March 2006
Sorghum grain as human food in Africa: relevance of content of starch and amylase activities
Sorghum is a staple food grain in many semi-arid and tropic areas of the world, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa because of its good adaptation to hard environments and its good yield of production. Among important biochemical components for sorghum processing are levels of starch (amylose and amylopectin) and starch depolymerizing enzymes. Current research focus on identifying varieties meeting specific agricultural and...
March 2006
Biotechnology approaches to developing herbicide tolerance/selectivity in crops
The use of herbicides has revolutionized weed control in many crop production systems. However, with the increasing development of weed resistances to many popular selective herbicides, the need has arisen to rethink the application of chemical weed control. Approaches to maintain the efficiency of chemical weed control include the discovery of new herbicide target sites in plants and the discovery/...
March 2006
Microbially produced phytotoxins and plant disease management
Pathogenic fungi and bacteria often damage their host (plants) tissues by producing toxic metabolites, which induced various symptoms such as necrosis, chlorosis, wilting, water soaking and eventually the death of plants. These toxic metabolites also known is one of the weapons used by pathogen inducing disease condition in susceptible host plants. Many pathogens are known to produce toxins both in...
March 2006
Ex Situ Conservation Method for Clerodendrum inerme: a medicinal plant of India
Clerodendrum inerme L. (Verbenaceae), commonly known as vanajai or garden quinine is a perennial shrub. Leaves and roots of the plant are used in rheumatism and skin diseases. In Indian classical literature the plant is also reported as a substitute of quinine. Since root of the plant is used as drug, whole plant has to be destroyed; this has resulted in the depletion of the plant population. Present investigation...
March 2006
Field evaluation of selected formulations of Trichoderma species as seed treatment to control damping-off of cowpea caused by Macrophomina phaseolina
The experiment was carried out between 1997 and 1998 at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria to test the efficacy of biological seed treatment of cowpea against Macrophomina phaseolina infection in the field.Trichoderma sp., T. koningii Oudem (IMI 361600) and T. harzianum Rifai (IMI 361601) were selected from soil dilutions and tested in...
March 2006
Initiation and growth of shoots of Gongronema latifolia benth. stem cuttings in different rooting media
Vegetative propagation of Gongronema latifolia Benth commonly used as a forest leafy vegetable and spice, was studied in three rooting media (sawdust, ricehull and soil) under two seasons in Nsukka. The study showed that G. latifolia could be effectively propagated by stem cuttings. There was significant reduction in number of days to shoot initiation and growth in sawdust medium in the wet season....
March 2006
Evaluation of forest policy in Nigeria: A case study of Edo state
The research was undertaken from 1997-2000 to investigate how forest policy has faired in meeting the set objectives in forestry contexts and development in study area. The result showed that deforestation and consolidation of forest reserves accounted for 73.64 and 3.10%, respectively. The result also revealed that there was significant difference in the participation of professional foresters and taskforce as well as...
March 2006
Efficacy of certain fungicides against Phomopsis theae under in vitro conditions
Four contact fungicides, Blitox (copper oxychloride), Kocide (copper hydroxide), Mancozeb (dithane M-45) and Bordeaux mixture and four systemic fungicides, Baycor (bitertanol), Calixin (tridemorph), Contaf (hexaconazole) and Bavistin (carbendazim) were evaluated against Phomopsis theae under in vitro condition. The results indicated that carbendazim was found to be the most effective in suppressing the growth...
March 2006
Organogenesis induction in rice callus by cyanobacterial extracellular product
Cyanobacteria or blue green algae are prokaryotic photosynthetic microorganism that produces a wide array of substances, including plant growth regulators. In the case of growth regulators, gibberellin, auxin, cytokinin, ethylene, abscisic acid and jasmonic acid have been detected in cyanobacteria. Many substances have been added to plant tissue culture media in order to promote plant regeneration. The present research...
March 2006
Growth pattern and structural nature of amylases produced by some Bacillus species in starchy substrates
The growth pattern and microbial biomass formed during metabolic activities of theBacillus species on starchy substrates was determined. The result showed that the strains B. subtilis (WBS), B. licheniformis (WBL) and B. coagulans (MBC) generally had high growth rate. B. circulans (SBC) and B. coagulans (WBC) has specific affinity for growth and some enzymatic...
