Background: Despite the favorable geo-climatic potential of Cameroon, the national production of tilapia remains low due to poor tilapia growth reported by fish farmers. One of the underlying reasons is the early female maturation at a very small size and precocious breeding in earthen ponds, resulting in overpopulation which leads to stunted growth and therefore to the production of unmarketable fish size. Studies have shown that dietary supplementation of G. kola enhanced growth in young Clarias gariepinus and Oreochromis niloticus. It was also reported that G. kola inhibited spawning in Tilapia adult females. Therefore, this study sought to assess the effects of Garcinia kola as growth promoter and inhibitor of gonadal development in young Oreochromis niloticus. Methods: A total of 108 juveniles weighing 13.32 ± 0.62 g were randomly distributed in 9 hapas of 12 fishes each (9 females and 3 males) and fed for 70 days with three isonitrogenous diets, 40% crude protein with increasing Garcinia kola supplementation levels of 0 (normal diet), 6% and 10% (experimental diets). Physico-chemical parameters of the water (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and transparency) were measured twice a week. Every 14 days, fish were harvested, counted, and weighed. At the end of the experiment, three fish of each sex per replicate were sacrificed and their gonad and liver collected and weighed. Data were statistically analyzed using oneway analysis of variance repeated measure followed by Newman-Keuls multiple tests. Results: The results showed that all physico-chemical parameters of the water were within the recommended values for Tilapia culture. Tilapia fed 6% Garcinia kola supplemented diet displayed higher final body weight in males (38.60 ± 3.50 g) and females (36.77 ± 3.62 g) compared to those receiving normal diet (36.23 ± 1.36 g and 25.87 ± 3.32 g; respectively to the final body weight in males and females). The gonadosomatic index and hepatosomatic index indicated no significant variation in males while in females, these were significantly low in the experimental fish compared to control fish. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that supplementation of G. kola seeds in diets of young Tilapia improved growth performance and impaired gonadal development in females.

High protein from meat consumption has been associated recently to environmental depletion and health related issues despite the important contribution of meat and meat products in diet and growth development. This has motivated debates on a drastic shift from excessive meat consumption amongst stake holders, academics, animal rights activists and environmentalist as informed consumers are pushing food scientist for a more sustainable alternative protein source. Plant proteins are considered a suitable alternative protein. However, the nutritional, functional potential and the form of presentation have shown some technological difficulties which indicates that direct transformation of plant proteins to meat products is less feasible. Though meat alternative research is promising in developed countries, there are technological breakthroughs that have permitted to replace in part or fully certain sensory attributes of meat inspired by the technology behind the ancient east Asian traditionally structured products like tofu, seitan and tempeh. However, despite the global increase in meat consumption associated with high standard of living, the search for the meat protein alternative from plant products have been limited to the conventional sources of soybeans, beans, lentils, vegetables and pulses. Future research could be diversified and orientated towards improving the existing African foods produced endogenously from wild orchid tubers widely consumed in low middle income countries in the form of cakes, meat substitutes, fake meat, mock meat and/or meat replacements. The successful production of a convenient and acceptable plant-based meat replacement will go a long way to reduce or eliminate excessive meat consumption. This review is geared towards a wider data search concerning the advances in meat alternative research and particularly to illustrate on some neglected African endogenously processed products consumed as meat alternatives that needs further research on the wild tubers sources as ingredients for potential convenient and acceptable meat alternatives or extender.

Orchids are well known for their beautiful exotic flowers, and food-flavoring products which make them a resource of great economic importance in the global horticultural and food industries. In Cameroon, orchids are particularly important for their tubers which are used for food and traditional medicine. Orchids are therefore of considerable economic importance, traded within and across the regions and out of the country. Few research works have reported for these orchids in Cameroon exploring mostly identification and taxonomy. It is therefore the responsibility and duty of the local population to valorize the tubers for national use based on their awareness of the hidden potentials for food and medicine. Many people will have eaten orchids without realizing, due to the countless products in international trade that contain the seeds of artificially propagated Vanilla orchids. However, this legal trade is only one example of orchids being used as ingredients in food and drink. One example is the trade in chikanda, a cake made from the ground tubers of terrestrial orchids and consumed in several countries in Central and East Africa. Another product made from the ground tubers of terrestrial species is salep, which is used as an ingredient in hot drinks and ice cream and consumed mainly in Turkey and neighboring countries. The high exploitation with no biodiversity and conservation strategic plan by indigenes is a call for concern about the sustainability as future existence of these wild edible orchids is highly threatened; reason why orchids are on the international red list. This paper reviews the ethnobotanical and medicinal uses of orchid roots and tubers with a focus on Cameroon. The review highlights some of the areas that require more focus in terms of research and policy interventions, namely identification of all edible orchids, domestication of edible orchids, and trade controls. Focusing on Cameroon, this paper reviews and examines the edible root and tuber orchids developments based on information from some of the work that has been done in Cameroon, the ethnobotanic, ethnopharmacological and medicinal uses of these orchids.

