June 2005
Breeding in bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.): strategic considerations
Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) has a large number of landraces throughout Africa where small-scale farmers have preserved its genetic diversity on-farm. To date, the full genetic diversity of the crop remains largely unexploited. Until recently bambara groundnut never received any appreciable research effort, especially for its genetic improvement. Until then, only selection breeding...
June 2005
The effect of spawn grains, culture media, oil types and rates on carpophore production of Lentinus squarrosulus (Mont.) Singer
Lentinus squarrosulus, an indigenous mushroom species commonly found growing on dead logs in the Zaria environ of Kaduna State was cultured on six different media which were inoculated separately with three different spawn grains and amended with six different oils at five different rates. The various media, oil type and rate all had a highly significant effect (p<0.01) on the stipe length, stipe and...
June 2005
Evaluation of different carbon sources for bacterial cellulose production
The production of bacterial cellulose (BC) using Gluconacetobacter xylinus(=Acetobacter xylinum) ATCC 10245 from three categories of carbon sources (Monosaccharide, disaccharide and alcohol) was examined. Glycerol gave the highest yield, followed by glucose, fructose, inositol and saccharose. The highest production efficiency of glycerol might be due to the rate of its consumption (45.4%), which is lower...
June 2005
Effect of formulation on the viabilıty of biocontrol agent, Trıchoderma harzıanum conidia
A zeolite-water heterogeneous mixture (1:2 w/v) was found suitable medium for growing Turkish isolate of Trichoderma harzianum T1. Pelletized formulations of zeolite containing conidia of Turkish isolate of Trichoderma harzianum T1 in alginate were prepared. Formulations were more viable at 4°C than at 30°C. Key words: Trichoderma harzianum T1, formulation,...
June 2005
Physical, chemical and microbiological changes during natural fermentation of "gowé", a sprouted or non sprouted sorghum beverage from West-Africa
Gowé is a traditional Beninese fermented beverage prepared from sprouted and non-sprouted cereals. Due to urbanization, a new technique without any malting step has appeared in Southern Benin and is now widely used. The two techniques were compared using sorghum as the raw material. The physical, chemical and microbiological changes that occurred during a 72 h fermentation period were studied in both...
June 2005
Influence of fixed-oils in the dispersion of some water-insoluble antimicrobial compounds
Ampicillin trihydrate, salicylic acid and griseofulvin were subjected to interphasal partitioning between an organic and aqueous phases formed from mixtures of sterile fixed-oils and distilled water. The fixed-oils used were groundnut oil, cotton-seed oil, vegetable oil and cod-liver oil. At each of the varying concentrations of the respective antimicrobial compounds, more molecules of each compound were...
June 2005
Biosorption of zinc (II) by Rhizopus arrhizus: equilibrium and kinetic modelling
The adsorption of zinc (II) ions on Rhizopus arrhizus, a filamentous fungus, was investigated in a batch reactor. Batch adsorption studies were carried out by varying biomass loading. A contact time of 120 min was required to reach equilibrium. Specific zinc (II) uptake decreased with increase in biomass loading and these results were analyzed in light of the Lagergren equation and the process followed a...
June 2005
Sorption kinetics and intraparticulate diffusivities of Cd, Pb and Zn ions on maize cob
The kinetics of sorption and intraparticulate diffusivities of Zn, Cd and Pb using maize cob was studied. The amount of the metal ions adsorbed increased with time. The highest sorption rates of the three metal ions were 71% for Zn2+, 32% for Cd2+, and 30% for Pb2+. The fractional attainment of equilibrium showed that Zn2+ reached equilibrium before Pb2+ ion and then Cd2+ ion. This study...
June 2005
Bioactive metabolites in improved cowpea seeds
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has developed some pest and disease resistant cowpeas. From these the seeds of 8 cowpea cultivars were extracted with ethanol, and partitioned into chloroform and water-soluble fractions, the water-soluble fraction was further extracted with ethyl acetate. Residues from ethanol, chloroform and ethyl acetate soluble fractions for each of the 8 cowpea...
June 2005
Confirmation of the use of Latex IgM on cerebrospinal fluid for improving stage determination of Human African Trypanosomiasis
The clinical evolution of the chronic form of Human African Trypanosomiasis starts with the haematolymphatic or first stage (P1). The meningoencephalitic or second stage (P2) begins when trypanosomes reach the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The classical stage determination method is based on CSF cell count, CSF protein concentration and/or the presence of trypanosomes detected in CSF. However their cut-off...
