The Limbe Botanical Garden (LBG) is a relict urban forest located in the heart of the city of Limbe. This forest has many ecological, economic, social and tourist functions and is the green lung of the city of Limbé. Unfortunately, this forest has always been threatened by various anthropic pressures and more recently by invasive exotic species. These threats make us fear the progressive disappearance of this massif, which would be a threat to the plant and animal populations, the riparian communities and the ecosystem services such as carbon regulation. The general objective of our study is to assess the validity of the hypothesis of increased carbon sequestration of invasive species compared to native species. For the floristic inventory, twenty 100 m2 (10 m x 10 m) plots were set up in this LBG urban forest. We recorded information such as the number of adult and juvenile individuals and the diameter of trees greater than or equal to 10 cm. The inventory recorded 349 plant species. The most frequent species is Cyathea camerooniana with 92.3% presence. Cedrela odorata has a frequency of occurrence of 76.9% in this urban forest and a frequency of 60% in the LBG. This taxon has a very high above-ground biomass (187.4 tC/ha) and therefore the highest carbon storage capacity (93.7 tC/ha). It is followed by Diospyros crassifolia and Dialium pachyphyllum, both native species. Cedrela odorata has a positive impact on carbon sequestration and therefore contributes to the well-being of the people. However, the conclusion needs to be qualified because invasive species can influence the functioning of forests in the long term.

The sourdough fermentation technique has the potential to improve the nutritional profile and safety of cereal fermented foods which forms the bulk of the diet of rural dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa. This study enumerates the bacterial and fungal isolates responsible for the fermentation of millet sourdoughs, evaluates the antimicrobial safety of the sourdough starters and the quality of bread produced thereafter. The individual flours were spontaneously fermented in the ratio 1:1 (w/v) for 48 h. At the end of the fermentation, the microbial consortium of the sourdough meals obtained were determined and also screened for antagonistic activity against selected pathogens. Chemical analysis analyses were carried out on the breads following well established procedures. Semi trained panellists were employed to access the organoleptic attributes of the product. All the sourdough starters revealed strong clearance zones against the selected food borne pathogens. The proximate compositions of the breads were improved by the sourdough fermentation process compared with the raw flour. The moisture content of flour determined ranged from 7.48 to 11.20% while the protein, fat, ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate were 9.53 to 12.4%; 2.13 to 2.78%; 0.82 to 2.87%; 2.10 to 4.67% and 71.83 to 76.33% respectively. The carbohydrate content of the breads reduced with fermentation and ranged from 63.10% to 73.33%% while the protein, ash, crude fibre and fat content ranged from 11.57 to 15.31%; 2.39 to 3.08%; 1.76 to 3.62% and 7.15 to 12.32% respectively. The highest value for calcium 48.86 mg/100 g was exhibited by pearl millet bread. Sensory evaluation showed significant difference in the bread samples. The findings have suggested that indigenous wholegrain cereals could be employed for bread production, thus reduce importation and over dependence of wheat flour and white pan bread consumption

The Limbe Botanical Garden (LBG) is a relict urban forest located in the heart of the city of Limbe. This forest has many ecological, economic, social and tourist functions and is the green lung of the city of Limbé. Unfortunately, this forest has always been threatened by various anthropic pressures and more recently by invasive exotic species. These threats make us fear the progressive disappearance of this massif, which would be a threat to the plant and animal populations, the riparian communities and the ecosystem services such as carbon regulation. The general objective of our study is to assess the validity of the hypothesis of increased carbon sequestration of invasive species compared to native species. For the floristic inventory, twenty 100 m2 (10 m x 10 m) plots were set up in this LBG urban forest. We recorded information such as the number of adult and juvenile individuals and the diameter of trees greater than or equal to 10 cm. The inventory recorded 349 plant species. The most frequent species is Cyathea camerooniana with 92.3% presence. Cedrela odorata has a frequency of occurrence of 76.9% in this urban forest and a frequency of 60% in the LBG. This taxon has a very high above-ground biomass (187.4 tC/ha) and therefore the highest carbon storage capacity (93.7 tC/ha). It is followed by Diospyros crassifolia and Dialium pachyphyllum, both native species. Cedrela odorata has a positive impact on carbon sequestration and therefore contributes to the well-being of the people. However, the conclusion needs to be qualified because invasive species can influence the functioning of forests in the long term.

Abstract:The overall objective of the present study is to evaluate the impact of the heap fermentation of cocoa on microbial dynamics and physicochemical parameters of the soil. The methodology was to heap fermentation broad beans 600 cocoa pods moved to a place after the soil was taken for microbiological and physicochemical analyzes considered the control sample. In addition, cocoa lixiviate and soil were subjected to analyze. Chemical analysis of cocoa lixiviate revealed the absence of heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium. It appears from the analysis of soil than clays represent on average 46.67%, 8.03% for fine silt, heavy silt 5.69%, 15.39% fine sands and heavy sands 20.02%. Microbiological analysis revealed the abundance of total coliform up to 4.6 × 103 CFU/g soil. The variations of the abundance of yeasts are 0.01 × 103 CFU/g soil obtained on day 2 at 12 o'clock to 3.5 × 103 CFU/g soil observed on day 3 to 18 pm (0-3 cm deep). However, further study on the assessment of biodiversity after the fermentation would determine its species richness.