluated through probit mortality analysis software.Results: Bacillus sp.(from meat) showed more toxicity (LC 50 = 95.6205µL mLG 1 ) than Enterobacter sp.(from egg) (LC 50 = 143.2504µL mLG 1 ) against Artemia salina.For biological control, methanolic and aqueous extracts of Cinnamomum verum, Syzygium aromaticum, Piper chaba, Zingiber officinale were used.Methanolic extract of S. aromaticum acted as potential antimicrobial agent against Bacillus sp. with a inhibition zones of 15±0, 18.33±0.58and 21±0 mm at a concentration of 50, 75, 100 µg mLG 1 , respectively.Similarly, Enterobacter sp. was susceptible at the same doses with a inhibition zones of 15.33±0.58,16.67±0.58and 18±0 mm.Moreover, C. verum oil with a dose of 30 µL showed the highest growth inhibitory effect against Bacillus sp.(inhibition zone 40±1 mm) than Enterobacter sp.(inhibition zone 34.33±1.53mm). Conclusion:The result suggests that spices represent an alternative source of natural antibacterial substances for inhibiting the growth of foodborne bacteria.
Background and Objectives: Cassia siamea widely distributed in the southern and northern parts of Nigeria is extensively used in folkloric medicine for the treatment of urinogenitory disorders, herpes, rhinitis, constipation, diabetes, insomnia, hypertension, asthma, typhoid fever, microbial infections among others.The study was aimed to screen the antimicrobial potency of the methanol stem bark extract of C. siamea as well established the phytoconstituents responsible for such activity.Materials and Methods: This study was evaluated the phytochemistry, antimicrobial effects as well as the GC-MS analysis of Cassia siamea stem bark extracted with absolute methanol using cold maceration method for 72 h.Results: The extract showed promising antibacterial activity against all the tested pathogens namely Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoneae, Salmonella typhi, Shigella sp, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.The best activity was recorded for the gram negative strain of E. coli with a zone of inhibition (mm) of 16.77±0.22while the least activity was recorded for the gram positive strain of S. aureus with a zone of inhibition (mm) of (11.16±0.12)at the highest investigated concentration of 100 mg mLG 1 .The GC-MS analysis confirmed the occurrence of a total 23 phytocompounds in the methanol extract.Conclusion: The stem bark extract has varying degree of antimicrobial potential ranging from mild to high activity correlated by the presence of selected bioactive compounds.
Background and Objective: Date fruits are an imperative crop, especially cultivated in the hot-arid regions of the world having extraordinary nutritional and therapeutic value.Also, marshmallow is a confection of foam-like structure and demand for it is constantly growing on the world market.This study is performed to investigate the possibility of producing new dietary products called dates marshmallow and sheets with a new technology.Materials and Methods: Mixing the juice of dates with fruit juice such as golden berry and Tamarindus indica with ratio 50% led to reduce the content of sucrose and total sugars.Results: Total phenolic compounds for dates, 50%; Tamarindus indica, 50% were the highest one.Flavonoids were the highest value in samples dates (100%) followed by the other.It noticed that, carotenoids recorded the highest content in all samples.Objective testing color measurements, all treatments including both of controls were observed less in yellowness (***b) value.On the other hand, fibers, total acidity and vitamin C were close and almost compatible with the control.It could be clearly observed that, treatment of date sheets product (zero time) were more in compared with control by increasing time of storage.Conclusion: Second degree types of dates are proper, successful, economic and applicable to produce as a new product marshmallows as well as it can be made in sheets form by heat concentrated drying which it gave an added value for dates that was very well for consumer palatability in general by sensory evaluation.
Background and Objective: A research was conducted to evaluate the insecticidal effect of ethanolic extracts obtained from the leaves of 3 plants against cowpea weevil; (Callosobruchus maculates) infestation of stored cowpea seeds.Materials and Methods: Ethanolic extracts at 6 different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 mg LG 1 and control) were formulated from the leaves of Hyptis suaveolens (Lamiaceae), Alstonia boonei (Apocynaceae) and Tephrosia vogelii (Fabaceae) and were tested for their protecting abilities on cowpea seeds and their toxicity on cowpea bruchid, C. maculatus (F.).The data obtained were analyzed using Analysis of Variance with significant means separated using least significant difference.Results: The results obtained revealed significant difference (p<0.05) in the insecticidal efficacy of the 3 plant extracts relative to control in inducing mortality and inhibiting oviposition and adult emergence thereby reducing seed damage.About 79.10% mortality was induced by 8.0 mg LG 1 concentration obtained from Tephrosia vogelii extract at 48 h.All test plant extracts at high concentrations of (4.0 and 8.0 mg LG 1 ) caused significant increase in mortality but a significant reduction (p<0.05) in oviposition, fecundity and progeny emergence relative to control.Conclusion: It was concluded that, all the extracts from the 3 test plants showed high insecticidal activity against C. maculatus and hence protect the stored cowpea seeds from its infestation.The trend in toxicity of the extracts is in the following order: T. vogelii > H. suaveolens > A. boonei.The effect is concentration dependent, increases with increase in concentration.The 8.0 mg LG 1 concentration is recommended for used against C. maculatus infestation.