June 2005
Antibacterial screening of the root, seed and stembark extracts of Picralima nitida
Ethanol, benzene, chloroform and aqueous (cold and hot) extracts of Picralima nitida(seed, stembark and root) were tested against five bacterial strians using the agar-well diffusion method. The ethanol extracts of the root and stembark (Er and Esb) were active against 100% of the test organisms, repectively. The benzene and chloroform extracts exhibited no activity. Of the fifteen extracts teated, 40.0%...
June 2005
Haematological characteristics of the African snakehead, Parachanna obscura
The haematological characteristics of the African snakehead Parachanna obscuraincludes mean blood haemoglobin concentration of 5.70g/dl, mean haematocrit of 19.20%, mean red blood cell count of 1.67 x 10 12/L, mean total white blood cell count of 19.07 x 103 mm-3, mean erythrocytic haemoglobin concentration of 29.08%, mean erythrocytic haemoglobin of 39.86 ρg, mean erythrocytic volume of 132.84...
June 2013
Novel pGreen/pSoup dual-binary vector system in multiple T-DNA co-cultivation as a method of producing marker-free (clean gene) transgenic rice (Oriza sativa L) plant
The possibility of producing marker-free transgenic rice plants using a novel dual binary pGreen/pSoup vectors, in multiple T-DNA co-cultivation, was investigated and demonstrated to be feasible. The T-DNA in pSoup (pRT47) vector was engineered to contain the selection marker hygromycin phosphotransferase (aphIV) gene (plus intron in 5′ UTR), and the green fluorescent protein (gfp) as a...
June 2005
C-banding analysis of chromosome translocations in doubled haploid wheats
C-banding analysis of plant chromosomes has various applications including construction of karyotypes to identify lines with polymorphic banding patterns, to study structural aberrations and other cytogenetics research. 66 double haploid (DH) lines were produced from crosses of stripe rust susceptible common wheat cultivar ‘Plamiet’ (Triticum aestivum, 2n=6x=42; AABBDD) with resistant cultivar...
June 2005
In vitro regeneration of hybrid plantlets of cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) through embryo culture
Embryos from immature nuts of cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) were cultured in vitro to regenerate improved hybrid plantlets. Explants (embryo) were excised from developing F1 hybrid immature nuts derived from diallel cross and harvested at 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-weeks after pollination (WAPo) for in vitro culture. The explants were surface sterilized, aseptically dissected and cultured...
June 2005
Indigenous Angiosperm biodiversity of Olabisi Onabanjo University permanent site
The conservation of the genetic variability of the indigenous angiosperm community is a sine qua non. A survey of indigenous angiosperm biodiversity of the Olabisi Onabanjo University permanent site was undertaken. Plants collected were dried, poisoned and mounted on herbarium sheets, proper identification and confirmation in recognized herbaria were carried out. A total number of one hundred and thirty-eight...
June 2005
Phylogeny of the genus Morus (Urticales: Moraceae) inferred from ITS and trnL-F sequences
Both nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast trnL-F sequences were acquired from 13 mulberry genotypes belonging to nine species and three varieties, and one paper mulberry. The later belongs to genus B. papyrifera, designed as outgroup, and were analyzed. Within the genus Morus, the sequence diversity of ITS was much higher than that of trnL-F. The results of phylogenetic analyses...
June 2005
Sources of resistance to cassava anthracnose disease
A total of 436 African landraces and 497 improved cassava genotypes were planted in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 growing seasons.. These were evaluated for their reactions to cassava anthracnose disease (CAD) under natural infection conditions at Ibadan (a high infection zone). The severity of the disease was determined by counting the total number of canker/plants and measuring the diameter the cankers. Data...
June 2005
Cassava starch as an alternative to agar-agar in microbiological media
Cassava starch powder produced locally was tested for its ability to serve as a solidifying agent in microbiological nutrient media, using different aqueous percentage concentration in pour plates and slants. 10% concentration produced setting usually associated with solid nutrient media within 30 min. Cassava starch powder can therefore be a potential solidifying agent in microbiological nutrient media as an...
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