Background:The nutritional and medicinal importance of watermelon has been emphasized and its diseases preventive and curative power must be evaluated. Hence, this study was designed to evaluate the antioxidative and antidiabetic potentials of watermelon.Materials and Methods:The in vivo assay was carried out on 15 male albino rats which were divided into groups of three stages. In stage I, all animals received normal feeds and water for 1-week after, which five animals were selected and sacrificed for biochemical analyses which form the nondiabetic control, group. The remaining animals were fasted for 24 h before injected intra-peritoneally with a freshly prepared solution of alloxan at a dosage of 35 mg/kg body weight. Five out of the 10 rats were sacrificed as diabetic group while last five animals were fed with water melon juice for a week after, which they were sacrificed to form the treated group animals. In all the groups, body weights, fasting blood sugar, total protein level in the blood, and other biochemical parameters such as reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration; catalase, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) % inhibition activities were determined.Results:The results of the biochemical analyses showed a significant increase in the concentration of blood glucose level after treatment with alloxan, which indicates that diabetic was induced. Hence, watermelon juice caused increased in weight, hypoglycemia; and increases in GSH, GPx, catalase, and SOD % inhibition activities with reduced MDA concentration after treatments.Conclusion:The watermelon juice resulted in the restoration of impaired conditions of the rats.

No abstract

The article reports the amino acid composition of Nigerian beef jerky meat called Kilishi. Kilishi is consumed dry, hence determination was on dry weight basis. Sample was purchased in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Amino acid values were highest for non-essential amino acid in Glu (14.3 g100g-1) whereas from essential amino acid it was Lys (8.69 g100g-1). Other high value amino acids were (in g100g-1): Asp (8.85), Leu (7.68), Arg (6.02), Ile (4.08), Trp (1.02), Cys (1.18) and His (2.40). P-PER1,2,3 values were superior at values of 2.52 – 2.70. EAAI1 (soybean standard) was 1.23 and EAAI2 (egg standard) was 94.5 with corresponding BV of 91.3. Lys/Trp was very high at 8.55 and Met/Trp was 2.38. Values of TNEAA was 52.1 g100g-1 (57.7%) and TEAA was 38.2 g100g-1(42.3%). In the egg score comparison Ser (0.461) was the limiting amino acid (LAA) with protein corrected digestibility value of 0.338; in provisional EAA scoring pattern, LAA was Val (0.882) and corrected version was 0.742; in pre-school children requirement, LAA was Trp (0.927) and corrected value of 0.780. Variation percentage values between the scores/corrected scores were virtually 12.2% per parameter compared. Correlation values between each score standard/corrected score values were significantly different at r=0.01 with values of 0.9997 – 0.99999. Estimates of amino acid requirements at ages 10 – 12 years (mg kg-1 day-1) showed kilishi to be better than the standards at 74.9% - 453%. Results showed that kiishi is protein-condensed.

In an attempt to transform the agricultural waste products of maize cobs and shafts into useful products such as animal feeds and reduce the pollution effects of these wastes during maize seasons, they were fermented using Aspergillus niger for 72 hours. The fermented residues were analyzed with regard to proximate composition, mineral composition and some antinutrients content. The results revealed that there were significant increases in the protein of the microbial fermentation (12.58g/100g) compare with the unfermented sample (5.51g/100g) and fat (7.83g/100g) and (6.04g/100g) respectively. Conversely, there was significant decrease in phytate (197.44mg/100g) for fermented and (282.10mg/100g) unfermented). The mineral contents in parts per million (Na ,Cu, Zn, Mg, Ca, Na, K, and Co) were slightly high, Na was found relatively low in fermented sample while Cu and Co were not detected in both cases. From the results of the work, it could be inferred that Aspergillus niger, a cheap and treated nonpathogenic fungus could be used to enhance the nutritional potential of agricultural wastes as animal feeds and reduce environmental pollution.

No abstract