A SURVEY OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS IN NAMIBIA SUPERMARKETS
Article in Press
The present study was carried out to survey genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods and feeds found in local supermarkets in Namibia. Little is known of the presence and prevalence of GMOs in the local supermarkets or information available on the labelling provided on some. The aim was to verify the presence of GMO’s in the foods and feeds using molecular extraction and screening methodologies. Nine samples (5...
Article in Press
Vangueria infausta (Burch) subsp. rotundata (Robyns) and Berchemia discolor (Klotzsch) Hemsl are drought tolerant multipurpose fruit trees indigenous to the lower Eastern Kenya. These fruit tree species are candidates for dryland agroforestry and could provide food, medicine and other commodities required by the local communities. Surveys conducted during this study showed that they suffer from dieback and canker. This...
Distribution of Mutations in G-6-PD Gene. A Review.
Article in Press
Exploring molecular techniques to unwind possible mutations in the exons, introns and promoter regions of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) gene is indispensable. Such information would improve neonatal health and haemolytic diseases including malaria control especially in malaria-endemic areas as the severity of these diseases is associated with the type of molecular variants. G-6-PD deficiency literature was...
Article in Press
Bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme, which is prominently found in all parts of a pineapple plant (Ananas comosus). It has found immense applications in the pharmaceutical industry as well as the food, cosmetic, and leather industries. However, bromelain from the pineapple fruit peels is a less explored source for making valuable products. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the potential application of...
Anticancer and Antimicrobial Properties of Porous Starch Mediated Silver Nanoparticles
Article in Press
Health issues involving inadequate treatment of diseases like cancer and microbial infections continue to be the subject of much ongoing recent research. Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) were characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Zeta Sizer, Ultra-violet (UV), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated in selected gram-positive and...
Synthesis, characterization and antibacterial activity of AgNPS mediated by Ocimum sanctum.
Article in Press
This research work was focused on isolation of Silver Nano Particles(AgNPs) using leaf filtrate of Ocimum sanctum and evaluation their antibacterial action against , B. aureus, S.aureus and E.coli. It is known that plant extracts act as reducing agents, stabilizers and as capping agents. The Ocimum sanctum plant was specifically selected due to its medicinal properties and its abundant availability. The change of color...
Article in Press
Herbal products are considered as phytomedicines which are used as complementary medicine and without adequate monitoring they are leased straightaway into the market. Preparation, transportation and handling of these products can lead to high microbial contamination which can be harmful to human health. The aim of this research was to molecularly characterize some multiple resistance bacteria obtained from JIKO which is a...
Article in Press
The interspecific rice hybrid of the Asian Oryza sativa and the African Oryza glaberrima, New Rice for Africa (NERICA-4) development was initiated due to threatening global food insecurities in part due to its desirable agronomical features compared to other NERICA cultivars. It is fairly tolerant to drought, has quicker growth rate and high yields. However, production is still faced by numerous challenges, leading to...
Meiotic Chromosomes Behavious in Chlorophytum stenopetalum Bak
Article in Press
Chromosomes behavior at meiosis in Chlorophytum stenopetalum Bak. was investigated especially at pachytene /diakinesis and metaphase. The flower buds at right age were harvested, fixed in Cornoy’s solution (3 part of absolute alcohol and 1 part of acetic alcohol) and preserved in a refrigerator at -4°C for at least thirty minutes. The flower buds were then hydrolyzed in 10% HCl for 3-5 minutes. Prepared slides were...
Article in Press
The ubiquitin/26S proteasome pathway is key to protein degradation in plants. Its specificity often orchestrated by ubiquitin-protein ligases (or E3s), which facilitate the translocation of ubiquitin to appropriate targets. F-box protein is one of the subunit of E3 ligases SCF (Skp1-Cullin/CDC53-F-box). It has been reported that F-box protein is not only related to plant growth but also abiotic stress. In this study, the...
HEAVY METALS AND VITAMIN CONTENT OF “KUNUN-ZAKI†DRINK, PULP AND THEIR FREEZE-DRIED FORMS
Article in Press
Significant adverse health effects of certain heavy metals were reported in the dried samples of food. This study was aimed at evaluating vitamins, and heavy metals content of unsweetened/sweetened “kunun-zaki†drink/pulp, before/after lyophilizing. The material tested were unsweetened and sweetened “kunun-zaki†drink- UKD, and its pulp- UKP, sweetened “kunun-zaki†drink- SKD, and its pulp- SKP before and after...
Article in Press
Contact activities of Piper guineense(Schum and Thonn) and Eugenia aromaticum( L). (Merril and Perryl) extracts in the control of Dermestes maculatus larvae infesting stored fish (Clarias gariepinus) was investigated under laboratory condition (28 ±3oC and 65± 5% R,H.). The extracts were tested by application of 2.0µL each to ten third instars larvae using micro pipette at a concentration of 6.00, 10.00 and...
