September 2007

Physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of optimized and traditional shea butters from Côte d’Ivoire

  A comparison was realized between the characteristics of shea butters from local markets in Côte d’Ivoire and optimized shea butters, manufactured in a laboratory, in order to valuate the improvements in quality. Large diversity concerning the colour (beige, grey and yellow), odour (odourless, moderate, fragrant and rancid) and the consistency (soft and hard) was found for the ordinary shea butter...

Author(s): Rose-Monde Megnanou , Sébastien Niamke and Jacques Diopoh

September 2007

Xylanase production by Penicillium chrysogenum (PCL501) fermented on cellulosic wastes

  Xylanase production by Penicillium chrysogenum PCL501, newly isolated from wood-wastes, was monitored at 24 h intervals for a period 168 h in media containing four different carbon sources (oat-spelt xylan, wheat bran, sawdust, and sugarcane pulp). The highest xylanase activity of 6.47 Units mL-1 was obtained at 96 h in media containing wheat bran whereas media containing sugarcane pulp gave a...

Author(s): Okafor, U. A., Emezue, T. N., Okochi, V. I. , Onyegeme-Okerenta, B. M.  and Nwodo-Chinedu, S. 

September 2007

Sickle-cell anaemia in Nigeria: dermatoglyphic analysis of 90 cases

  Dermatoglyphic analysis of 90 Sickle-cell Anaemia cases and 90 normal subjects was carried out in this study.  It involved the digital patterns, ATD angle, A – B ridge count, axial triradius, digital triradius and palmar crease on the hands. 58.44% of the digital patterns in sickle-cell cases were ulnar loop as against 60.14% in the normals. The percentage of Whorl, arch and radial loop in...

Author(s): Oladipo GS, Olabiyi O, Oremosu AA, Noronha CC, Okanlawon AO and Paul CU.

September 2007

Biological responses of injured human skin fibroblasts to assess the efficacy of in vitro models for cell stress studies

  The classical central scratch method has been used to successfully induce a wound environment however this model has been criticized. This study aimed to compare the cellular responses of normal fibroblast cells with those of wounded, diabetic wounded, acidic and hypoxic cells to determine if the latter two models are more effective in inducing an injured environment than the central scratch method. The...

Author(s): Innocent Lutho Zungu, Denise Hawkins Evans, Nicolette Houreld and Heidi Abrahamse