The study examined the effect of various processing methods-boiling, drying and roasting-on the in vitro and in vivo protein digestibility and free amino acid profiles of Terminalia catappa seed. Moisture and crude protein of the various samples were determined. In vitro protein digestibility was determined after pepsin digestion. For the in vivo experiment, defatted T. catappa based diet was fed to 3 weeks old Wistar rats for 4 weeks and compared with animals maintained on casein based and nitrogen-free diets. The biological value (BV), net protein utilisation (NPU) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of the diets were determined. Free amino acid composition was carried out using thin layer chromatography. Moisture was highest in the boiled T. catappa seed (8.30± 0.00 %). The raw, roasted and dried seeds had 5.55±0.07, 3.88±0.22 and 3.75±0.07 % respectively. Crude protein was 19.19, 18.89, 17.62 and 16.36 % in the dried, roasted, boiled and raw seeds respectively. Roasted T. catappa seed had the highest in vitro protein digestibility with 37.52 %, while the dried, boiled and raw samples had digestibility values of 27.57, 27.07 and 24.45 % respectively. All nine essential amino acids were present in T. catappa in high concentrations except methionine and tryptophan. Glutamate was present in the highest concentration. Also, free amino acids were higher in the processed seeds compared to the raw seed. Animals fed T. catappa diet compared favourably with the casein group, thus indicating that the protein is of good quality.

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Background and Objectives: Medicinal plants persevere to facilitate developments in novel therapeutic pathways involved in the treatment of various diseases. This study investigated the cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations of lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory male rats in response to P. alliacea leaf extract. Materials and Methods: Twenty adult male Albino rats weighing 150±1.8 g were grouped randomly into four (n = 5) namely; control (Group 1): Feed and water only, Group 2: P. alliacea leaf aqueous extract only for 7 days, Group 3: Injected with lipopolysaccharide and Group 4: Injected with lipopolysaccharide, treated with P. alliacea leaf aqueous extract for 7 days. After the administration, the rats were sacrificed and blood was collected, brain and liver were excised homogenized and stored at 4EC for determination of cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations using the spectrophotometry method.Results: The administration of P. alliacea resulted in the up-regulation of plasma, erythrocytes cholesterol and liver triglycerides concentrations as well as down-regulation of plasma triglycerides, brain cholesterol and liver cholesterol concentrations. It was observed that lipopolysaccharide significantly (p<0.05) decreased the cholesterol concentration of the liver, plasma, erythrocytes along with brain cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations but significantly (p<0.05) increased the liver triglycerides concentration compared to the control and P. alliacea group respectively. However, administration of P. alliacea leaf aqueous extract to lipopolysaccharide-induced rat, reverse the up/down-regulation of cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations. Conclusion: P. alliacea leaf aqueous extract override the impact of lipopolysaccharide.

Background: P-21 activating kinase 4 (PAK4) is implicated in poor prognosis of many human tumors, particularly in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) progression. Studies have revealed the crucial role of PAK4 in cell proliferation, anchorage-independent growth and cell migration among other hallmarks of cancer. Thus, PAK4 is an attractive target for anti-TNBC drug design and development. In our research, we used in silico methods to investigate the inhibitory potentials of kaempferol against PAK4 as compared with co-crystallized 4T6 and a standard PAK4 inhibitor-KPT-9274. The ligands were docked into the ATP-binding site of the target enzyme and post-docking validations were calculated. Results: In the molecular docking results, kaempferol had higher affinity than the standard KPT-9274. However, the SP and XP docking scores for the co-crystallized 4T6 were the highest. The analyses of the docking poses showed a favorable interaction between kaempferol and the catalytic-important aminoacyl residues, especially GLU396, LEU398 and ASP458 in the ATP-binding site of PAK4 when compared with what was obtained in the 4T6-PAK4 complex. Molecular mechanics based MM-GBSA was used to validate docking results. The free energy calculations revealed that kaempferol may have a favorable biological activity. Furthermore, the druggability of each ligand was assessed using the QikProp module and the SwissADME online tool. Kaempferol possessed a propitious drug-like property when compared to the standard ligands. Conclusions: We, therefore, put forward a logical argument that kaempferol can be further evaluated as a potential PAK4 inhibitor in TNBC.