Article in Press
Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum is an important disease of common bean worldwide. In Uganda, two commercial bush bean varieties NABE13 and NABE14 with acceptable red seed types are highly susceptible. Our objective was to transfer the Co-42 and Co-5 anthracnose resistance genes from donor parent G2333 to NABE14 using a backcrossing program aided by molecular markers. The SH18 and SAB3 markers were...
Article in Press
The growing levels of antimicrobial resistance have triggered interest in the search for alternative compounds to wage the war against it. Plants have been shown to harbor endophytic fungi that produce bioactive idiolites, which have potential lead compounds in the development of new drugs.Aim:This present study evaluated the antimicrobial activity of endophytic fungi isolated from leaves of Dacryodes edulis. Methods:...
Article in Press
Conventional vegetative propagation of sugarcane generally has low multiplication rate and allows distribution of diseases. This results in shortage of quality planting materials. Micropropagation is currently the only practical means of achieving rapid, large-scale production of disease-free quality planting material. Experiments on shoot tip culture initiation and shoot multiplication were laid out in completely...
Article in Press
The quality of Palm oil determines its consumer and market acceptability and price, and this correlates directly to its Moisture (%), Free Fatty Acid (% FFA) and Total Fatty Matter (%TFM) content. Therefore, businesses utilizing palm oil for production are very particular about these quality parameters. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of Low free fatty acid (LFFA) and high free fatty acid (HFFA)...
Article in Press
The study determine the in vivo antiplasmodial potential and protective properties of Azadirachta indica (Dongoyaro) ethanolic stem bark extract in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei NK65. The GC-MS, qualitative, quantitative and antioxidant scavenging activities of the stem bark extract of A. indica were determined using standard procedure. The acute toxicity and in vivo antiplasmodial activities of the extract were...
Article in Press
'Tafach Shenkora' and 'Kay Shenkora' sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) are the names assigned to sugarcane varieties with accession numbers Acc. 43 and Acc. 139, respectively. They were developed by Sugar Corporation, Research and Development and were registered and released in June 2019 by the National Variety Releasing Committee of Ethiopia to growers in three sugar estates in Ethiopia. 'Tafach Shenkora' and 'Kay...
Article in Press
Non biodegradability of plastics has discouraged its use and hence alternative eco friendly polyhydroxybutyrates have gained popularity. The use of cost effective and easily available substrates in the production of polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB) enhances its application and further reduces its cost and hence PHB can be efficiently used instead of plastics. The present work was performed to study the optimum production of...
Article in Press
The main purpose of this study was to isolate lactobacillus from raw milk derived whey and to determine its potential use as probiotics. Fifteen samples of milk were obtained and tagged (LS1 to LS15) from a homogeneous group of Holstein cows and later at our laboratory the milk was processed to obtain whey, which was inoculated in MRS medium where we got 30 bacterial isolates and selected those who were bacilli gram...
Article in Press
The Cotton Weevil is an insect that causes considerable losses to the cotton industry. Its larvae grow inside the cotton bolls, damaging them. It enters diapause during the winter and becomes active again in the first months of the year. Pheromone traps can be used to estimate their populations and implement control measures. This work analyzes samples of weevil populations collected in traps placed on mexican...
GENETIC DIVERSITY OF PROLACTIN GENE IN JAPANESE QUAIL (Coturnix coturnix japonica)
Article in Press
This study was carried out to investigate the genetic diversity of prolactin gene (PRL gene) in Japanese quails using PCR-RFLP marker. One hundred and thirty nine quails were sampled for PRL loci analysis. DNA was extracted from the samples. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and electrophoresis was used to characterize a 24 base pair (bp) insertion/deletion in a 358 bp PCR product. Test for Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium were...
Phytoremediation: A general Review
Article in Press
This paper makes a general review of phytoremediation emphasising a bit on phytoextraction, in terms of factors that affect it and possible enhancements of such factors for optimization. Phytoremediation is a diverse collection of plant-based technologies that are used to clean contaminants such as heavy metals and metalloids (HMs) from environments, especially soil and water bodies. HMs are toxic to most biota, but some...
Antifouling Activity of Amphiora anceps on Marine Diatoms: a Comparison with Copper Sulphate
Article in Press
The search for environment-friendly and non-toxic antifouling paint components has led to the investigation of natural products from seaweeds. The defence metabolites utilized by seaweed to deter redundant epibiosis have potential for harnessing and use in antifouling applications. A search for new non toxic antifouling paints has been tested in collected seaweed such as Amphiora anceps. The seaweed was extracted with...
