Ensete ventricosum is a traditional multipurpose crop mainly used as a staple/co-staple food for over 20 million people in Ethiopia. Despite this, scientific information about the crop is scarce. Three types of food, viz., Kocho (fermented product from scraped pseudostem and grated corm), Bulla (dehydrated juice), and Amicho (boiled corm) can be prepared from enset. These products are particularly rich in carbohydrates, minerals, fibres, and phenolics, but poor in proteins. Such meals are usually served with meat and cheese to supplement proteins. As a food crop, it has useful attributes such as foods can be stored for long time, grows in wide range of environments, produces high yield per unit area, and tolerates drought. It has an irreplaceable role as a feed for animals. Enset starch is found to have higher or comparable quality to potato and maize starch and widely used as a tablet binder and disintegrant and also in pharmaceutical gelling, drug loading, and release processes. Moreover, enset shows high genetic diversity within a population which in turn renders resilience and food security against the ever-changing environmental factors and land use dynamics. Therefore, more research attention and funding should be given to magnify and make wider use of the crop.

Dry evergreen Afromontane forests are the most threatened in Ethiopia due to agricultural land expansion as they are exposed to high population pressure and thus, conservation measures should be based on scientific evidence since resources for nature conservation are limited. We evaluated the species composition, structure and regeneration status of woody plant species at Gelawoldie community forest. This was analyzed from 32 quadrats laid down in belt transect, each with 400 m 2 and 25 m 2 for trees and shrubs, and seedlings and saplings, respectively using systematic sampling method. Diversity was analysed using Shannon-Wiener diversity index. A total of 59 woody plant species in 49 genera and 38 families were identified. Of these, 35.5%, 50.8% and 13.5% were trees, shrubs and climbers, respectively. The diversity and evenness of the forest were 3.8 and 0.9, respectively. Moreover, the forest had total mean stand density of 2016 stems ha −1 and basal area of 93.8 m 2 ha −1 . More than 61% of the woody plant species had lower than 5% importance value index (IVI), while the remaining 39% had ≥ 5%. The overall results of the present study revealed higher number of individuals at the lowest diameter (2.5-10 cm) and height classes and progressively declined numbers in higher classes yielding reverse J-shaped distribution pattern. This shows that the forest had healthy regeneration. However, analysis from individual woody plant structure, and count of seedlings and saplings showed that about 17.7% and 5.3% of the species including the endemic have fair and poor regeneration, respectively. Getie Mucheye ABOUT THE AUTHORGetie Mucheye is a botanist by specialization currently working as a Wildlife Development and Protection expert in Amhara National Regional State Environment, Forest and Wildlife Protection and Development Authority. The author has long years of experience in Meteorology, Culture, Tourism and Parks Development. He is more enthusiastic to conduct research and pursue his further study in the fields of plant diversity analysis, effect of climate change on diversity, conservation and ecosystem services.

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Abstract. Yemata G, Desta B, Fetene M. 2019. In vitro antibacterial activity of traditionally used medicinal plants against Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum in Ethiopia. Biodiversitas 20: 555-561. In Ethiopia, traditional medicinal plants have long been used to treat human and livestock ailments. Nevertheless, studies about the use of these plant extracts to control crop diseases are scarce. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of traditionally used medicinal plants against Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm). The bioactive chemicals from leaf samples were drawn using methanol by maceration method. Total phenolic content of the extracts was determined by Folin Ciocalteau reagent. The antibacterial activity of leaf extracts was evaluated by disc diffusion method. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, terpenoids, tannins and saponins. Extracts with higher total phenolic content had greater antibacterial activity. The extract of each species showed antibacterial activity against Xcm on a dose dependent manner. Significant differences were recorded between species and test concentrations. The extract of Bersama abyssinica exhibited the strongest antibacterial activity at 200 mg/mL followed by Ricinus communis, Eucalyptus citriodora and Acokanthera schimperi. At lower test concentrations, extracts of E. citriodora and R. communis revealed higher antibacterial activity. Moreover, these species had lower bacteriostatic and bactericidal concentrations. The results showed the potential potency of E. citriodora and R. communis leaf extracts in controlling enset bacterial wilt. However, further studies on the identification of chemical compounds and in vivo evaluation of the extracts are recommended.

This study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity of some medicinal plants against Ralstonia solanacearum. Bioactive chemicals were extracted from Burcea antidysenterica, Eucalyptus citriodora, Justicia schimperiana, Lantana camara, Melia azedarach and Ricinus communis leaves using maceration method. The bioassay was evaluated by disc diffusion method. The pathogen was isolated from infected Capsicum annuum plants using Casamino acid-Peptone-Glucose agar (CPG) medium. The isolate was identified using cultural, biochemical characteristics, pathogenicity test and found to be R. solanacearum. The methanol extracts had different composition, percentage extract yield, antibacterial activity and relative percentage inhibition. Unlike others, extracts of E. citriodora and R. communis consisted of all the tested secondary metabolites. All species showed antibacterial activity except M. azedarach. Significant differences were recorded in antibacterial activity among species and test concentrations. The highest antibacterial activity and the lowest bacteriostatic and bactericidal concentrations were found from E. citriodora and R. communis extracts. The higher potency of E. citriodora and R. communis extracts suggested the potential of the two species as a biocide to control bacterial wilt. However, further in vivo studies on these species extracts are compulsory.

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Background The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, which has an enormous effect on human lives and the global environment. This review aimed to assess the global scientific evidence on the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on natural resources using international databases and search engines. Thus, the unprecedented anthropause due to COVID-19 has positive and negative effects on natural resources. Main body This review showed that the unprecedented pandemic lockdown events brought a negative impact on the physical environment, including pollution associated with a drastic increase in person protective equipment, deforestation, illegal poaching and logging, overfishing, disruption of the conservation program and projects. It is noted that the spread of pandemic diseases could be aggravated by environmental pollution and a rapid increase in the global population. Despite these negative impacts of COVID-19, the anthropause appear to have also several positive effects on natural resources such as short term reduction of indoor and outdoor environmental pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO, and CO2), reduction in noise pollutions from ships, boats, vehicles, and planes which have positive effects on aquatic ecosystems, water quality, birds behaviour, wildlife biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration. Conclusion Therefore, governments and scientific communities across the globe have called for a green recovery to COVID-19 and implement multi-actor interventions and environmentally friendly technologies to improve and safeguard sustainable environmental and biodiversity management and halt the next pandemic.

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