Background and Objectives: In India and many other Asian countries, traditional medicinal plants are used for treatment of various diseases.Under the category, Mimosa pudica is used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of numerous diseases including diabetes.In recent time, diabetes has become much common disease perhaps due to changed life style.Therefore, in the present study, antidiabetic effect of Mimosa pudica seeds ethanolic extract and extract fractions (n-butanol, ethyl acetate and n-hexane) was investigated in vivo in Wistar rats.Antioxidant study was carried out using in vitro and in vivo models.Materials and Methods: The free radical (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and nitric oxide) scavenging activity and total antioxidant (flavonoid and phenol) contents of the extracts were determined in vitro by spectrophotometric method.In the in vivo studies, 100, 200 and 400 mg kgG 1 Mimosa pudica seeds ethanolic extract and 200 mg kgG 1 of each extract fractions were administered to streptozotocin (60 mg kgG 1 ) induced diabetic Wistar rats.Results: Mimosa pudica seed extracts possess moderate amount of antioxidants and scavenged 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and nitric oxide free radicals.Mimosa pudica seed extracts also decreased fasting blood glucose level and lipid peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) and increased serum insulin, serum "-amylase and hepatic antioxidants (catalase and reduced glutathione) levels in 21 days treated diabetic rats.The ethyl acetate extract fraction scavenged 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (65.41%) and nitric oxide (90.16%) radicals than the other extracts.The ethyl acetate extract fraction also exerted more antidiabetic activity and increased hepatic antioxidant levels than the other extracts and the untreated group.Conclusion: Mimosa pudica seeds exerted its antidiabetic effect by enhancing secretion of pancreatic insulin and "-amylase.Mimosa pudica seeds also possess antioxidant activity and therefore, can be employed in preventing hepatic damage associated with diabetes.
Background and Objective: Cryptosporidium parvum (C.parvum) is a microscopic parasite that causes cryptosporidiosis in human.Accessible medications to treat cryptosporidiosis are ineffective and there is yet no immunization against C. parvum.So there is an urgent need to develop a suitable synthetic drug from available databases for suitable targets using computer aided drug designing and quantitative structure activity relationship.Present study was conducted to screen the best compound suitable for binding 5-Monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) target having optimum binding energy.Materials and Methods: In this regards, 38 benzoxazole derivatives were screened from PubChem compound database and docked with inosine 5-Monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) of Cryptosporidium parvum using the program AutoDock 4.2 from docked compound.Results: Four best predicted compounds CID 649646, CID 1318080, CID782217, CID1385213 with optimal binding energies -9.48, -9.39, -9.07 and -9.13 kcal moLG 1 were found with IMPDH, respectively.The biological activity of docked compounds in terms of pIC 50 was predicted based on 2D QSAR model built in our previously published work.The docked complex structures were optimized by molecular dynamics simulation with the CHARMM-22 force field using NAMD and evaluated the stability of complex structures by calculating RMSD.In silico ADME/Tox properties of best predicted derivatives of IMPDH were evaluated.Conclusion: The screened compounds showed satisfactory results for oral administration.Compounds have HIA in the range of well absorbed compounds and value in standard range.Skin 2 CaCO P permeability of derivatives showed negative values.Derivatives lightly bind to plasma proteins.The Ames test showed compounds were mutagenic and carcinogenicity showed negative value in mouse and positive value in rat.
