One of the serious problems affecting the environment nowadays is petroleum hydrocarbon contaminations resulting from the activities in the oil and gas sector, these include: oil-spill, tank leakage, lubrication, petroleum exploitation, transportation, and services. Various techniques including mechanical and chemical methods have been employed for the bioremediation and degradation of hydrocarbons pollutants from the environments, however, some of these methods are generally expensive and may have detrimental effects on the environment, hence bioremediation is the alternative solution to hydrocarbon pollutants. Among microorganisms used in bioremediation technology nowadays, fungi are efficient, reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly that can be used to cleanup and detoxify hydrocarbons contaminants from the environment viz; soil, water, and sediments. Bioremediation using fungi ensures the complete degradation and mineralization of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and cell biomass. This review focuses on the potentials of fungi in the bioremediation of total petroleum hydrocarbons including the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We reviewed and discussed current approaches in the bioremediation of hydrocarbon including the mechanisms of fungal bioremediation of hydrocarbon, which involves biosurfactants production and the use of fungal enzymes in the degradation of hydrocarbon pollutants. In general, fungi are more efficient and effective in the removal of hydrocarbon contaminants from the environments viz., water, soil, and sediments. However, the potentiality of fungi has not been exploited fully, hence further studies are recommended especially in the current genomic and proteomic era.

Spices that are mostly of plant origin are used in the preparation of almost all processed food to enhance palatability, tastiness, sweetness, and its overall acceptability, without taking into consideration of its medicinal values. The study was conducted to determine the antioxidant capacity and antibacterial activity of the extracts ofAllium sativum,Syzygium aromaticum, andZingiber officinale against some bacterial isolates of foods origin including Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli,Salmonella typhi,Shigella dysentriae,andStaphylococcus aureus. Bacterial isolates of food origin were collected from the laboratory unit of the Department of Microbiology, Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil. Antioxidant capacity of the extracts used was determined using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay while agar disc diffusion techniques were used in the determination of the antibacterial activity. Results show that extracts of the spices exhibited a strong antioxidants capacity that ranges from 89.5% to 97.5% at high concentrations of the extracts with methanol extracts being the most active. Methanolic extracts shows zone of inhibition ranging from 16.45mm to 5.26mm while that of aqueous extracts were 10.32mm to 4.32mm. Meanwhile isolates of E. coli and S. aureus were the most sensitive with 16.45 and 15.32. This study concluded that the antibacterial effect of methanolic extract of Allium sativum extract was stronger in comparison, followed by Syzygium aromaticum and Zingiber officinale against five test bacteria isolated of food origin. Therefore, this study revealed that spices produced using Allium sativum, Syzygium aromaticum and Zingiber officinale have an antibacterial property and can be used for food preservation.

Background: Series of more than 35 proteins facilitated a major role in fighting the foreign invaders in human body and other warm blooded animals, those named complement system. Methods: Total of 147 human serum were collected from asymptomatic volunteers by venipuncture, their sero groups were determined by reverse blood grouping method. Strain of Salmonella typhi (S. Typhi) were collected from Wudil general hospital and identified molecularly at center of biotechnological research of Bayero University, Kano. Serum bactericidal assay was done at microbiology laboratory of Wudil general hospital. Data obtained was subjected to two way ANOVA and considered significant at p<0.05. Results: Complement dependent pathways shows a more than 50% kills, in which both A, AB, B and O kill percent were 74.98%, 67.87%, 78.53% and 78.60% respectively, however, no statistical significant difference. While the non-complement dependent pathways revealed kills percentage of 59.27%, 57.86%, 59.21% and 58.60% for A, AB, B and O sero groups, also no significant statistical difference. Moreover, in comparing the complement and non-complement dependent pathways, data analysis shows a significant difference with p values of 0.001, 0.003, 0.006 and 0.0008 for A, AB, B and O sero groups respectively. Conclusion: We concluded that, ABO sero-groups and complement system plays an important role as infection determinants, where AB sero-group have more chances to S. Typhi infection than other sero-groupings. This study suggests that the effect of many host genetic parameters on treatment of microorganisms needs to be further studied.