The aim of this study was to determine the optimum malting conditions, for rice beer production, of seven cultivars of local rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivated in the North and Far North Regions of Cameroon. Characteristic tests prior to malting (thousand corn weight, germinative energy, germinative capacity and starch content) of the cultivars (NL36, NL56, ITA306, ITA300, BKN, IR46, NL60) were determined using analytical methods described by The American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC). The best cultivars used for the experimental design were NL36 and ITA300, having starch contents greater than 60% DM, germinative energies and capacities greater than or equal to 96%. A Box-Behnken Design was used to investigate the influence of the steeping duration (24-48 h), germination duration (4-7 days), and kilning temperature (45-50°C) on the diastatic power and reducing sugar content of NL36 and ITA300 malt. The optimum malting conditions for maximum diastatic power of NL36 malt (38.47 WK) and reducing sugar content (16.79 g/100 g DM) were: steeping duration of 40 h, germination duration of 4 days, and kilning temperature of 50°C with a desirability value of 0.94. The optimal conditions for a maximum diastatic power of ITA300 malt (39.097 WK) and reducing sugar content (10.34 g/100 g DM) were: steeping duration of 43 h, the germination duration of 5 days, and kilning temperature of 50°C with a desirability value of 0.97. Although rice malt has a low diastatic power compared to barley and sorghum malt, it contains limit dextrinase and α-glucosidase, which can act synergistically with α and β-amylases. These rice cultivars can be used as the main cereal for beer production, or as adjuncts to enhance the enzyme potential of sorghum or maize malt.

The causative etiology of the viral pneumonia outbreak in the Wuhan province of China of December 2019 initially identified as “novel-Coronavirus-2019” and today called “Corona Virus Disease-2019 has been identified as “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)”. Tireless efforts have therefore been invested to elaborate a treatment and/ or vaccine though with much controversy due to the lack of proper mastery of the structure, mode of action, mutation, recombination and transmission mechanism of the virus. Numerous public health measures have thus been imposed to slow down the rate of invasion and/or transmission (regular hand washing, face mask wearing, quarantine as well as method of diagnosis and symptomatic treatment) and now a convinent and acceptable treatment protocol and/ or vaccine. With the difficulties encountered in the development of an effective and efficient control and / or preventive towards the virus even in the western world, countries in sub-Saharan Africa, especially those in the tropics like Cameroon will endure sigficant consequences due to limited funds, technology, equipment and experts. It is therefore imperative to exploit other possibilities as the recombination rate and mutation possibilities within the genome of SARS-CoV-2 is indicative that, the 2019 outbreak was just a tip of the iceberg as more virulent variants beyond Delta variants, are still to emerge. One of such suitable and affordable possibilities is to nutritionally fortify and prepared the body to fight against infection. Zinc, Copper and Sellenium are essential micronutrients with demonstrated viral chelating activities found in selected commond foods which in adequate amounts will strengthen the immune system and tonify the body energy. A non-exhaustive list of common foods rich in the indicated micronutrients as well as those endowed with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties have been established from an extensive literature search in order to emphasize on the regular consumption.

Essential oils serve as a natural alternative to chemical or synthetic antimicrobials and antioxidants to fight against food borne pathogens or spoilage organisms, inhibiting lipid peroxidation and extending the shelf life of fish and other seafood. This study examines the antibacterial properties of essential oils from leaves of Ocimum gratissimum L. from two localities of the North West and South West of Cameroon on some pathogenic spoilage gram negative and positive bacteria isolated from mackerel, and their antimicrobial and antioxidant effectiveness on the fish quality during preservation for one month at -18oC. The plant materials were harvested from Bambili, the North West Region of Cameroon and from Mbonge, the South West Region of Cameroon and the essential oils extracted by hydro-distillation using Clevenger-type apparatus. Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Staphylococcus aereus were isolated from mackerel by culture techniques and their susceptibility to the essential oils determined by well diffusion method. Psychrophilic bacteria and Enterobacteraceae counts were used to evaluate the microbiological quality of the fish during storage. Total volatile basic nitrogen and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance assays were used as indices to assess the biochemical quality of the fish during storage. Antibacterial susceptibility test showed that essential oils of O. gratissimum from the North West and South West Regions were active on all the tested microorganisms with different degree.The inhibitory diameters for essential oil from the South West Region were 28.0 mm, 27.2 mm and 26.0 mm while that for essential oil from the Bambili were 24.1 mm, 20.4mm and 21.9 mm for Staphylococcus aereus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi respectively. At the end of storage periods, the values of Psychrotrophs plate counts, total volatile base nitrogen and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances for fish samples treated with essential oil from the Mbonge were 2.71log10cfu/g, 12.88 mgN/100g and 0.88 mgMDA/Kg, while that treated with North West essential oil were 3.00 log10cfu/g, 16.24 mgN/100g and 1.26 mgMDA/Kg respectively. From the obtained results, essential oil of O. gratissimum from the Mbonge was the most effective in preserving Atlantic mackerel.

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