March 2006
Effect of leaf-packaging on the microbiological assessment of some food items
Microorganisms associated with leaves of Thaumatococcus daniellii (“ewe eran”),Musa paradisiaca (banana) and Tectona grandis (teak) and the food wrapped in the leaves were investigated. The bacterial isolates from both the leaves and food includeBacillus cereus, B. subtilis, Micrococcus sp., Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis,...
March 2006
Effect of bacterial conditioning and the flotation of copper ore and concentrate
In this paper, the effect of bacterial conditioning on KBI Murgul (Turkey) copper concentrate was investigated by the use of Acidothiobacillus ferrooxidans (DSM 11477). The various parameters such as bacterial population, conditioning time and particle size were studied. Test results indicated the copper grade increase of about 22% in flotation copper ore through bacterial conditioning of pyrite surfaces...
March 2006
Enhancement of recovery of residual oil using a biosurfactant slug
A laboratory investigation of the mobilization and displacement of residual oil in a sand-pack using biosurfactant slug was conducted. The biosurfactant employed was extracted from a culture of Pseudomonas sp. grown on kerosine- supplemented mineral salts medium. Characterization of the biosurfactant extract revealed a mixture of glycolipid and phospholipid in a ratio of 3.35:1. The irreducible water...
March 2006
Nutritional studies with Lentinus squarrosulus (Mont.) Singer and Psathyrella atroumbonata Pegler: I. Animal assay
Lentinus squarrosulus and Psathyrella atroumbonata, two edible indigenous mushroom species, were dried, ground and used in nutritional studies. According to the results L. squarrosulus and P. atroumbonata had significantly lower protein efficiency ratio (PER) values than the standard casein diet but gave rise to net protein retention (NPR) values which were at par, but slightly higher than...
March 2006
Characterization and treatment of sludge from the petroleum industry
Samples of sludge from the petroleum industry were collected and characterized for their pollution characteristics. The solids concentration, pH, temperature, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, phosphate, nitrogen, conductivity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese, lead and chromium were determined. The analysis revealed that the mean value of total solids (TS)...
March 2006
Factors affecting cellulase sorption in soil
The sorption of cellulase proteins of Trichoderma viride on calcareous soils was investigated, and the soil factors affecting cellulase sorption were also studied. The study on some arid, semiarid and humid soils of Isfahan, Hamadan and Gilan provinces of Iran revealed that the sorption of cellulase on the calcareous soils obey both the Freundlich and the Langmuir isotherms. The maximum binding levels of...
March 2006
Nutrient effects on production of cellulolytic enzymes by Aspergillus niger
The production of cellulase (filter paper activity, endoglucanase and β-glucosidase) by Aspergillus niger on three media in liquid shake culture was compared. The culture filtrate of this organism exhibited relatively highest activity of all three enzymes and extracellular protein content at 7-day interval during the course of its growth on Czapek-Dox medium supplemented with 1.0% (w/v) cellulose. Urea as...
March 2006
Genetic and histopathology studies on mice: effect of fenugreek oil on the efficiency of ovarian and liver tissues
There is a growing interest in understanding the biological effect of medicinal plants. In the present investigation, the effects of fenugreek oil administration on the liver and ovarian activity genetically (i.e., meiotic progression in collected oocytes as well as changes in DNA and RNA content in the liver and ovarian tissues) and histopathologically (i.e., alterations in the liver and ovarian tissues) were examined...
March 2006
Basal metabolic regulatory responses and rhythmic activity of mammalian heart to aqueous kola nut extracts
Preliminary investigation on the effect of aqueous extracts of three species of kola nut;Cola acuminata (P. Beav), C. nitida subsp. rubra and C. nitida subsp. alba (Vent), on the rhythmic activity of mammalian heart and metabolic rate was carried out using male albino rats, Rattus sp. Low concentrations of kola nut extract stimulated the heart by increasing rate and...
March 2006
Antimicrobial susceptibility of some urinary tract clinical isolates to commonly used antibiotics
The antimicrobial susceptibility of urinary tract isolates from pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in various hospitals within Kaduna, Nigeria, was carried out using the disc diffusion method. The patterns of inhibition varied with the concentration of the antibiotic used. Escherichia coli was the most sensitive to ciprofloxacillin (33 mm/5 mg ml-1) and pefloxacin (15 mm/10 mg ml-1). It was...
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