Background and Objective: Butea monosperma (B.monosperma) (Lam.)Taub.var.lutea (Witt.), an important and threatened medicinal plant of Fabaceae.It is having potential role in certain biological activities and needs immediate conservation.The present study was focused on establishment of an efficient regeneration protocol and to assess genetic stability among in vitro regenerants.Materials and Methods: In vitro propagation was done on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with varying combination of growth regulators such as benzyl amino purine (BAP) and thidiazuron (TDZ) with a concentration ranged from 0.5-3.0mg LG 1 in combination with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (0.2 -0.5 mg LG 1 ) for shoot induction.For elongation of shoots, MS medium is supplemented with 0.1-1.0mg LG 1 of gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and for rooting of elongated shoots indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at 0.5-2.0mg LG 1 was used.For clonal fidelity analysis, ISSR-PCR method was used by extracting total genomic DNA from leaves of individual regenerated plantlet and its mother plant by cetyl triammonium bromide (CTAB) method.Results: Multiplication has been achieved through direct adventitious shoot formation from axillary buds of nodal explants at 2 mg LG 1 BAP along with 0.2 mg LG 1 IAA.Excised microshoots were elongated on 1.0 mg LG 1 of GA 3, which enhanced shoot length to 80% within 2 weeks of culture (3.21±0.78).The fully elongated shoots were rooted with a frequency 89.65% on MS medium supplemented with IBA at 1.0 mg LG 1 .Rooted microshoots were successfully acclimatized with a survival rate of 78%.Conclusion: The present investigation reports a high frequency regeneration system for its conservation and the reliability of current study was achieved by obtaining the true to type in vitro raised B. monosperma plants which showed monomorphic banding pattern with that of mother plant.
Background and Objective: Salinity is becoming a serious problem in the world and a widespread soil problem in rice growing countries.The saline area is 3 times larger than land used for agriculture.The conventional methods of plant selection for salt tolerance are difficult because of the large effects of the environment.The main objective of this study was to develop salt-tolerant rice varieties by identifying suitable parents and genetic diversity analysis.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted under Biotechnology Division, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), Mymensingh, Bangladesh.Initially 80 germplasms were used to evaluate the salinity tolerance at seedling stage at glass-house following IRRI standard protocol.Among them, 12 were found as salt tolerant, 13 were found as moderately tolerant, 29 were highly susceptible and 26 were susceptible by phenotypic analysis.Among them, 25 germplasms were used for molecular study, which carry all tolerant variety found in phenotypic study (Hogla, Jamai Naru, Dakhsail, Patnai, Kute Patnai, Holde Gotal, Bazra Muri, Ghunshi, Tal Mugur, Nona Bokhra, Kashrail and FL378), 7 were moderately tolerant, 5 were highly susceptible and 1 was susceptible.These germplasms were characterized by 3 SSR markers which are RM510, RM585 and RM336.Data were analyzed by POPGENE (version 1.31), Power Marker (version 3.25) and NTSYS-PC (version 2.2).Results: The number of alleles/locus ranged from 10-12, with an average number of alleles of 11/locus and PIC values ranged from a low of 0.8533 (RM336) to a high of 0.8940 (RM585).The average gene diversity of overall SSR loci for the 25 genotypes was 0.8885, ranged from 0.9024-0.8672.Unweighted pair group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA) dendrogram constructed from Neiʼs (1972) genetic distance produced five distinct clusters of 25 rice genotypes.FL378 of IRRI was used as check variety.It is confirmed that Holde Gotal, Bazra Muri and Hamai were salt tolerant compared to FL378.Conclusion: This scientific information could be used for solution of suitable parents, development of salt tolerant rice varieties, gene identification for salt tolerance and genetic diversity analysis.
Background and Objective: Celastrus paniculatus-Willd belongs to the family Celastraceae is an endangered medicinal plant in India.It has potential role in primary health care system and various herbal drug formulations.The curative property of this medicinal plant is mainly due to the presence of various bioactive compounds.The present investigation was focused on the phytochemical screening of in vitro raised clones and mother plant in order to ensure the qualitative chemical similarity.Materials and Methods: The preliminary phytochemical screening such as fluorescence analysis of the leaf powder, fluorescence analysis of leaf extracts and various physiochemical properties of both in vitro raised clones and mother plant were done.To ensure the presence of various secondary metabolites TLC analysis was performed.The developed plates were sprayed with Dragendroff reagent for alkaloids, fast blue salt reagent for detection of phenolic group, ninhydrin for aminoacids and biogenic amines, vanillin phosphoric acid for detection of terpenoids.In order to confirm the qualitative chemical similarity of in vitro raised clones high performance liquid chromatography was performed.The spectral comparison of extracts was recorded by WIN CATS (1.3.4 version) software.The results were recorded and expressed as the Mean±SD for all the experiments.Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening of leaf extracts of both in vitro raised clones and mother plant exhibited the same result and there was no remarkable difference.TLC based identification of bioactive constituents revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavanoids, steroids, saponins, tannins, phenols, glycosides and reducing sugars.The HPTLC profile of the methanolic leaf extracts revealed the true to type nature of in vitro raised clones.Conclusion: The study revealed the presence of various bioactive constituents in both in vitro raised clones and mother plant of Celastrus paniculatus.The qualitative chemical comparison was done by TLC and HPTLC analysis.
