The liver is vulnerable to alcohol-related injury because it is the primary site of alcohol metabolism. Additionally, a number of potentially dangerous by-products are generated as alcohol is broken down in the liver. However, dietary supplements may prevent or relieve some of alcohol's deleterious effects. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the prophylactic effect of aqueous extract of Sesamum indicum (SI) on ethanol induced toxicity in rats. Male Wistar albino rats were divided into control, ethanol, pre-treatment, simultaneous and post-treatment groups. In the prophylactic experiment, Sesamum indicum, (200 mg/kg body weight) was administered by oral gavage for 28 days; two hours before, simultaneously with or two hours after ethanol exposure. Toxicity was induced by administering 45% ethanol (4.8 g/kg bw) by oral gavage. Lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and gluthathione-S-transferase (GST) activities were then determined in the liver, serum triglyceride (TG) levels, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities were monitored and histological examination was carried out. The results revealed that ethanol administration led to significant elevation of TBARS level while depleting in the level of GSH as well as CAT, GPx, SOD and GST activities. Similarly, TG level and ALT and AST activities were elevated. The SI pre-treated group significantly inhibited TBARS, restored GSH level, enhanced CAT, GPx, SOD and GST activities and significantly decreased the elevated level of serum TG, ALT and AST activities. SI treatment (simultaneously with ethanol) exhibited similar effects to those of the SI pre-treated groups, while the SI post-treated group did not show the same protection as the Pre-treated group. S. indicum possesses antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties, that eliminate the deleterious effects of toxic metabolites of ethanol.

Fluted pumpkin [Telfaria occidentalis (Hook F.)] is a nutritious tropical vegetable crop. Genetic diversity was evaluated in a collected set of Telfairia occidentalis Hook F. landraces. Various phenotypic traits were examined in a total of 23 landraces and a subset of 12 landraces. Data analysis revealed that considerable variation observed in the 23 fluted pumpkin landraces was in the fruit weight. The 12 landraces had moderate variation in total chlorophyll and carotene contents whereas low variation was observed in leaf length and width. Twelve subset fluted pumpkin landraces were genotyped using 10 selected Random Amplified DNA polymorphism (RAPD) markers. The number of alleles detected per marker ranged from 3 to 5, with a total of 40 alleles. The mean percentage polymorphic loci observed was 56.8. All primers had low resolving power (Rp) with a mean of 0.85. Genetic similarity values ranged from 0.63 and 0.88 with a mean of 0.76. The Dice coefficient genetic similarity using unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) grouped the 12 landraces in 2 (groups I and II) according to extent of genetic relationship among the analysed fluted pumpkin landraces. Similar groupings were projected in the principal component analysis (PCA). The lines PUE05 and PUI09 are closely related and they also exhibited farthest genetic distance from the other landraces in both the UPGMA and PCA. These results show that more effort should be geared towards genetic conservation of Telfairia occidentalis Hook F.