Article in Press
Cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV) is a major threat, limiting the fiber yield in Gossypium hirsutum. Resistance (R) genes are present in G. arboreum against this virus but these R genes are yet not known. Some resistance gene analogs (RGAs) of nucleotide binding site leucine rich repeats (NBS-LRR) have been reported in G. hirsutum. In the present study, RGAs from G. hirsutum and ESTs predicted as cell surface receptor genes...
CANE YIELD AND JUICE VOLUME DETERMINES ETHANOL YIELD IN SWEET SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)
Article in Press
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) contains fermentable sugars in the stem that can be converted to ethanol. The current study aimed at evaluating the performance of three sweet sorghum genotypes with five checks and contributes towards availing suitable sweet sorghum for industrial ethanol production. Field studies were carried out in Kenya at varied locations in a randomized complete block design with three...
Stabilization of corn oil by phenolic camellia oil cake extract during storage
Article in Press
Camellia oil cake extracts was used as a source of phenolic compounds. Isopropanol, normal hexane and diethyl ether were evaluated as different solvents to extract these phenolic compounds which examined by Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The antioxidant potential of camellia oil cake extracts was measured by ferric reducing antioxidant power assay and results showed that the antioxidant activity strongly depend on the solvent....
Article in Press
Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the efficacy of botanical insecticidal materials against a major insect pest of stored beans, Acanthoscelides obtectus. The materials employed by small scale farmers to reduce the problem of bean postharvest losses caused by A. obtectus were identified and collected from Dar es Salaam and also from Kimuli and Mabira villages in Kagera region in Tanzania. The materials...
Article in Press
This study was conducted at the Experimental Farm of The Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena Governorate during three successive winter seasons of 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 to improve green pod yield/plant (g) of field pea. The breeding materials used in this study were F3, F4 and F5 generations of the two field pea crosses Alaska X Little Marvel (population 1) and Alaska X Dwarf Gray sugar...
Article in Press
Opuntia ficus indica is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and dermal burns. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the effects caused by the Opuntia ficus indica aqueous extract on serum and lipid parameters in white male rabbits (initial mean weight 1.95 kg). Rabbits were divided into two groups (n=6), the first group represented the control group,...
Article in Press
The aim of this research is to compare the potential of sweet potato and cocoyam peels (non-edible waste material) for bioethanol production using sequential monocultures of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae and co-cultures of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Each sample was dried and ground; and was subjected to heat pretreatment. Direct fermentation of pretreated sweet potato and cocoyam peels...
Article in Press
Breeding for durably resistant varieties is amongst the best strategies to exterminate the threat posed by stem rust race Ug99 of wheat. This race has continued to spread and ascertain itself as a danger to global wheat production and consequently food security. The continuous swift development of new DNA marker technologies has proved invaluable in breeding for durable rust resistance to stem rust race Ug99 and its...
Article in Press
The phytochemical analysis of the male and female plant parts (leaves, flower and bark) of Carica papaya was investigated. The analysis revealed the presence of some plant bioactive components. There was a difference in the bio-active component of the male and female leaves, both leaves revealed the presence of alkaloid, tannin, phlobotanins, saponin, flavonoid, anthraquinones, phenol and cardiac glycosides. Terpenes,...
Article in Press
There is an increased use of the Ficus capensis plant and concerns about safety alongside efficacy have been raised. The aim of this work is to study the total protein, bilirubin and Serum Liver Enzyme activities in Albino rats administered graded concentrations of ethanol extract of F. capensis leaf. Twenty-four albino rats were shared into four groups and different concentrations of the leaf extract were administered...
Article in Press
Coconut oil has profound health benefits but the high content of fatty acids is a concern to many consumers, several processing methods have failed to produce oil with considerable change in fatty acid content. In this study, selected lactic acid bacteria including Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus pentosus, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Enterococcus faecium were used to ferment coconut milk for production of virgin...
A novel method for DNA extraction from animal blood by adding bacterial lysozyme
Article in Press
The DNA quality is one of the main conditioning factors for the individual identification. Therefore, appropriate methodologies are required for their extraction. A new DNA extraction method from sheep blood was implemented based on the hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide method (CTAB 2%), 1) temperature changes, cell lysis and variation of washes (CTABM), and 2) addition of an incubation process with bacterial lysozyme...
Yield and Stability Analysis of Promising Mung Bean (Vigna radiata L.) Genotypes in Ethiopia
Article in Press
Nine mung bean genotypes were evaluated for grain yield performance at four locations in 2016 main cropping season. The experiment was arranged in 3x3 lattice design with three replicates. Additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) combined analysis of variance revealed that genotype, location and genotype x location interaction (GLI) significantly affected (p
Strain improvement of B. Parabrevis SR2729 for enhanced biodegradation of chlorpyrifos
Article in Press
Chlorpyrifos (CP) is of major concern for researchers and its biological degradation has been routinely practiced. Organophosphate hydrolase (OPH) responsible for the degradation of the agent was hyper-produced by the exposure of parental strain (PS) to EthBr for 70 minutes. Out of hundreds, the mutant strain SR2729-B (MS) showed 2.6 times greater zone of hydrolysis of CP, with OPH activity of 2.4 folds greater as compared...
