Oleogum resins ofB. papyrifera,B. neglecta, andB. rivaewere collected from northwestern, southern, and southeastern Ethiopia, and their respective methanol extracts and essential oils were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The investigation on essential oils led to the identification of 6, 7, and 8 constituents forB. papyrifera,B. neglecta, andB. rivae, respectively. The essential oil ofB. papyriferais mainly characterized by the presence of octyl acetate (57.1–65.7%) and n-octanol (3.4–8.8%).B. neglectais rich inα-pinene (32.6–50.7%) followed by terpinen-4-ol (17.5–29.9%) andα-thujene (12.7–16.5%), whereasB. rivaewas predominated byα-pinene (32.5–66.2%) followed by p-cymene (5.7–21.1%) and limonene (1.1–19.6%). Methanol extracts of the threeBoswelliaspecies were found to consist of diterpines (incensole, incensyl acetate and verticilla-4(20),7,11-triene), triterpenes (β-amyrin,α-amyrin,β-amyrenone, andα-amyrenone), nortriterpenes (24-noroleana-3,12-diene and 24-norursa-3,12-diene), andα-boswellic acid. The investigation on the methanol extract showed that onlyB. papyriferacontains diterpenes and nortriterpenes, whereasB. rivaeandB. neglectaconsist of only triterpenes. The results indicate that the threeBoswelliaspecies were characterized by some terpenes and these terpenoic constituents could be recognized as chemotaxonomical markers for each species.

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ABSTRACT. The investigation of the volatile compounds of essential oils of propolis from two geographic origins of Ethiopia (Haramaya and Assela) was made by GC-MS. A total of 62 components of the oil were identified from both samples. The identified constituents of the oils may be divided into seven different groups: oxygenated monoterpenes (29.81% Haramaya, 9.45% Asella), sesquiterpenes (15.20% Haramaya, 19.05% Assela), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (11.86% Haramaya, 18.56% Assela), aromatic (14.93% Haramaya, 4.25% Assela), oxygenated aromatic (17.59% Haramaya, 4.58% Assela), aliphatic (5.06% Haramaya, 7.62% Assela) and oxygenated aliphatic (7.84% Haramaya, 25.17% Asella). The major volatile compounds of Haramaya propolis consist of calamenene (13.82%), 4-terpineol (8.57%), epi-bicyclosesquiphellandrene (8.37%), 4-(2-acetyl-5,5-dimethylcyclopent-2-enylidene)butan-2-one (7.83%) and 3-isopropyl-6-methyl-2-oxo-1-(3-oxobutyl)-cyclohexanecarbaldehyde (5.90%). Whereas the most abundant constituents of Assela propolis were 5,6,7,8-tetramethylbicyclo[4,1,0]hept-4-en-3-one (15.01%), acoradien (13.77%), epicedrol (6.80%) and (6E,6E)-3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-1,6,10,14-hexadecatetraen-3-ol (6.14%). Ten compounds which were found in both samples of propolis were trans-pinocarveol,

The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of heavy metals (Cr, Cd and Pb) in vegetables and the soil contaminating levels as a result of irrigation using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (FAAS). The wet digestion and sequential fractionation extraction procedures were employed to solubilize the metals from the collected samples. The results obtained from this study showed overall concentration of heavy metals Cr, Cd and Pb respectively, in the range of (2.90-3.77), (2.20-3.68) and (4.60-5.50) (mg/Kg) in the edible parts of sampled vegetables. Whereas, concentrations (mg/Kg) of the metals in the soil samples were found to be in the ranges of 22.37-66.30, 27.93-45.33 and 18.82-64.87 for Cr, Cd and Pb, respectively. The modified Tessier sequential extraction procedure was used to fractionate the above three metals from the soil samples into five fractions. In this study the heavy metals were predominantly concentrated in residual fraction (F5); since lead was mainly associated with the organic matter bounded fraction (F4) (34.33-43.45%), it was found to be more bioavailable and mobile than the other investigated heavy metals. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Cd and Pb) in the soil and vegetable samples were above the recommended limit of both WHO and FAO. But Pb for the soil samples was smaller than WHO and FAO recommended limit. Based on facts obtained from this study we suggests concerned official body (ies) to take the necessary precaution measures for cleaning the polluted area.

In the present work, nanocrystalline Fe-Al-Mn ternary oxide nanosorbent was synthesized via impregnation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) technique and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to characterize the assynthesized nanomaterial. The XRD results indicate the crystalline nature of the ternary oxide with a BET surface area of 49.53 m 2 g -1 . The optimum operating conditions to carry out sorption study such as pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, speed of agitation and initial phosphate concentration were found to be 3, 0.1 g, 16 h, 100 rpm and 30 ppm, respectively. Both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models fit the equilibrium data well with the latter model providing more fit to the experimental data. Kinetic data correlated well with the pseudo-secondorder and Elovich models suggesting chemisorptions as the prevailing mechanism of phosphate sorption onto the nanosorbent. Thermodynamic studies resulted negative ΔG indicating the spontaneity of the sorption process. The Fe-Al-Mn ternary nanocomposite sorbent showed a sorption capacity of 38.46 mg g -1 at pH 3. The sorption efficiency of the nanosorbent was found to be 99.5%.This adsorbent, with large sorption capacity and efficiency, is therefore a promising adsorbent for the removal of phosphate ions from aqueous systems.