This study examined the watering regime that will enhance best germination and early seedling growth of Tetrapleura tetraptera. Seeds and seedlings of the plant were subjected to five different watering regimes viz: watering once weekly with 50ml, watering twice weekly with 50ml, watering once weekly with 100ml, watering twice weekly with 100ml and watering with 100ml only on the day of planting (as control for the seeds experiment), no watering (as control for the seedling experiments). The results of the experiment showed that watering once weekly with 100ml was the most effective watering regime for enhancing seed germination. This resulted in 85% germination, followed by the seeds watered twice weekly with 50ml (65%) and watering twice weekly with 100ml (50%). Other watering regimes were less or not effective. While watering twice weekly with 100ml was the most effective watering regime for enhancing seedling growth in this plant. This resulted in significantly highest plant height, number of leaves and broadest leaf area (22.00 cm, 15.00 and 27.51cm2 respectively) at the third month of planting. It also resulted in highest seedling stem girth (3.50 cm) though this was not significantly different from seedling treated with other watering regimes except for seedling treated with no watering which gave 0.20 cm. The results of these studies demonstrated that water supply may be a limitation for raising Tetrapleura tetraptera in the nursery as the soil moisture influenced germinability and early growth of this plant.

Drug-induced liver injury is a potential complication of all medications because the liver has a central role in the metabolism of drugs and toxic substances. This study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of the methanolic extract of Gymnema slyvestre leaves on acetaminophen-induced liver damage in wistar rats. The experiment was carried in three phases. In Phase I, the hepatoprotective activities of the methanolic extract of the leaves was determined by assaying for some liver function indices (AST, ALT & ALP) on acetaminopheninduced liver damage in rats. In phase II, the methanolic extract of the leaves was further fractionated with chloroform, ethylacetate and n-butanol to obtained chloroform, ethylacetate, n-butanol and residual extracts respectively; and the effect of these fractions on liver function (AST, ALT & ALP) was determined.

There is dearth of information on the gene frequencies of ABO and Rhesus blood groups, secretor status, PTC taste perception and haemoglobin variants in Osun State, Nigeria and previous studies have been based on heterogeneous population. We wanted to have information on the frequency distributions of these traits in Osun State and among a homogeneous population. A total of 555 individuals comprising 308 male and 247 female indigenes of Ore community participated in this study. Participants’ blood samples were typed for ABO, Rhesus blood groups and haemoglobin genotype, saliva samples were analysed for ABH secretory status and PTC taste perception was determined using PTC strips. The frequencies of O, A, B and AB individuals were 41.6%, 30.8%, 21.6% and 6.0% respectively, those of Rh positive and Rh negative were 89.9% and 10.1%, those of secretors and non-secretors were 69.2% and 30.8% respectively while those of tasters and non-tasters were 56.6% and 43.4% respectively. The observed ABO blood group, Rhesus factor, secretor status, PTC taste perception distributions did not differ significantly (p = 0.986, p = 0.943, p = 0.926, p = 0.864 respectively) from those expected under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The allelic frequencies for ABO were p(A) 0.205, p(B) 0.149 p(r) 0.645, those for Rhesus factor were D(0.682) and d(0.318), those for secretion and non-secretion were Se (0.445) and se(0.555) respectively while those of tasting and non-tasting were T(0.341) and t(0.659) respectively. Four haemoglobin genotypes in the order AA (68.6%) > AS (26.7%) > AC (3.8%) > SS (0.9%) were observed with allelic frequencies A(0.839), S(0.142) and C(0.019). This study has provided information on the frequency distributions of the studied genetic indices in Osun State. The information provided herein can be used to give medical and genetic counsel to the people of the State.