African Journal of Biological Sciences

13-45

Authors: Preeti Verma, R. Sagar, Hariom Verma, Abhishek Rai, Pratibha Chaturvedi, Prem Pratap Singh, Kuldeep Kumar and Sandeep Kumar Singh

Grasslands play a critical role in the global storage of atmospheric carbon (C). Precise estimation of C contents in different plant components is essential to formulate a strategy for mitigating the atmospheric C. Biomass (B) and C of different herbaceous plant components at species, functional group and site levels from tropical grassland locating on the campus of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India were estimated. For this; 117 herbaceous species just-before flowering were harvested. B and C contents for each species and component were measured and statistically analyzed. The measured C (g plant-1) across the components varied from 0.08 to 31.12. On gm-2 basis; it varied between 29 (leaf) and 49 (root). Plant components, species and functional groups in isolation caused significant differences in the measured C. In the present study; the C content of stem was greater than the leaf and root. The perennial, erect, leguminous and native traits had greater C than the others. Therefore, this observation revealed that the perennial, erect, leguminous and native plants could be a better option for reducing the atmospheric CO2 by capturing it and then converting into B through photosynthesis. Further, the fitted regression equation between the root and shoot for B and C could be used for the extrapolation of B and C of the root component based on the shoot component. The conservative field measurement methods may give precise data on B and C but are destructive to grassland, difficult, time-consuming, and costly to cover at large scale. Hence, the present work could be substantial for the estimation of root C based on shoot component.

51-54

Authors: Callixte Yadufashije and Rebero Samuel

The origin of skin color has been significantly a discussion of importance among human biology scientists, anthropologists and others interested in evolution of human skin color. Experience was done to chimpanzee and other primates shared almost the same characters with mankind, and this impressed scientists to know what makes difference in skin color among people. Different researches conducted to know the real cause of dark skin and light skin among people of the same origin. There are no other results found out of permanent variation happened to our ancestors based on geographical location. Environmental factors played a huge role in skin color determination. High UVR has been led to dark skin color and low production of UVR led to lightly skin. By natural selection genes responded to environmental conditions for a human to survive in his own environment. Melanin production came as a response to UVR to protect against consequence of UVR in low latitude regions. Depigmentation happened due migration from low latitude to high latitude regions and led lightly skinned color for our ancestors. Everyone has skin color due to ancestry antique geographical location.

60-67

Authors: Ihimire I.G., Kayode E.A. and Osagie V.E.

This study investigated the effect of protein isolate from leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina in diabetic rats. Thirty (30) adults male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six (6) groups of five (5) each based on their body weight. Diabetes was induced with administration of alloxan, 150 mg/kg body weight (i.p). Group A served as the control and received 1 mL/kg body weight of 5% ethanol being solvent used, Group B received 1 mL alloxan containing 150 mg/kg only. Group C, D, E and F were respectively alloxanized but treated with 1%, 3%, 5% and 7% of protein isolate obtained from V. amygdalina leaves for 14 days. On the 15th day, the animals were humanely sacrificed and their liver homogenates were prepared. Standard biochemical procedures were adopted for determination of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, Malondialdehyde (MDA) and glucose levels. Data were subjected to one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison post-hoc test using Graph Pad, version 6 software. Results showed that CAT activity in alloxan-induced untreated rats (1.17 μmole H2O2) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than observed in control rats (2.10 mole H2O2). Treatment with the respective doses recorded comparable values to those observed in control rats. Similar observation was seen with SOD data. Rats treated with 7% protein isolate recorded the most significant (p < 0.05) decrease in serum glucose level. The study suggests that the protein isolate possesses anti-diabetic and hypoglycaemic effects on alloxan-induced diabetic rats.