Background Self-medication is the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms or the intermittent or continued use of prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms, and it is mostly common in developing countries. This study therefore assessed the practice of self-medication among undergraduate students of a private university in Nigeria. Methods The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to 384 undergraduate students of the university. Data were analysed and summarised using descriptive and inferential statistics such as chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests. Results Overall, 297 (81.8%) undergraduate students practiced self-medication. About 71% of the students had used analgesic, antibiotics (10.5%), and antimalarial drugs (33%) without prescription within one month prior to the survey. The most commonly used drug for self-medication was paracetamol (75.1%). Furthermore, self-medication was found to be significantly associated with age (p=0.021), gender (p < 0.001), college (p=0.025), and year of study (p=0.004). Some of the reasons why undergraduate students practiced self-medication were because of the unfriendly attitude of health care workers (27.7%), lack of time to go to school clinic (26.7%), school clinic is too far from hostel (15.3%), and drugs prescribed in the school clinic do not improve health condition (15.3%). Conclusion Majority of the students attributed the practice of self-medication to unfriendly attitude of health care workers in the university clinic.

Newcastle disease virus is a paramyxovirus which causes Newcastle disease in birds. Investigation was done on the effect of leaf extract of Phyllanthus amarus against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) using an in-ovo assay. Nine to eleven day-old viable embryonated chicken eggs (ECE) were used for the assay, these were divided into six groups of six eggs each. Methanol, aqueous and n-hexane extracts of the plant leaves were administered to the various groups at concentrations varying from 50 to 5 mg/ml. Embryonated eggs were incubated and embryo survival was monitored daily. Negative control and diluents control groups received phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and dimethly suphoxide (DMSO), respectively. The other group was uninoculated while a virus control group received 100 EID 50 /0.1 ml NDV alone. Bacteria free allantoic fluid from the embryonated eggs in different treatment groups were harvested and collected for spot hemagglutination (HA) test and HA assay to detect the presence of NDV viral particles and the viral titre, respectively. Leaf extracts were assayed for presence of phytochemicals and antioxidant potentials. It was observed from the results that the extract was toxic to the embryo at a concentration above 50 mg/ml and further results showed that the HA viral titre reduction was directly proportional to increasing extract concentration. The phytochemical assays of leaf extract revealed the presence of phytochemicals including alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, phenols, steroids, glycosides. The current findings have demonstrated that leaf extract from P. amarus has potentials of medicinal value as well as antiviral activity against NDV in-ovo. Further experimental assays using live animal models are recommended to validate the use of P. amarus plant extract in therapeutic measure in chickens.

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Background and Objective: Newcastle disease (ND) is a viral disease of economic importance in poultry industry worldwide. This study was conducted to investigate the antiviral potential of n-hexane leaf extract from Phyllanthus amarus (P. amarus). Methodology: A hundred and twenty day old broiler chickens were purchased and raised for the experiment. At four weeks, the birds were randomly assigned into 12 groups of 10 birds each. Chickens in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were vaccinated while those in 5, 6, 7, and 8 were left unvaccinated. Groups 9 and 10 served as the positive controls while 11 and 12 as the negative controls. All groups except the negative control were infected. To study the prophylactic effect of the extract, chickens in groups 1 and 5 received 250 mg/l while those in groups 2 and 6 received 500 mg/l of leaf extract for fourteen days before experimental infection. The chickens in groups 3 and 7 received 250 mg/l while those in groups 4 and 8 received 500 mg/l of leaf extract for fourteen days after infection with ND virus to assess the therapeutic effect of the extract. Clinical signs, bodyweight changes and mortality rates were documented. Antibody titers against the virus were determined and postmortem examination was conducted. Results: Results revealed reduction in mortality rates following administration of the n-hexane extract after the challenge. Prophylactic administration of the extract was more effective in reducing the mortality rates of birds due to the virus infection compared to the therapeutic administration. Similarly, antibody titers decreased in a dosage dependent pattern in the prophylactic group. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the n-hexane leaf extract from P. amarus has significant antiviral potentials against ND virus in broiler chickens and that prophylactic administration at 500 mg/l might be a safer approach in utilization of the leaf extract against Newcastle disease.

The enzyme amylase is one of the most important in biotechnology, and lipase operates as a catalytic agent for a broad range of hydrolytic and synthetic activities. This study aimed to assess the optimization of amylase and lipase enzyme produced by microorganisms isolated from selected waste or garbage dumpsite in Akure, Ondo State Nigeria. The isolates were identified using biochemical and cultural characteristics. A total of seven bacterial isolates were identified and quantitative production of amylase and lipase by solid-state fermentation was assessed for each bacterial isolate. The optimization of nutritional and environmental parameters on enzymes produced by the isolated organisms was standardized with respect to incubation time, temperature, pH, and carbon and nitrogen sources. The activity of the enzymes generated was determined by spectrophotometric assay.  Of the seven organisms isolated, Bacillus cereus LA326 and Bacillus subtilis AU021 had the highest amylase and lipase activity and were therefore chosen for further research. The maximum level of amylase and lipase activity attained by B. subtilis AU021 was 68.0 mmol/min and 16.3 mmol/min after 18 hours of incubation respectively, while the maximum levels of amylase and lipase activity attained by B. cereus LA326 were found to be 76 mmol/min after 12 hours and 16.3mmol/min after 18 hours of incubation, respectively. The study found that B. cereus and B. subtilis isolated from dumpsites could be efficient producers of biotechnology-relevant enzymes and that environmental conditions could influence their enzyme production.