The use of plant products has shown great potentials as alternatives to synthetic insecticides. The present studies investigated the efficacy of Dennetia tripetala and Deltamethrin as grain protectants against adult Sitophilus zeamais in stored maize. Acetone extracts of D. tripetala and Deltamthrin 12.5EC were evaluated in the laboratory based on insect mortality, progeny production and grain damage.  Five concentration levels of each toxicant were prepared including 20mls, 15mls, 10mls, 5mls and 1ml for D. tripetala and 1ml, 0.5ml, 0.25ml, 0.1ml and 0.01ml for Deltamethrin. Controls with no toxicants were included. The design of the experiment was a CRD and each repeated 4 times. Twenty grams of insect-free maize were measured into each replicate vial and infested with ten, 1-5-days old adult insects.  Mortality was recorded at 12, 24, 48- and 72-hours post-treatment. After 35 days, progeny production and number of damaged grains were recorded. Data obtained were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 13. The results indicated that Deltamethrin was more toxic than Dennetia tripetala, however, at 10mls-20mls, D. tripetala showed moderate toxicity against S. zeamais. Comparative mortalities of the two toxicants indicated that Deltamethrin was significantly (P < 0.05) more toxic than D. tripetala at all levels. The studies however, revealed that the application of D. tripetala in controlling S. zeamais could be effective at higher concentrations. Therefore, it was suggested that D. tripetala should be applied at higher concentrations for effective control of maize weevil.

In Africa, Prostephanus truncatus is a destructive pest of economic importance which has deteriorative effects on dry cassava chips in storage. The present study investigates the effects of Zingiber officinale on P.truncatus on dried cassava chips processed in two methods. Deltamethrin was used as the reference insecticide. The plant extract was used at different concentrations (500ul/ml, 250ul/ml, 125ul/ml, 62.5ul/ml, 0ul/ml(control) and 0.05ul/ml(reference)). The cassava varieties used are TME 419 and TMS 98/0581. the cassava varieties were cut into cubes and subjected to two processing methods, parboiling and unparboiling (plain). Percentage emergence was assesed as thus, 100g of cassava chips were put in a plastic plate. 10 unsexed adult of P.truncatus were introduced into each plate and left for 14days to oviposit, after which the insects were removed , the chips were thereafter treated with Z.officinale at (500ul/ml, 250ul/ml, 125ul/ml, 62.5ul/ml, 0ul/ml(control) and 0.05ul/l(Deltamethrin). The plates were covered with muslin cloth held with a rubber band and left to stand for 25 days. Afterwhich the percentage emergence was assessed, by counting. All the data generated were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in Genstat package 9.2 (9th edition). Difference between mean values were separated using least significant difference (LSD) at P<0.05 (Finney 1971). The result of the experiment showed that Z.officinale conferred greater protection to the chips at higher concentrations of 250ul/ml and 500ul/ml , its effects were similar to the reference insecticide. Processing methods recorded a great significance(P <0.05) .

Drug repurposing involves reusing an active pharmaceutical ingredient that is already in the market and drugs that were unsuccessful in their clinical phases of development for a new indication. It has numerous benefits in drug development. Therapeutic inhibitors are agents that could be of synthetic or natural source with the ability to trigger the down-regulation of an enzyme or protein, thereby inducing therapeutic effect(s). Researchers have embraced synthetic methods in searching for therapeutic molecules through structural activity relationships and other means in the past and recent times. Despite these synthetic drugs, the morbidity and mortality rate of ailment and disease affecting humanity remains overwhelming. Research has shown that solutions to these challenges can be attempted through drug repurposing. In the past, natural products in raw forms have been utilized in traditional, complementary medicine to manage and treat diseases and illnesses, as there are molecules in use today as drugs, which originated from plants and other natural sources. Studies on natural products have led to diverse natural product databases that can serve as a source of repurposing agents. There are also databases for protein and enzymes of human origin, which have an enormous role in the in-silico drug repurposing approach.