Okra, of high nutritional potential, is one of the underutilized indigenous vegetables in Ethiopia. A food based-intervention specifically dietary diversification is an affordable and sustainable strategy to meet the demand of adequate food supply and population growth. One way of ensuring dietary diversity is to search and promote underutilized indigenous plant species such as okra. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine nutritional and anti-nutritional factors content of the seeds of eight okra accessions (OPA#1, OPA#2, OPA#3, OPA#4, OPA#5, OPA#6, OPA#7 and OPA#8) grown at Assosa Agricultural Research Center in Benishangul Gumuz region, Ethiopia. Molar ratios of the seeds were also calculated and compared to the critical values to predict the mineral bioavailability. All the analyses were conducted using official standard procedures and grade standard reagents. The results of this study revealed that the proximate composition (g/100 g) of the seed accessions varied significantly (P<0.05) and had respective ranges for moisture content 9. The seeds of accession of OPA#6 contained high amounts of crude protein and fat, whereas OPA#8 was high in calcium, iron and potassium. The range of phytate, tannin and oxalate content (mg/100g) of the seed of okra accessions ranged from 0.39 to 0.46, 0.71 to 3.78, 0.74 to 0.75, respectively. The calculated molar ratios of phytate:calcium, phytate:iron, phytate:zinc, oxalate:calcium and phytate*calcium/zinc were 0.0025 to 0.0037, 0.0017 to 0.0041, 0.0063 to 0.106, 0.0020 to 0.0051 and 0.0140 to 0.0175, respectively, below the critical value, indicating high bioavailability of calcium, iron and zinc in all accessions. The results of this study revealed that seeds of okra contain appreciable amounts of essential nutrients and are low in anti-nutrient content implying high mineral bioavailability. Hence, increasing the production and consumption of these nutrient rich underutilized okra seeds could help in food fortification, dietary diversification and alleviation of problems associated with malnutrition in the country.

High phosphatide containing oils like soybean oil, have two types of phosphatide (gum) namely, the hydratable and non-hydratable. Simple water degumming will not remove non-hydratable gums. Water degumming alone is not satisfactorily to reduce the gum content below 10ppm to enable the physical refining. Therefore enzymatic process is used together with water degumming. The enzymatic degumming process was employed to reduce the level of phosphatide (P) less than 10ppm in 10h of duration without mixing. A combined degumming process a normal mixing speedup the reduction of the gum level to less than 10ppm in 7h of mixing duration, while a combined degumming process exhibiting a normal mixing followed by initial emulsification (15min) speedup the reduction of the gum level to less than 10ppm in 6h of mixing duration. On the other hand initial emulsification (15min) with normal mixing (2000rpm) at 2ml enzyme level gave the same result 5h. Gum level of the water degummed oil (150ppm to 180ppm), which was used as a starting material for the two-step process was efficiently reduced to less than 10ppm within 4h. Initial emulsification (15min) with normal mixing (1000rpm), 1ml enzyme level the water degummed oil gave the phosphatide (P) less than 10ppm 3h. This condition is thus most preferable. Among these process the initial emulsification with normal mixing was given better result than the normal mixing, and two step process were faster than the process of combined.

Bacterial colonies were isolated from six Ethiopian hyperthermal springs which were at 36-93˚C, and 10% of these were amylase positive. A number of the crude enzyme extracts were active at elevated temperatures. Two thermophilic Gram-positive Bacillus strains were identified as B. stearothermophilus and B. licheniformis.

The complete cDNA sequence of the Nile tilapia T-cell receptor (TCR) β chain was cloned using 5' RACE. The full-length, 1263-bp cDNA contained a 942-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 314-amino-acid protein. Sequence analyses revealed that the Nile tilapia TCR β chain contains four conserved cysteine residues involved in the formation of disulphide bridges and a conserved amino acid motif believed to be important for assembly and signalling of the TCR αβ/CD3 complex, both of which are normally found in the TCR β chain of other vertebrates. As detected using semi-quantitative and quantitative RT-PCR, the highest expression level of TCR β was detected in the thymus. Interestingly, Streptococcus agalactiae significantly induced the up-regulation of the TCR β chain, and the strongest up-regulation was detected in the brain and peripheral blood leucocytes (PBLs). In in vitro experiments, concanavalin A and Aeromonas hydrophila were found to significantly increase the expression of the TCR β chain in PBLs after 48 h (P< 0.01) and 72 h (P < 0.05), respectively. Furthermore, real-time PCR analysis showed that intraperitoneal injection (IP) of 10(7) cfu mL(-1) of S. agalactiae could induce TCR β expression that was greater than the expression observed following administration of 10(9) cfu mL(-1). The presence of the TCR β chain in fish detected in this study suggests the presence of T-cell populations that have been found in higher vertebrates, which may play a crucial functional role in the response to fish pathogens.

Bifidobacterium lactis, a well-known probiotic, was cultured in laboratory to observe the effect of substrate and mixing on cell growth. The cells were grown in MRS-IM media defined by Christian Hansen, Denmark, where carbohydrate sources were varied. Glucose, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), soy broth and commercial soymilk were used as carbohydrate sources. A one-liter bioreactor was used to grow the cells, where anaerobic condition was maintained by supplying nitrogen gas throughout the experiment. Fructooligosaccharides, and commercial soymilk were found effective on this cell growth. The overall cell growth was found to be almost indifferent, but growth rate was considerably higher due to mixing.