June 2008

Antibacterial activity of Asperugo procumbens L. against some human pathogenic bacteria

Petroleum ether, chloroform (CHCl3), ethanol (EtOH), methanol (MeOH) and aqueous (H2O) extracts of leaves of Asperugo procumbens L. were evaluated for antibacterial activity against five human pathogenic bacterial strains with the agar-well diffusion method. The methanol extract was highly active against all the test bacteria, followed by the ethanol and aqueous extracts.  The chloroform and petroleum...

Author(s): M. Ahanjan, , D. C. Mohana and K. A. Raveesha

June 2008

Comparison of five serological diagnostic assays for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies to dengue virus

Difficulties in the management of dengue infections include the lack of rapid diagnostic methods and symptoms of dengue are often confused with those of other diseases. Five commercial kits were evaluated for the detection of dengue-specific IgM and IgG antibodies using sera obtained from patients with primary and secondary dengue infections, as well as other febrile illnesses. All kits were compared to the in-house IgM...

Author(s): Shamala Devi Sekaran, Ew Cheng Lan and Geetha Subramaniam

June 2008

Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the essential oil of Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) H. J. Lam from Gabon

The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation from the resin of Dacryodes edulis(G. Don) H. J. Lam was simultaneously analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Twenty four components were identified in the essential oil and the main components were sabinene (21.8%), terpinene-4-ol (19.8%), a-pinene (17.5%) and p-cymene (11.3%), respectively. The antioxidant...

Author(s): L. C. Obame, , P. Edou, I. H. N. Bassolé, J. Koudou, H. Agnaniet, F. Eba and A. S. Traore

June 2008

Carbon nutrition in relation to growth of three Monascus species isolated from decaying date fruits

The utilization of ten different carbon sources for growth by three Monascusspecies isolated from date palm fruits has been studied. Monascus purpureusutilized fructose very well when compared to Monascus ruber and an unknownMonascus species. The Monascus sp. appeared to utilize maltose better, while sucrose and lactose were utilized well by M. purpureus.  M....

Author(s): I. B. Omamor, E. I  Eziashi and A. A. Adekunle