The parasitic weed Striga hermonthica poses a serious threat to sorghum production in Northern Cameroon. To evaluate the response to S. hermonthica of 24 genotypes of rainfed sorghum and the effect of sodium carbonate on this parasite, field and pot experiments were conducted at Touboro (North Cameroon) in 2016 and 2017. In pot and in field, under striga infestation, results showed varietal responses of sorghum for the number of emerged Striga, the height of sorghum, the stem diameter, the number of leaves per plant, the panicle weight and the grain yield. Globally, Striga infestation significantly reduced the height, the stem diameter, and the number of leaves, the panicle weight and the grain yield of sorghum accessions by 28.94%, 19.54%, 17.78%, 28.24% and 44.17% respectively. Application of natural sodium carbonate salt reduced significantly the emerged Striga and the host plant damage by 74.29% and 41.94%. Under Striga infestation, sodium carbonate also increased the growth and yield sorghum accessions. Among the 24 studied genotypes, complete resistance was no recorded, but landraces LMO-LT18, LMO-LT22, KW-CP09 and LMT-21 appeared as the most resistant and tolerant to S. hermonthica. Combination of sodium carbonate with resistant and tolerant genotypes should be investigated as a major component of integrated packages to the effective control of Striga on sorghum in northern Cameroon.

To study the antibacterial activity of Tabernaemontana divaricata (Apocynaceae) secondary metabolites capped silver nanoparticles (SNPs). In the present investigation, SNPs were synthesized using an aqueous extract of T. divaricata flowers. Flower aqueous extract was mixed with 1 m M silver nitrate for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles. The antibacterial activity of SNPs was determined against various bacterial cultures including laboratory isolates using the agar well diffusion method. The SNPs showed the highest antibacterial activity against Grampositive and Gram-negative bacteria. The present study envisions on the biosynthesis of SNPs from T. divaricata plant which are emerging as antibacterial therapy in modern medical applications.

Bambara nut (Voandzeia subterrenea (L.) Thouars) is a cheap source of leguminous protein with a good potential as substitute for relatively expensive animal protein, in several food products such as biscuits, particularly in developing countries. Biscuit was produced from blends of wheat flour and fermented bambara nut flour (l00:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50) and was analysed. Proximate composition and protein content of biscuit produced from the flour mixes was higher than that produced with 100% wheat flour, while the moisture content ranged between 2.95 and 5.71%. The carbohydrate components and reducing sugar were in the ranges of 60.29 and/64.99%, and 2.74 and 4.43%, respectively. Sensory data indicated that the fermented bambara nut biscuit with up to 30% were acceptable. Thickness, diameter and spread ratio of the biscuit ranged from 230.33 -285.67mm, 29.00 - 36.67 mm and 61.70 -89.19%, respectively. Consequently, the potentials of fermented bambara nut in biscuit production was established thereby providing alternative composite flour in biscuit production.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of bioferilizer (Pseudomonas fluorescens and Azotobacter chroococcum) on growth of cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata), the experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of soil laboratory belong to Directorate of Diyala Agriculture, Iraq during 2017, the experiment included three levels of bio fertilizers 0.08, 0.14 and 0.28 g/plant, it was laid out in randomized complete block design having four treatments with four replications. The results showed a significant increase in cabbage yield in treatments that inoculated with biofertilizer. The highest increase in yield of cabbage (plant weight, head weight, total plant weight (ton\acre) and total head weight (ton\acre)) was achieved in Biofertilizer 0.14 g/plant was reached 1262.375 g, 810.025 g, 14.026 ton\acre and 9.000 ton\acre respectively followed by Biofertilizer 0.28 g/plant, 1113.125 g, 757.875 g, 12.367 ton\acre and 8.421 ton\acre respectively and Biofertilizer 0.08 g/plant, 1000 g, 700 g, 11.111 ton\acre and 7.777 ton\acre respectively as compared with control 731 g, 363g, 8.122 ton\acre and 3.883 ton\acre respectively .

The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of ethanolic and palm wine extract of Phragmanthera capitata stems widely used by traditional healers. Acute toxicity according to the OCDE Guideline 423 showed that the LD50 of ethanolic and palm wine extract was greater than 5000 mg/Kg body weight. Anti-inflammatory capacity was evaluated by hind paw oedema model using carrageenan-induced inflammation in rat. It has showed that palm wine and ethanolic extracts possessed a dose-dependent anti-inflammatory activity (at the first hour) with 21.47% and 41.24%, respectively, as a percentage inhibition for the 200 and 300 mg/Kg body weight of palm wine extract and 16.95% and 28.21% for the ethanolic extract of same dose as compared with 25.42% for aspirin. The phenol dosage by the Folin-Ciocalteu method showed that ethanolic extract (14420 mg EAA/g dry extract) had a high content relative to the palm wine extract (2570 mg EAA/g of dry extract ). The antioxidant capacity was evaluated by the diphenyl-picryl test (DPPH), where the ethanolic extract showed strong antioxidant activity with a EC50 of 0.0085 mg/mL when that of the wine extract was 0.049 mg/mL, after the ascorbic acid (standard) with 0.033 mg/mL. Ethanolic and palm wine extract of Phragmanthera capitata stems are non-toxic and have inflammatory and antioxidant activity that could justify its traditional use.