Oil was extracted from Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae) seeds collected from Enugu, South-East Nigeria and evaluate its physico-chemical and antioxidant properties in comparism to palm oil. M. oleifera seeds gave oil yield of 41.47%. Refractive index, melting point ( C) and acid value (mg KOH g ) of o -1

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The enzymatic activities occurring on painted walls in a tropical environment have become critical given the rate of aesthetic biodeterioration of such walls. Pigmented heterotrophic microorganisms isolated from discolored painted walls in Lagos, Nigeria were screened for their phosphatase activities. The strains were characterized by morphological methods and 16S rDNA analysis as belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Meyerozyma, Candida, Fusarium, Cerrena and Pseudomonas. The sequences were submitted to NCBI GenBank. Crude extracellular phosphatase from cell-free culture supernatant were reacted in p-nitrophenolphosphate. Subsequently, their alkaline phosphatase activities were compared. All tested strains produced phosphatase at different pH, temperature, incubation time and substrate concentration which were used as biomarkers for microbial metabolic activity. The order of optimal phosphatase production was observed as: Cerrena sp > Aspergillus sp >M. guilliermondii > A. aculeatus > F. proliferatum > P. aeruginosa > C. tropicalis > M. caribbica. Morphological studies and microbial enzymatic activity confirm the hypothesis that heavy pigmentation and phosphatase production are major indices of discoloration on biodeteriorating painted walls in a typical tropical environment like Nigeria. Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in phosphatase production at the different environmental conditions examined except at different time intervals.

Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a major component of fuel generator fumes. Carcinogenicity of these compounds has long been established. In this study, 37 Swiss albino rats were exposed to generator fumes at varied distances for 8 hours per day for a period of 42 days and the level of 1-hydroxypyrene in their blood was evaluated. This study also tried to correlate the level of blood 1-hyroxypyrene with the distance from the source of pollution. Plasma was collected by centrifuging the whole blood sample followed by complete hydrolysis of the conjugated 1-hydroxypyrene glucuronide to yield the analyte of interest, 1-hydroxypyrene, which was achieved using beta glucuronidase. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detector was used to determine the 1-hydroxypyrene concentrations in the blood samples. The mobile phase was water:methanol (12:88 v/v) isocratic run at the flow rate of 1.2 mL/min with CI8 stationary phase at 250 nm. After 42 days of exposure, blood concentration level of 1-hydroxypyrene ranged from 34 μg/mL to 26.29 μg/mL depending on the distance from source of exposure. The control group had no 1-hydroxypyrene in their blood. After the period of exposure, percentage of death correlated with the distance from the source of exposure. Percentage of death ranged from 56% to zero depending on the proximity to source of pollution.

The toxicological evaluations of cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) were carried out against Albino mice model, Mus musculus. On the basis of LC 50 value, Cd (0.47 mM) was found to be the most toxic followed by Zn (2.40 mM), Pb (2.42 mM), Fe (4.52 mM) and Mn (5.70 mM) as least toxic. The results of the sublethal concentration of the heavy metals (1/10 th of 96 hrLC 50) on the liver function parameters and kidney markers showed that total glycerol (TG) levels increased significantly (P < 0.05) in Cd and Mn treated groups while Zn, Pb and Mn induced a significantly higher (P < 0.05) level of total protein. Mn and Fe induced significantly (P < 0.05) increase in the level of total bilirubin (T.BIL), urea and albumin (ALB) in exposed mice relative to the control group. The outcome of this study implied that sublethal responses of liver function parameters and kidney markers were found to have good potentials in serving as a combination of biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis of 'heavy metals' pollution in the mammalian model.