A B S T R AC T Surveys were employed to explore the experiences of children in care and their carers about traditional fostering. They also examined the perspectives of randomly selected adults in the community about the practice of traditional foster care in the Tamale area of northern Ghana. The 74 participants responded to closed-and open-ended interview questions about traditional foster care. Frequencies and thematic grouping of qualitative responses showed that the need to keep family ties alive was the key reason for placement of children with family and kin. Majority of the children expressed satisfaction with living in foster care, even though they had experienced physical and emotional abuse and intimidation. Although most carers were not formally employed and had little personal income, they were positive about having the care role, but faced challenges in providing for many children in a difficult economic situation. The report highlights the role of reciprocity, altruistic and socio-cultural factors in quality of care, and the potential for the traditional kinship foster care to provide suitable avenues of placement for children as recommended by the Ghana child rights law. It also identifies the need for education for carers around children's needs and Ghana's child rights law.
Drought, the most significant environmental stressor, severely limits plant growth and development and significantly reduces crop production. Drought stress responses vary among plants, allowing them to withstand and survive adverse conditions. Plants resist drought by maintaining signaling pathways, such as the abscisic acid pathway, and activating unusual proteins, such as dehydrins. This study aims to investigate signaling pathways and the biological structures and activities of proteins involved in these processes. We also look into the occurrence of crosstalk across multiple signaling pathways and what it means for agricultural plant enhancement. By incorporating the most common components across all abiotic stress situations, this review provides insight into the evolution of drought stress tolerance in agricultural plants. This review could be helpful for crop drought stress researchers.
Globally, it is well-known for some time now that the oxidation in vegetables and organisms is significant; it is responsible for cells' existence. The side effects are free radicals, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and reactive nitrogen species. Every living organism has an antioxidant defense and maintenance system that enables it to handle the ROS produced. In a biological system or an organism, an imbalance of ROS and antioxidant capacity leads to a phenomenon called oxidative stress. Naturally, antioxidant defense and maintenance systems of most biological systems or organisms are unable to cater to the entire oxidative injury. Oxidative stress is known to result in chronic diseases, including autoimmune diseases, cancer, etc. Oxalis stricta Linn. is a valuable medicinal plant native to Florida and uses many diseases. This study was intended to assess antioxidant activity, evaluate the phenol contents, and screen for phytonutrients present in O. stricta Linn. The antioxidant activity was determined by 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydranyl-hydrate (DPPH) assay and phosphomolybdate assay with ascorbic acid as reference antioxidant, while the phenol content was also determined using Folin-Ciocalteu assay. Phytochemical screening revealed that Oxalic acid, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, and glycosides were present. The total phenol content present in the crude methanolic extract was 25.26±1.02 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of dried extract. Antioxidant activity of extract by DPPH assay was expressed as IC 50 values (µg/ml); the IC 50 of the extract was 205.10 µg/ml and 85.04 µg/ml for ascorbic acid. The total antioxidant activity of the extract using phosphomolybdate assay was 24.73±1.14 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g of dried extract. Therefore, the results suggest that the phenolic content of O. stricta Linn. provides substantial antioxidant activity. The authors recommend further investigations for the isolation and then the characterization of specific active components present in O. stricta Linn.
Natural products derived from plants play a vital part in preventing or treating various diseases or disorders in humans. Hyperlipidemia is one of the main pathological features of diseases affecting the circulatory system and diabetes mellitus. Presently available lipid-lowering drugs have been linked with some side effects. Herbal treatment for hyperlipidaemia has significantly fewer or no side effects and is reasonably inexpensive and locally accessible. Amaranthus spinosus belongs to the family Amaranthaceae is well known by many researchers for its various medicinal properties and is also known as "pigweed." The present study sought to assess the antihyperlipidaemic activity of the leaf extract by in vivo animal models. Here, acute hyperlipidemia was induced by intraperitoneal administration of dexamethasone (10 mgkg -1 ). The ethanol extract of A. spinosus leaf (EEASL) was administered daily at single doses of 250 and 500 mgkg-1, to dexamethasoneinduced hyperlipidaemic rats for 8 days. The effect of EEASL on serum lipid profiles (total cholesterol, triglycerides lowdensity, very low-density, and high-density lipoprotein) were determined. EEASL was established to significantly decrease total serum cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, Very low-density lipoprotein, and increased serum high-density lipoprotein compared to the hyperlipidaemic and vehicle only control models. The activities were also paralleled to the outcome exhibited by a standard antihyperlipidaemic agent, atorvastatin. The present investigation established pharmacological evidence to support the claim that EEASL contains active antihyperlipidaemic agents.
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