This study was aimed at extracting and purifying T. catappa seed oil with a view to investigating the effect of processing on the composition and antioxidant activity of the oil. Oil was extracted from the dried and roasted T. catappa seed and subjected to degumming and bleaching. The different processed oils were analysed for their fatty acid, phytosterols, and fat soluble vitamins composition. Antioxidant properties of the oils were also determined by measuring the Diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and inhibition of heat induced peroxidation. Roasting and processing caused a reduction in acid value, increased peroxide value, but had no effect on the iodine and saponification values of T. catappa oil. Palmitic acid was the most abundant saturated fatty acid (42.466%) while oleic acid was the most abundant unsaturated fatty acid (23.445%). Roasting significantly reduced fatty acid concentration of the oil, and bleaching of both unroasted and roasted oils increased the concentration of fatty acids except linoleic acid. Gamma-sitosterol and Betasitosterol were present in appreciable amounts only in the crude oils. Roasting increased Vitamins A and D concentrations but drastically reduced that of vitamin E. Degumming had no effect on the fat soluble vitamins of T. catappa oil, but bleaching significantly reduced the concentrations of all the vitamins. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the seed oil was between 26.93 ± 15.42% and 65.47 ± 31.59%. Refining increased the free radical scavenging activity of the unroasted oil, but did not affect the antioxidant activity of roasted oil. The capacity of the oil in preventing heat induced peroxidation was comparable to that of Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Processing of the oil significantly increased its antioxidant activity. Loss of vitamin E did not affect the antioxidant activity of the oil. Thus, suggesting the presence of a heat stable antioxidant in the oil. This study indicated T. catappa seed oil to be potential pharmaceutical oil with good antioxidant characteristics

Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disorder of man, whose devastating effect is increasing by the day and severity almost at epidemic level. This study was carried out to investigate the anti-diabetic activity of Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato) leaves extract and its effect on hepatic enzymes, total protein and albumin in alloxan induced diabetic rats. A total of twenty animals was divided into four experimental groups consisting of five animals each. The groups included a positive control, negative control, diabetic-treated Ipomoea batatas and Diabetic-treated tolbutamide for 14 days. All were fed normal diet ad libitum. After the treatment a significant reduction was observed in fasting serum glucose levels in the treated diabetics' rats. There was a significant (p<0.05) reduction of feed and water intakes by the animals after the treatment with Ipomoea batatas and tolbutamide. Treatment also improved the weight gain compared to untreated diabetic rats. Alkaline phosphatase activity in the diabetes untreated is significantly higher compared to that normal and treated animal and others treated with extract and tolbutamide. A Similar trend was observed in the Aspartate transaminase and Alanine transaminase activity, respectively, the reversed was observed in the albumin and total protein level, respectively. Hence, the result shows that the extract is not toxic and possesses anti-diabetic properties.

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Bioeconomy is a new perspective for fighting climate change. Africa is warming faster than the global average, and climate change remains a major threat on the continent for coming decades. The development of sustainable bioeconomy is extremely important in Africa to accelerate mitigation and adaptation to climate change. However, this concept is not well diffused on the continent. The objective of this chapter is to present the current state of bioeconomy in Africa and the readiness of the member countries to adopt bioeconomy as climate action, with particular attention to the state of production determinants of a bioeconomy. The main factors and trends (both positive and negative), relating to building strategic capacity towards employing bioeconomy for climate action on the continent, are outlined. The findings and recommendations will assist both the academia and policymakers in Africa to integrate bioeconomy into their national and regional climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and action plans.