Article in Press
Tri-Phala residue (TR) was studied as a substrate for isoquercitrin and gallic acid productions by solid-state fermentation of A. niger in the packed bed bioreactor aerated at of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 vvm. The contents of biomass, isoquercitrin and gallic acid in the fermented TR along the height of the bioreactor were analyzed. The highest fungal growth rate was found on middle position in the SSF with 0.5 vvm aeration as...
Article in Press
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prevalent systemic autoimmune disease, caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Here we performed 16S sequencing on 30 samples from rheumatoid arthritis patients and controls. We identified the presence of Prevotella copri as strongly correlated with disease in new-onset untreated rheumatoid arthritis (NORA) patients. Increases in Prevotella abundance correlated with a...
Article in Press
Developing high yielding cultivars with wider adaptability is the ultimate goal of any plant breeders. However, attaining this goal is complicated by genotype environment interaction. Sixteen cowpea lines including two standard checks were arranged in 4x4 triple lattice design and evaluated at seven locations for grain yield performance in 2016 main cropping season. Combined analysis of AMMI revealed that genotype,...
Qualitative Screening of Lipolytic Bacteria from Lipid–Rich Environmental Samples of Wolkite Town
Article in Press
Abstract The majority of lipolytic enzymes in industrial use are currently attracting an enormous attention because of their bio-technological applications. Lipase producing bacteria were isolated from five fat containing soils of oil mills, abattoir, garage, Sewage and cafeteria and were grown on nutrient agar. In order to identify the best lipid producing bacteria, the bacterial strain were screened in tributyrin...
Article in Press
Molecular studies were carried out on two bacterial species isolated from iron ore mines of Agbaja in Kogi State, Nigeria. This is with a view to exploring their bioleaching potentials. Preliminary morphological and biochemical tests shows that the two bacteria strains belong to Acidithiobacillus and Leptospirillum species respectively. X-ray diffraction analysis conducted on the raw iron ore gave concentrations of iron to...
Article in Press
Elucidation of mechanisms by which plants respond to stress is crucial for developing stress tolerant crops. Unlike plants, stress response mediated by eIF2α-kinases is well described in yeast and mammalian systems. We isolated a NaCl-tolerant mutant (JP2) with 35S enhancers upstream of AtGCN2. Under NaCl-stress, JP2 had 1.4 fold AtGCN2 transcripts than control. JP2 phenotype was however inconsistent, but prompted enquiry...
Article in Press
This experiment was carried out at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Teaching and Research farm during the late and early planting seasons of 2016 and 2017 to determine the efficacy of Tephrosia vogelii F. and Annona squamosal L. extracts on major insect pests of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thumb.) and their effects on nutritional content and fatty acid compounds of watermelon. This experiment was arranged in a...
Molecular diversity assessment using sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers in maize
Article in Press
Sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and relationship among 11 inbred lines of maize (Zea mayL.) genotypes. Thirteen SRAP marker combinations were used out of which 11were found to be polymorphic with a PIC value of 0.632 discriminated all of the 11 Z. mays L. genotypes. The Jaccard’s similarity coefficients between pairs of genotypes were found to vary from...
Article in Press
Echinopske bericho is an important endangered medicinal plant that is endemic to Ethiopia. The levels of genetic diversity and patterns of population structure in E. kebericho were studied using inter-simple sequence repeat markers (ISSR). Six selected primers were used to amplify DNA samples from 70 individuals, and a total of 79 loci were detected. Our results showed that genetic diversity was high at the species level...
Cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and toxicity of plant biostimulants
Article in Press
The great expansion that in recent years has been in the use of plant biostimulants has underestimated the possibility of producing environmental risks. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and toxicity of three different biostimulants (widely marketed in Brazil and exported to other countries) – A, B and C - on both plant and animal indicator organisms. In A. cepa, the...
Article in Press
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), is among the most important legume crop for protein source in peoples’ diet globally and including Kenya. Anthracnose (Colletotrichum lindemuthianum) is a common disease of legumes that causes yield loss of up to 90-100%. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of SSR molecular markers to identify anthracnose resistant common bean genotypes. Forty four selected common bean...
RAPD marker based Genetic diversity of Amaranthus population from different phytogeographic regions
Article in Press
Amaranths are most economically important group of plants, including leafy vegetables and ornamentals. Six different accessions of the same species of Amaranth were distributed from various places all over the India like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Correct genotype identification is important to evaluate the genetic diversity of local Amaranthus, and for efficient weed control and containing high nutritional...
Page 1 of 4, showing 50 records out of 176 total, starting on record 1, ending on 50
